He pointed it out to his brother, the composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who proceeded to write a duet based on that scene.
[3] Shpazhinsky agreed heartily, saying there was no composer with whom he would rather collaborate,[6] and the two men met that month to discuss the project.
In the meantime, Tchaikovsky had become friendly with Shpazhinsky's estranged wife Yuliya, who had been forced by her husband to move to Sevastopol with their children.
[1] In May 1887, Shpazhinsky had offered Tchaikovsky another of his libretti, The Bayadere, based on Goethe's ballad Der Gott und die Bajadere.
He had been considering making it available to the French-born Russian composer Anton Simon, but felt Tchaikovsky's music was of greater quality.
[1] Although The Enchantress received lukewarm reviews at its November 1887 premiere, Tchaikovsky liked Shpazhinsky's style and he approached him for another libretto, this time based on Alexander Pushkin's historical novel The Captain's Daughter, which the writer started on in the spring of 1888.
[1] Other works by Shpazhinsky include: He won the Griboyedov Prize for Two Fates (Две судьбы, 1898).