Lidiya Ilina

Lidiya Ilina was a Russian mezzo-soprano who went on to a career as a chamber singer and teacher. Educated at the Aleksandrovskaya gymnasium in St Petersburg and taught singing by the composer Édouard Długuski, she made her operatic debut in 1895 with the Society of Musical Gatherings, and sang Marina Mniszek in the first performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's edition of Boris Godunov the following year. She studied in Paris with Mathilde Marchesi from 1897.