Alexander Dargomyzhsky

He bridged the gap in Russian opera composition between Mikhail Glinka and the later generation of The Five and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

He was already known as a talented musical amateur when in 1833 he met Mikhail Glinka and was encouraged to devote himself to composition.

His last opera, The Stone Guest, is his most famous work, known as a pioneering effort in melodic recitative.

With the orchestration and the end of the first scene left incomplete at his death, it was finished by César Cui and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and was much prized by The Five for what was perceived as its progressive approach to operatic expression.

[2] Dargomyzhsky also left some unfinished opera projects, among them an attempted setting of Pushkin's Poltava, from which a duet survives.