Against a background of debate about the principles underlying the relationship between music and drama, new operas were composed and produced. The works of Serov the composer enjoyed the greatest popular success even while they were at odds with the ideals promoted by Serov the Wagnerite critic. The 1860s saw the completion of the ‘mighty handful’, the group of talented disciples of the magnetic if autocratic Balakirev. This was the time of their greatest cohesion as a group: in the next decade each went his own way. The example of Dargomïzhsky, especially in the setting of words to music outside the framework of the number opera, in The Stone Guest, was a crucial supplement to the example of Glinka and current ideas of realism in the development of the concepts of the New Russian Operatic School as articulated by Cui in the press. Cui also played a modest role as the composer of William Ratcliff. Dargomïzhsky died in 1869 and Serov in 1871, leaving the 1870s to the next generation, which included Musorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky.

One musical event has left no trace in these articles. On 29 October 1862 the world première of La forza del destino took place in St Petersburg. It represented the final instance of the conspicuous Russian consumption of Italian musical products, a taste acquired in the previous century. Henceforth, the impetus lay with Russian compositions, though the decline of Italian performers still had a long way to go.