Eugenia Mravina and Maria Dolina by Bergamasco

Eugenia Mravina, born Maria Konstantinowa Mavrinskaya (1864-1914); Russian soprano.
Her singing teacher in St. Petersburg was the baritone Ippolit Petrovich Pryanishnikov and she also received a training as a ballet dancer. To complete her vocal studies she moved to Berlin, where she was a pupil of Désirée Artôt and to Paris, where she was educated by St. Yves Bax. In 1886 she made her debut at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg as Gilda in Verdi's "Rigoletto". Until 1900 she belonged to the great and celebrated singers of this Opera House. Her most memorable roles were Antonida in Glinka's "A life for the Tsar", as Ludmilla in Glinka's "Ruslan and Ludmilla", as Tatjana in Tchaikovsky's "Eugen Onegin", as Marguerite in Gounod's "Faust", as Marguerite de Valois in Meyerbeer's "Les Huguenots", as Violetta in Verdi's "La Traviata", as Gilda in Verdi's "Rigoletto", as Elsa in Wagner's "Lohengrin" etc. Because she had received a professional training as a dancer, she also performed very successfully as prima ballerina at the Mariinsky. She made guest appearances in Moscow (Bolshoi) and other major Russian cities. In 1891 she appeared in London at Covent Garden. In 1894 at the Moscow Conservatory she created the role of Fornarina in Arenski's "Raphael". In 1895 at the Mariinsky she sang at the première of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Christmas Eve" the role of Oksana. She had a very attractive stage appearance and was an actress of high intelligence and dramatic intensity. Her voice was described as radiant in tone and technically excellent. She was one of those singer personalities who founded the great tradition of Russian opera.


Maria Dolina, born Maria Ivanovna Sajuschkina Gorlenko (1868-1919); Russian contralto.
Her voice was discovered by Garcia-Wilde and trained mainly by Kondratiev. Final studies were carried out with Carelli in Naples, with Mastriani in Milan and finally in Paris. In 1886 she made her debut at the Marienskij Theatre in St. Petersburg as Vanya in Glinka's "A life for the Tsar" (Ivan Susanin). She was engaged immediately and remained at the Mariiinsky until 1904. Here in 1890 she sang at the premiere of Borodin's "Prince Igor" under the direction of Edouard Naprawnik. Also in 1890 she created the role of Polina at the premiere of Tchaikovsky's "Pique Dame/Queen of spades" and from the same composer in 1892 the role of Laura in "Iolanta". In 1896 she sang at the Mariinsky the role of Hansel in the Russian premiere of Humperdinck 's "Hansel and Gretel". She made guest appearances in Moscow and other Russian theaters and abroad in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, Constantinopel, Sofia, Belgrad, Zagreb, Dresden and Rouen. Her repertoire consisted of more than 50 roles, mostly in the field of Russian and French Opera. As a concert singer she was very successfully in a vast repertoire.


On the photo Eugenia Mravina is seen left as Antonida and Maria Dolina right as Vanya in Glinka's "A life for the Tsar".