Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The present book has been undertaken with no other object than to fill a gap which though for a long time ignored has now made itself apparent to many musi cians and music-lovers. In a work of this character it is obviously impossible to include a comprehensive survey of operas such as those belonging to what I have called the pre-nation alist period. And, indeed, when my early chapters were written – at a date prior to the inaugural season of Russian opera at Drury Lane – there did not seem to be the faintest likelihood that Dargomijsky’s Rus salka would ever be performed in England. As this work, however, has now figured in some of the pre liminary announcements of the approaching season, I am inserting its plot in an appendix.