This book is a novel about music, about opera, in which there was a place for strict facts and personal feelings, as well as traditions and legends inseparable from the environment in which great musicians lived and worked. In short, the author managed to illuminate all the darkest corners of the opera stage and remind us of the priceless legacy that brilliant composers left us. Unfortunately, today it is often exchanged for small coin for the sake of momentary political or media conjuncture, to please the public that at any time demands and craves not Art, but scandal. Opera director Boris Aleksandrovich Pokrovsky said: “If I were a monarch or president, I would ban everything except opera for three days. In three days the nation will wake up refreshed, smart, wise, rich, well-fed, cheerful... I believe in it.”