Vladimir Kashperov

Having been recommended by Mikhail Glinka, in the 1850s he began to take lessons in composition from German musicologist and composer Sieghfried W. Dehn in Berlin.

He also helped Italian operatic bass Luigi Lablash get his book, "The School of Singing," published in Russia in the late 1860s.

Kashperov's opera "Mary Tudor," based on the life of the Queen of France, was first performed in Milan for the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (then wife of Nicholas I).

Favorited by Alexander Ostrovsky and one of Glinka's star pupils, his eight years in Italy contributed to his Italianate musical language.

[2] Kashperov's opera "The Storm" (867), due to extensive critique by critics like Alexander Serov for its lack of sophistication, never entered the Mariinsky Theatre canon.