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This chapter focuses on a dramatic moment in the life of Igor Stravinsky when he was forced to choose between loyalty to the memory of his beloved teacher Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov on the one hand, and his new loyalty, both commercial and artistic, to Sergei Diaghilev on the other hand—a choice, in effect, between St. Petersburg and Paris. After Rimsky-Korsakov's death, Stravinsky's opinions on his teacher were rather odd. His comments were contradictory, his evaluations widely diverging, doubtless stemming from the fact that it was not always clear whether he was writing under the influence of Rimsky-Korsakov or in reaction to him. Stravinsky's active departure from his teacher's ways required no more than five years, and the end of this period was marked by a decisive full stop: Rimsky-Korsakov's completion of Modest Musorgsky's unfinished Khovanshchina was pushed aside when Stravinsky, together with Diaghilev and Maurice Ravel, issued a new version designed to correct all of Rimsky-Korsakov's “errors.”

In this chapter, Maya Plisetskaya reflects on her performances in Don Quixote and Khovanshchina. She also recalls the time she asked for a pay raise as a ballerina for the Bolshoi Theater but her request was denied. This caused her to focus on her rehearsal as Kitri in Don Quixote under Elena Ilyushchenko as coach. One of the spectators during her performance was Rudolf Nureyev. Maya then turned to Khovanshchina, an opera by Nikolai Semyonovich Golovanov, who was once the principal conductor at the Bolshoi Theater. The dances in Khovanshchina were choreographed by Sergei Gavrilovich Koren.

In this chapter, Maya Plisetskaya focuses on her married life with Rodion Shchedrin, with whom she shared an apartment on Kutuzovsky Prospect in Moscow. She also talks about her maid, Ekaterina Alexeyevna Zhamkova. Maya and Rodion spent their free evenings on Kutuzovsky with Lilya Yuryevna Brik and Vasily Abgarovich Katanyan, her last husband. Meanwhile, Vera Stroyeva began filming Khovanshchina based on Dmitri Shostakovich's orchestration of Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky's opera at Mosfilm Studios. Maya danced the Persian for the ballet. From time to time she would charm distinguished visitors with performances such as Swan Lake and signed up for fewer concerts. Maya began rehearsing the second version of Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev's The Stone Flower. Nikita Khrushchev appointed Alexander Shelepin as KGB head.

This chapter examines Modest Mussorgsky's opera Khovanshchina. It explais that the historical basis of its plot came from the succession of violent events stretching through the last two decades of the seventeenth century. It suggests that the opera's plot failed to achieve full stability and coherence because Mussorgksy composed verbal monologues and dialogues alongside the music in a kind of patchwork and it did not follow any literary prototype for its musical narrative.