The Feodor Chaliapin Estate Museum houses a wooden plate depicting the singer as Ivan the Terrible in the opera “The Maid of Pskov”.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov wrote his first opera between 1870 and 1872. The première took place at the Mariinsky Theater in Saint Petersburg on January 1, 1873. Osip Petrov played the role of Ivan the Terrible. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote,

“The Maid of Pskov” was produced at Savva Mamontov’s theater in 1896, more than twenty years after its première. Feodor Chaliapin recounted this significant event in his memoirs titled “Pages from My Life”,

When working on his interpretation of Ivan the Terrible, Chaliapin used the expressive means of painting and borrowed elements from Ilya Repin’s painting “Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan” (1885) and Mark Antokolsky’s statue of Ivan the Terrible (1871). Chaliapin combined two different traits of the Russian tsar’s character: tragedy and tranquility, which provided a backdrop for the character’s agonizing reflections.

“The Maid of Pskov” was a resounding success and was performed 15 times during the season, always to full houses. The opera’s composer commented on Chaliapin’s unmatched success in developing such a complex character. The singer’s triumphant achievements, especially in Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera, sparked widespread admiration for his genius. Vladimir Stasov, a widely known critic, publicist, and ideologist of the “Mighty Handful” group, exclaimed enthusiastically upon hearing Chaliapin,