Upon its publication in 1981, Richard Taruskin's Opera and Drama in Russia as Preached and Practiced in the 1860s was hailed as the quintessential English-language study of Russian opera. The 1860s could now be seen as a decade which served as a crucial bridge in the development of opera in Russia, between the heritage of Mikhail Glinka and the following generation of masterful composers, represented by, among others, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov...