Antonina Abarinova

Antonina Abarinova was a Russian contralto, later mezzo-soprano, who created the Innkeeper in the 1874 revised Boris Godunov at the Mariinsky Theatre. She studied voice in St Petersburg and Milan and, in 1874, took lessons from Pauline Viardot in Paris. An 1872 success as Périchole in Offenbach's operetta brought her onto the Imperial Theatres' roster, where she also sang Vanya in Glinka's A Life for the Tsar, the Princess in Dargomyzhsky's Rusalka and Laura in The Stone Guest. In 1878 she left opera for the Alexandrinsky Theatre, acting until her death, including Polina Andreyevna in the 1896 premiere of Chekhov's The Seagull.