further for, as he replied to Stasov: If Grubinstein were intelligent he would

despise Russia more than he does so now, and he would be entitled to. It is only
we who can love her by force of that law which says that sheep love rams and
not bears.40 By some strange quirk of fate, they had demonstrated that they
detested Rubinstein far more for being Russian than for being a foreigner.
It was not only Stasov who was stirring up trouble. The indefatigable Serov
joined the fray with two articlesO muzkye v Peterburgye [On music in St.
Petersburg] and particularly Zalogi istinnogo muzkalnogo obrazovaniya v S.-
Peterburgye [The pledges of the true musical education in St. Petersburg] (Sev-
ernaya pchela, 9/21 May 1862)which derided Rubinstein in barely concealed
anti-Semitic terms and declared that the conservatory would be a breeding-
ground for untalented musical bureaucrats. Part of this tirade is included by
Yury Kremlyov in Russkaya msl o muzkye:

Let everyone in Russia who sincerely loves art understand that expensive govern-
ment apartments for the housekeepers and intendants of the patented music
school are completely useless for the proper advancement of our cause, that we
have no need of musical bureaucrats to swell the ranks of the ungifted and the
mediocre (that is death for art!); we have no need of patented judges to issue prizes
and diplomas for the encouragement of useless exercises, because no true talent
will ever want to subject itself to being assessed by privileged pedants, ignora-
muses, and the envious.41

In later years Rubinstein himself came to realize that the article had not
achieved the goal for which he was striving. The effect on certain very vocal
elements in Russian society had been absolutely negative, just as it had been
when his earlier article on Russian composers had become known in Russia.
Nevertheless, it had played its appointed part in the propaganda war aimed
solely at trying to win public support for the future Conservatory. That Rubin-
steins endeavors had merely served to strengthen the resolve of the opposition
was of little consequence. Quite undeterred, he forged ahead with the drafting
of a charter and of a report, The Necessity of Opening a Music School in St. Pe-
tersburg, which was signed by all the directors of the RMS and submitted to
Yelena Pavlovna.
By the late spring of 1861 Rubinstein was already in Vienna. He stayed only
a few weeks, however, because on 1 June he left for Interlaken in Switzerland,
where he spent most of the summer. Before his departure he penned a few lines
to Julius Rodenberg, who had hoped to complete the libretto for the Song of
Songs by the end of May. Rubinstein had now become red by an entirely new
ideathe oriental legend Lallah Rookh, about which he had earlier spoken to
Rodenberg. This operatic subject (later called Feramors to distinguish it from
an opera by David) was based on a part of Thomas Moores grand epic of 1817.
The libretto eventually turned out to be something of a cross between Die Ent-
fhrung aus dem Serail and Il Barbiere di Seviglia. From the former, the librettist
drew on the exotic setting and also on certain character typesa heroine who
proves her constancy in the face of adversity, the buffo Fadladin with his Mo-

94 Anton Rubinstein