Iuliia Platonova

(real surname Garder, married name Tvaneva). Born 1841 in Riga; died Nov. 4 (16), 1892, in St. Petersburg. Russian lyric and dramatic soprano.

Platonova made her debut in 1863 at the Mariinskii Theater as Antonida in Glinka’s opera Ivan Susanin; she was a member of this theater’s company until 1875. She aided in the development of Russian opera. On her initiative, Dargomyzhskii’s The Mermaid was revived (1865) and Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunovwas presented (1874). Among those who esteemed Platonova’s talent were A. S. Dargomyzhskii, M. P. Mussorgsky, N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, C. A. Cui, and A. N. Serov. Platonova’s roles included Natasha and Donna Anna in Dargomyzhskii’s The Mermaid and The Stone Guest, Marina in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, Ol’ga in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Maid of Pskov, and Liudmila in Glinka’s Ruslan and Liudmila.