Singing Russianness: the nationalist aesthetics surrounding Mikhail Glinka's female singers

This study examines the criticism surrounding Mikhail Glinkas female singers who premiered his operas, Zhizn za tsarya (A Life for the Tsar) and Ruslan i Lyudmila (Ruslan and Lyudmila). I use treatises contemporary to Glinka and his singers, as well as the treatise of Glinkas singing teacher, Josephine Fodor-Mainvielle, in order to discuss the singers training and performance practice in a more historically informed way and to understand the criticism surrounding the singers more fully. Considering the roles of the singers in the dramatic aspects, but also musical aspects (such as aria-types and declamation) in conjunction with the Russian reviewers responses will help give a clearer understanding of the types of characters and music to which critics responded most positively and how this helped shape a Russian national singing tradition and criticism of later Russian opera.