Barnes & Noble - Scott Paulin It wasn't so long ago that Russian opera, beyond a few acknowledged masterpieces by Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky, was virtually an unknown quantity in the wider world of music. If the conductor Valery Gergiev has played a huge role in changing that, a glamorous star soprano like Anna Netrebko can potentially do even more -- and her Russian Album ought to make more than a few new converts to the cause. Partnering here with Gergiev and the orchestra of St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre, Netrebko has put together a program of entrancing arias and songs by five of Russia's greatest composers. With only one well-known selection, the "Letter Scene" from Tchaikovsky's Eugene ...