Tchaikovsky
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Mariya Klimentova-Muromtseva (1856–1946)

Mariya Klimentova-Muromtseva

Russian soprano and singing teacher (b. 1856 in Voronezh; d. 1946), born Mariya Nikolayevna Klimentova (Мария Николаева Климентова), and known after her marriage as Mariya Nikolayevna Klimentova-Muromtseva (Мария Николаева Климентова-Муромцева).

After attending school in Voronezh, Mariya studied singing at the Moscow Conservatory, where she was also a student in Tchaikovsky's classes on music theory. In 1880 she graduated and made her debut at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in the role of Margaret in Gounod's Faust. She remained at the Bolshoi for eight years, and gained a high reputation as a coloratura soprano. During the 1880s she also performed at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, and toured at the National Theatre in Prague. In 1891 she established a school for singers in Moscow.

Mariya was the first performer of the roles of Tatyana in Yevgeny Onegin in the conservatory students' production of 1879, and of Oksana in Cherevichki at the Bolshoi in 1887, and earned much praise from Tchaikovsky.

Tchaikovsky's correspondence with Mariya Klimentova-Muromtseva:

• 13 letters from Tchaikovsky to Mariya Klimentova-Muromtseva have survived, dating from 1885 to 1893.