The Hall of Fame in the Feodor Chaliapin Estate Museum houses a sketch of the costume for the character of Farlaf in Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka’s opera “Ruslan and Lyudmila”. The drawing by Ivan Bilibin depicts Farlaf in full-length, three-quarter turn to the left. The character has a caricatured face and a long red mustache. He wears a gray chainmail tunic, with a patterned shirt underneath and a dark red cloak over his shoulders.

Feodor Chaliapin performed the roles of Ruslan and Farlaf in Mikhail Glinka’s opera, and it was in the latter role that, according to the critic Abram Gozenpud, he excelled, surpassing his famous predecessors,

Ivan Bilibin drew his first illustration in 1899 for “The Tale of Ivan the Tsarevich, the Firebird and the Grey Wolf, ” inspired by the works of Viktor Vasnetsov. For the next 40 years, the artist turned to Russian folk tales and byliny. His graphic series were purchased by the Russian Museum and the Tretyakov Gallery, and set designs were commissioned by theaters anywhere from Buenos Aires to Paris.

The “Review of Theaters” magazine wrote about the production of “Ruslan and Lyudmila” in 1903,

In 1904, Ivan Bilibin illustrated Alexander Pushkin’s “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”. The artist worked slowly. First, he put a sketch on paper, then, using tracing paper, he finalized all the details and transferred it to Whatman paper. His colleagues and friends called him “Ivan The Iron Hand” for his precise lines. Ivan Bilibin chose colors, taking into account the peculiarities of printing presses and the thickness of paper, so after the printing the illustrations did not lose their quality. The book was published in 1905 and immediately received critical acclaim: a few months later, the Russian Museum of Alexander III acquired the original graphic cycle.