Mikhail Glinka

Mikhail Glinka (1804-1857), Russian composer, born in Novospasskoye, and educated in Saint Petersburg. Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka studied with various teachers in Russia, Italy, and Germany. Until 1835 his compositions consisted mainly of songs. His opera A Life for the Tsar (1836), which drew its story and music from Russian folktales and folk songs, was the first Russian opera of a national character. The music of his second opera, Russlan and Ludmilla (1842), based on a poem by the Russian poet Aleksandr Pushkin, was also drawn largely from Russian folk music. Glinka established himself as the founder of the Russian national school of music, which was subsequently carried on by such composers as Aleksandr Borodin, Modest Mussorgsky, and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. Glinka was also interested in the popular music and dance of Spain, where he lived from 1845 to 1847, which inspired the overtures Jota Aragonesa and Night in Madrid (1851). His other works include the orchestral fantasia Kamarinskaya (1848), chamber music, piano pieces, and songs.