Bu at Sadko, the atmosphere of the theatre and the excitement and thrill of watching a new opera in rehearsal were engaging all my emotions, and even the composer could not impress me as much as his opera. Rimsky may have deigned to notice me because of my father, whose performance in the drunken scene in Borodin’s Prince Igor was one of the most successful characterizations in that opera; a similar scene in Sadko had perhaps been composed expressly for him.