By the close of 1868, Mussorgsky had already started two operas, but never finished them These were "Salammbô" and "Marriage", which was influenced by Alexander Dargomyzhsky's opera "The Stone Guest". Mussorgsky was breaking away from the Romantic style that many composers used at the time. He had learned a lot by trying to write these operas and he used some of the musical ideas in "Boris Godunov".