Onegin. "The idea seemed wild and I didn't reply", the composer later wrote his brother Modest. "Later, while dining alone at an inn, I recalled Onegin, fell to thinking about it, next began to find Lavrovskaya's idea a possibility, then was carried away by it, and by the end of the meal had made up my mind. Straightway I ran off to track down a Pushkin. I found one with difficulty, set off home, read it through with delight, and passed an utterly sleepless night, the result of which was the scenario of a delightful opera on Pushkin's text." In 1871, Lavrovskaya married Prince Tsertelev. In 1888, she became professor of singing at the Moscow Conservatory. Tchaikovsky considered her to be an "excellent" teacher. She died in Saint Petersburg (then called Petrograd) in 1919. Lavrovskaya's recorded voice The following recording was made in Moscow in January 1890, by on behalf of Thomas Edison. Notes References Sources Bertensson, Sergei and Jay Leyda, with the assistance of Sophia Satina, Sergei Rachmaninoff—A Lifetime in Music (Washington Square, New York: New York University Press, 1956)). ISBN n/a. Brown, David, Tchaikovsky: The Early Years, 1840–1874 (New York: W.W. Norton, 1978). . Brown, David, Tchaikovsky: The Crisis Years, 1874–1878, (New York: W.W. Norton, 1983). . Garden, Edward, ed. Stanley Sadie, "Lavrovskaya [Lawrowska], Yelizaveta Andreyevna", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second edition (London: Macmillan, 2001), 29 vols. . Spencer, Jennifer, ed. Stanley Sadie, "Lavrovskaya [Lawrowska], Yelizaveta Andreyevna", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London: Macmillan, 1980). . Spencer, Jennifer and Elizabeth Formes, ed. Stanley Sadie, The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (London: Macmillan, 1992). . Warrack, John, Tchaikovsky'' (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973). SBN 684-13558-2. External links Entry in Russian Composers and Musicians. Retrieved 28 March 2009. Tchaikovsky Research article on Yelizaveta Lavrovskaya. 1845 births 1919 deaths Operatic mezzo-sopranos Russian mezzo-sopranos 19th-century women opera singers from the Russian Empire