Opera or "Limbo". Scenery and Music for the Creation of a World between Reality and Fantasy in Russia in the Turn of the Century

This article proposes an insight into the Russian opera at the turn of the 19th century. A especial attention is given to creative freedom in private companies - namely to Mamontov's Private Opera-, where an aesthetical view based on the idea of a "total work of art" is created by the interaction of scenery and music. An analysis of this relation is carried out, concentrating on the ability that certain works of art have to open the edges of reality and explore unknown worlds, not only to the Russian public, but also to the European one.