Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov was born on 20 March 1873 Old Style (1 April New Style) at the Semyonova estate in the Novgorod district. Today he is known most of all as a great pianist and composer of piano works. His piano concertos, especially the second, and his Paganini Rhapsody are among the most popular works in their respective genres. Orchestral works, too, such as the Second Symphony, the symphonic poem Isle of the Dead or the Symphonic Dances are still frequently heard in concerts and on recordings.

Less well known is that Rachmaninov also composed operas, songs and sacred vocal works, even if some specialists are well aware of this. Although the Opernführer (opera guide) by Attila Csampai and Dietmar Holland (new edition 2006) only listed him in the appendix with three completed operas, Aleko, Francesca da Rimini and The Miserly Knight, at least this is something. Reclam's multi-volume Lexikon der Opernwelt (1998) devotes all of seven lines to Aleko, about three to Francesca, and not one line to The Miserly Knight. The Harenberg Opera Guide (2000) has one page devoted to the composer and Francesca respectively. Popularity looks quite different from this.

Perhaps the Russian language was an obstacle to gaining a wider audience, but at least Rachmaninov is no longer ignored as an opera composer. The popularity of the operas by his fellow countrymen Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881, see also Profil Edition Günter Hänssler PH21002), Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1910, PH19010) or Peter Tchaikovsky (1840-1893, PH17053) was never and will probably never be achieved by Rachmaninov's works for the lyric stage. Nor will the other composers from the country of his birth - see the overview of Russian operas in PH19040