Social calls were an important part of Sergei Prokofiev’s life. As he once wrote in his diary, “I enjoyed my visits; they were fun.” The composer often gave away his visiting cards and used the cards of other people to write down sheet music dedicated to them.

Prokofiev set a personal record on January 1, 1911, when he made fourteen calls on New Year’s Day. He also often hosted guests at his place. When Prokofiev visited the Soviet Union during his 1927 tour, so many people were eager to see the composer that he was forced to set up a schedule.

One such call saved Prokofiev’s opera. In 1917, Prokofiev’s opera “The Gambler” based on the eponymous novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky was being prepared for the production. Anna Dostoevskaya, the writer’s widow contested the production and demanded copyright royalties be paid to her.

Prokofiev described this meeting in his diary, “Dostoevskaya proved to be a small, nice-looking old lady — she is seventy-one years of age — with an alert, shrewd expression in her eyes. She was dressed in black, with a black head-dress fastened with pins, and she sat on a small sofa by the table. I began with polite expression of my pleasure at meeting the wife of such a celebrated personage, of whom I stood in awe and admiration. I then apologized for not having approached her earlier but explained that this was because I had been entirely ignorant of the existence of any law of copyright. Altogether, it did not take long to establish a very good relationship; the actual business we had to discuss took no more than five seconds. She indicated that she would like to have 25 percent of anything I earned from ‘The Gambler’, and I said I would think about it. I outlined for her the way I was putting the novel on the stage, and did so with great emotion, spurred on by the keen attention with which she listened to me, catching her breath and flushing with excitement, her eyes alight for all the world like those of a young girl. When I had finished, she said, ‘I always thought it could be done successfully, but I never imagined it could be as good as this! ’” Prokofiev also presented the writer’s widow with a signed piano sheet music of the opera, and the matter was settled.