As I write the last pages of this book, the comprehensiveness of its title fills me with dismay. "An Introduction to the Study of Russian Opera" would have been more modest and appropriate, since no complete and well-balanced survey of the subject could possibly be contained in a volume of this size. Much that is interesting has been passed over without comment; and many questions demanded much fuller treatment. One fact, however, I have endeavoured to set forth in these pages in the clearest and most emphatic terms: Russian opera is beyond all question a genuine growth of the Russian soil; it includes the aroma and flavour of its native land "as the wine must taste of its own grapes." Its roots lie deep in the folk-music, where they have spread and flourished naturally and without effort. So profoundly embedded and so full of vitality are its fibres, that nothing has been able to check their growth and expansion. Discouraged by the Church, its germs still lived on in the music of the people; neglected by the professional element, it found shelter in the hearts of amateurs; refused by the Imperial Opera Houses, it flourished in the drawing-rooms of a handful of enthusiasts. It has always existed in some embryonic form as an inherent part of the national life; and when at last it received official recognition, it quickly absorbed all that was given to it in the way of support and attention, but persisted in throwing out its vigorous branches in whatever direction it pleased. Persecution could not kill it, nor patronage spoil it; because it is one with the soul of the people. May it long retain its lofty idealism and sane vigour! INDEX OF OPERAS Abizare, 35 Acts of Artaxerxes, The, 16, 17 Act of Joseph, The, 32 Adam and Eve, 18 Alcide, 53 Aleko, 373 Alexander and Darius, 25 Americans, The, 41, 43 Amore per Regnante, 34 Angel of Death, The, 380 Angelo, 272, 273, 274 Aniouta, 40, 41, 42, 96 Armida, 50 Askold's Tomb, 64 Assya, 375 Belshazzar's Feast, 380 Berenice, 34 Bird of Fire, The, 59, 382 Boeslavich, The Novgorodian Hero, 40, 41 Boris Godounov, 225, 228-240, 250, 388 Boundary Hills, The, 64 Boyarinya Vera Sheloga, 291, 308 Caprice d'Oxane, Le (_see_ Cherevichek), 304 Captain's Daughter, The, 280 Captive in the Caucasus, The, 269, 274 Cephalus and Procius, 36 Charodeika (_see_ The Enchantress) Chaste Joseph, The, 18 Cherevichek, 342, 343, 358, 359 Chlorida and Milon, 41 Christmas Eve Revels, 304, 305, 306, 341 Christmas Festivals of Old, 67 Christmas Tree, The, 379 Christus, 166 Citizens of Nijny-Novgorod, The, 364, 365 Clemenza di Tito, La, 36 Cosa Rara, La, 49 Cossack Poet, The, 59 Credulity, 67 Cruelty of Nero, The, 25 Daphnis Pursued, 28 Deborah, 66 Demofonti, 53 Demon, The, 165, 172-177 Dianino, 49 Dido Forsaken, 35 Didone, 52 Dmitri Donskoi, 163, 168-172 Dobrynia Nikitich, 59, 374 Doubrovsky, 366 Dream on the Volga, A, 370, 371 Early Reign of Oleg, The, 47, 50