Elisabeth Söderström most human character in the drama." Born in Stockholm, Söderström received her first musical schooling from Adelaide von Skilondz and later studied at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm. She made her debut in 1947 at the Drottningholm Palace Theatre singing in one of Mozart's lesser-known works "Bastien et Bastienne". From 1949 to 1980 she called the Royal Swedish Opera her home but she frequently appeared at some of the largest opera houses in the world. She was also a regular visitor to the recording studio. Between 1959 and 1964 Söderström was contracted by the Metropolitan Opera in New
Comic opera 18th century. In the 19th century, Russian comic opera was further developed by Alexey Verstovsky who composed more 30 opera-vaudevilles and 6 grand operas (most of them with spoken dialogue). Later, Modest Mussorgsky worked on two comic operas, "The Fair at Sorochyntsi" and "Zhenitba" ("The Marriage"), which he left unfinished (they were completed only in the 20th century). Pyotr Tchaikovsky wrote a comic opera, "Cherevichki" (after Nikolai Gogol, 1885, 1887 Moscow). Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov composed "May Night" 1878–1879 and "The Golden Cockerel" 1906–1907. In the 20th century, the best examples of comic opera by Russian composers were Igor Stravinsky's "Mavra" (1922)