Nikolai Rezanov
The libretto of "Juno and Avos" is based on Andrey Voznesensky's poem "Avos!" written in 1970. The poem is based on actual events of 1806 surrounding the love story of Nikolai Rezanov, a Russian nobleman, and Maria Concepción Argüello, the daughter of the Spanish governor of Alta California José Darío Argüello. Voznesensky was inspired by Rezanov's diary, George Alexander Lensen books about the Rezanov expeditions, the Bret Harte ballad "Conception de Arguello" and Piotr Tikhmenev's "A History of the Russian-American Company".