Operas of Mikhail Glinka

     Russian composer Mikhail Glinka is widely known as the father of Russian music. His compositions   are often considered to be the first to really display traditional Russian song to the rest of the world. He was also apart of the Russian Five (a group of composers in the mid 1800's  known for their original Eastern European style of writing). Glinka wrote two specifically great operas, A Life for a Tsar, and Ruslan and Lyudmila. A Life for a Tsar's plot involved a typical heroic Russian character named Ivan Susanin. This character gives his life for his country when the Polish invade. I find that often Russian operas have this ongoing theme of Patriotism and "This is my country!" kind of business.  His other popular opera, Ruslan and Lyudmila, is an opera in 5 acts based off of a poem by Alexander Pushkin. This opera received most of it's fame and glory by it's extremely popular Overture.