Conductor, Ian Whyte
Ruslan and Ludmilla, Glinka's second opera, was first performed in 1842. His earlier A Life for the Tsar has a place in the history books as 'the first Russian opera ', but in musical value Ruslan towers high above it. Glinka himself said it would be * easy to turn out ten operas like A Life for the Tsar from the material of Ruslan '. So Ruslan is the first real master-piece of Russian opera.