Man of Music (1953)

The young composer Mikhail Glinka performs his new work at a soiree at earl Vielgorskys house However the public is accustomed to Western music and reacts coldly to the creation of the composer This makes him very sad but soon he decides to go learn the art of music in Italy After returning from Italy he is full of desire to write national Russian opera Vasily Zhukovsky proposes a subject a feat of Ivan Susanin Tsar Nicholas I change the name of the opera to A Life for the Tsar and assigns a librettist Baron Rosen Acquaintance with the future coauthor shocked Glinka Rosen speaks Russian with a noticeable German accent The premiere was successful but Glinka was still not entirely happy with the libretto False words were written by Rosen When Nicholas I learned that Ruslan and Lyudmila was written on Pushkins subject he sees it as sedition The bitter experience of the composer brighten his supporters