Overture : Russia's imperial prima donnas -- Russian Minervas staging empire -- The play of possibilities : serfs enacting aristocrats, countesses playing peasants -- Catherine the empress(ario) : making tales into princely operas -- Oleg at the roots of Russian historical opera -- Interlude : to patria and nation -- Ruslan and Liudmila: the princess, the witch, and the dwarf -- Rusalka : water, power, and women -- Mlada and the spellbinding female circle -- Sadko : he is the hero! -- The inescapable queen