Valentina Serova (composer)

Valentina Semyonova Serova (maiden name Bergman) (1846-June 1924 Moscow) was a Russian composer of German-Jewish decent. She studied briefly at the St. Petersburg Conservatory, but left due to a conflict with Anton Rubinstein. She began to study with Alexander Serov who at that time was only known for his writings. The two fell in love, and Serov proposed shortly after his first big success, the opera "Judith". They marryed in 1863 and in 1865 their son Valentin Serov was born. Valentin would grow up to become a famous painter, renowned for his portraits. Alexander Serov died in 1871 of a heart attack and Valentina completed the last act of his third opera, "The Power of the Fiend". She used his sketches and her memory of what Aleksandr had played to her to finish the work. Composer N.F. Solovyov helped her with some of the instrumentation and editing. The opera, premiered in 1875.

The experience of finishing her husband's opera inspired Serova to compose her own operas. Her first opera, "Uriel Acosta", premiered in 1880 at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Her second opera, "Maria d’Orval", was never staged and is now lost. Her third opera, "Il’ya Muromets", was successfully staged in Moscow with Fyodor Shalyapin in the title role in 1899. Serova’s fourth and last opera has not been preserved and even the title is now unknown.

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* [http://www.classical-composers.org/comp/serova www.classical-composers.org]