"This book treats opera-going in imperial Russia from multiple perspectives, and discusses such canonical works as Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and Goncharov's Oblomov, major operatic works including Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin and Verdi's La Traviata, the impact of Western opera in Russia and the Russian-style prima donna. The book engages with poems, sketches, feuilletons, stories, and rarely-discussed Russian novels, as well as non-fictional reminiscences, reviews, and visual images. Throughout, the book is enriched with examples and anecdotes about performers, spectators, and critics, and reception histories of specific operatic works."--BOOK JACKET.