What is Mikhail Glinka?
[[File:Glinka 1856.jpg|right|thumb|Mikhail Glinka]] '''Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka''' (1804–1857) was a [[Russia]]n [[composer]], regarded as the first to become very famous. [[Russia]] is a very large country. In the [[18th century]] there was a lot of music in [[Europe]], but Russian people had not yet heard it. A lot of them were very poor and modern transport did not exist. By the time Glinka was born Russian people in the large towns like [[Saint Petersburg]] were becoming very interested in European music. Mikhail Glinka was born in a little village called Novospasskoye. His father was a rich landowner. Glinka was brought up by his grandmother who looked after him very carefully. She was always afraid he would be cold, so she wrapped him up in a fur coat in a room which was kept at [[Fahrenheit|77&nbsp;°F]]. He was not often allowed to play in the fresh air. Later in his life Glinka was always worrying about his health. It was a long way to the big cities from where the child lived. There was no [[radio]] in those days, and no [[Compact disc|CDs]]. The only music he heard was the church bells, and the singing of the peasants (the simple people who worked on the land). They sang [[folksong]]s and made up [[harmony]] underneath the tunes. After his grandmother died he was allowed to travel 6&nbsp;miles to his uncle’s home. His uncle had a group of musicians who played music by European composers like [[Joseph Haydn|Haydn]], [[Mozart]] and [[Beethoven]]. He had never heard such music before. When he was 13 he went to school in St Petersburg. Now he could hear lots of music and meet some good [[musician]]s. He had piano lessons and spent a lot of time at parties. He started to compose some songs. In [[1830]] he went to [[Italy]]. Italy was famous for its music, especially for [[opera]]. Glinka met famous composers like [[Mendelssohn]] and [[Berlioz]] as well as Italian composers like [[Donizetti]] and [[Vincenzo Bellini|Bellini]]. He like their music, and decided he wanted to write opera as well, but he wan