Dance From "Life For The Tsar"

A well-educated child of privilege, Glinka became a fervent Russian nationalist. He is considered the father of Russian opera, and exerted a significant influence on such great later composers as Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Stravinsky.

Glinka took piano, violin, and voice lessons but did not study music or composition seriously as a youth. His first job was as a government official, but, realizing how strongly he was drawn to music, he left to pursue both a general and a musical education. He studied for a time in Italy, and spent the year 1833 studying composition in Berlin, which only reinforced the non-Russian influences he felt.