Evstignei Platovich Fomin was born August 5th 1741 (O.S.), in St. Petersburg. He was a pupil of the Imperial Academy of Arts, and in view of his promising musical talent was sent to study in Italy, where he entered for a time the Academy of Music at Bologna, and made rapid progress. He began his musical career in Moscow in 1770, but appears to have migrated to St. Petersburg before the death of Catherine II. He was commissioned to compose the music for a libretto from the pen of the Empress herself, entitled _Boeslavich, the Novgorodian Hero_. Catherine not being quite confident as to Fomin's powers submitted the score to Martini. The result appears to have been satisfactory. In 1797 Fomin was employed at the Imperial Theatres as musical coach and _répétiteur_; he was also expected to teach singing to the younger artists of both sexes in the Schools, and to accompany in the orchestra for the French and Italian operas. For these duties he received an annual sum of 720 roubles. Fomin died in St. Petersburg in April, 1800. He wrote a considerable number of operas, including _Aniouta_ (1772), the libretto by M. V. Popov; _The Good Maiden_ (_Dobraya Devka_), libretto by Matinsky (1777); _Regeneration_ (_Pereiojdenia_), (1777)[5]; in January 1779 his _Wizard-Miller_ (_Melnik-Koldoun_) an opera in three acts, the libretto by Ablessimov, was produced for the first time, and proved one of the most successful operas of the eighteenth century; a one-act opera, the book by Nikolaiev, entitled _The Tutor Professor, or Love's Persuasive Eloquence_, was given in Moscow; and in 1786 _Boeslavich_, in five acts, the text by Catherine II., was mounted at the Hermitage Palace; _The Wizard, The Fortune Teller and The Matchmaker_, in three acts, dates from 1791. In 1800 appeared two operas, _The Americans_, the libretto by Kloushin, and _Chlorida and Milon_, the words of which were furnished by the well-known writer Kapnist. As far as is known, Fomin composed ten operas and also wrote music to a melodrama entitled _Orpheus_.[6] It is probable, however, that Fomin really produced many more musical works for the stage, for it has been proved that he occasionally took an assumed name for fear of his work proving a failure. Of his voluminous output only three works need be discussed here. _Aniouta_ owed some of its success to Popov's libretto, which was a mild protest against the feudal aristocracy. The peasant Miron sings in the first act some naïve verses in which he bewails the hard fate of the peasant; "Ah, how tired I am," he says. "Why are we peasants not nobles? Then, we might crunch sugar all day long, lie warm a'top of the stove and ride in our carriages." If we put aside the idea that Volkov's _Taniousha_ was the first opera written by a Russian composer, then this honour must be rendered to Fomin's _Aniouta_.