Mariya Ilyina

Russian opera singer (mezzo-soprano) (b. 1845; d. 1895), born Mariya Ivanovna Ilyina (Мария Ивановна Ильина); also known after her marriage as Princess Mariya Ivanovna Dondukova-Korsakova (Мария Ивановна Дондукова-Корсакова).

Mariya Ilyina was a member of the Imperial Opera Company at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg from January to May 1871, before transferring to the Kiev Opera, and later to Kazan. Tchaikovsky described her as "a singer with a tremendous, strong, and yet at the same time incredibly pleasant mezzo-soprano voice", when in 1874 she sang the role of the Boyarina Morozova in his operThe Oprichnik in Kiev (see TH 298).

Dedications

In 1875, Tchaikovsky dedicated his song Why? — No. 3 of the Six Romances, Op. 28 — to Mariya Ilyina.