Valery Kritskov Valery Kritskov Valery Kritskov is a Russian conductor who used to take conducting lessons at the Moscow Institute of Culture which were taught by Kirill Tikhonov. He graduated from there in 1988 and then worked in Moscow-based Helikon Opera till he got employed with Novaya Opera in 2002. While there, he conducted many operas including Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Snow Maiden" and "The Tsar’s Bride" as well as Anton Rubinstein's "The Demon" and Tchaikovsky's "The Maid of Orleans". He also conducted works by the Italian composers such as Pietro Mascagni's "Cavalleria rusticana" and Ruggero Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci" and German such as Richard
Maria Duchêne pneumonia just as Maria was about to take the stage as Lola in "Cavalleria rusticana". Her final and 166th performance with the Met was as Ulrica in "Un ballo in maschera" in an out of town performance at the Boston Opera House on April 18, 1916. Details of her life after leaving the Met are unknown. Maria Duchêne Maria Duchêne-Billiard (1884 - ?) was a French contralto of the Metropolitan Opera from 1912 to 1916. She portrayed such roles as Amneris in "Aida", Giulietta in "The Tales of Hoffmann", Lola in "Cavalleria rusticana", Maddalena in "Rigoletto". She sang the role