Question: Mariya Matveyevna Stepanova created the leading soprano role in which opera based on a 1820 poem?

Context articles: Maria de Francesca-Cavazza
Gabrielle Krauss
Mariya Matveyevna Stepanova
Ruslan and Lyudmila (opera)
Kathryn Day
Karin Branzell
The Cloud (poem)
Camellia Johnson
Emma Howson
Adelina Catalani

Maria de Francesca-Cavazza is a German operatic soprano and voice teacher.
 Raised in the United States, she is a graduate of the Sherwood Conservatory of Music at the Columbia College Chicago where she was a pupil of Maria Hussa-Greve and Garvin Williamson.
 In 1961, she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
 Shortly thereafter, she moved to Germany to pursue further studies at the Hochschule für Musik Köln with Margarete Düren.
 She made her professional opera debut in 1962 at the Cologne Opera in a minor role, and the following year performed her first leading role with that company as Tsaritsa Militrisa in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Tale of Tsar Saltan".
 She then appeared as a leading soprano at several German opera houses, working as a member of the Opernhaus Wuppertal (1964-1965), the Kiel Opera House (1965-1967), the Staatsoper Nürnberg (1967-1976), and the Staatsoper Stuttgart (1976-1986).
 As a guest artist, she has made appearances at the Bavarian State Opera, the Bayreuth Festival and the Vienna State Opera, among others.
 She can be heard and seen in the role of the Cardillac's daughter in Hindemith's opera Cardillac, conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch, on a 1985 Munich DVD issued by Deutsche Grammophon.
 De Francesca-Cavazza has taught on the music faculties of conservatories in Munich and Nuremberg.
Marie-Gabrielle Krauss (24 March 18426 January 1906) was an important 19th century Austrian-born French operatic soprano.
 She created major roles in operas by Anton Rubinstein, Charles Gounod, Camille Saint-Saëns, Auguste Mermet, Clémence de Grandval, Errico Petrella, Antônio Carlos Gomes and Émile Paladilhe.
 She also created roles in local premieres of Verdi and Wagner operas.
 Krauss was a leading soprano at the Paris Opera for 13 years, and also sang with great success in Italy and Russia.
Mariya Matveyevna Stepanova (Russian: Мария Матвеевна Степанова) (1811 or 1816 – 1903) was a Russian opera singer who created the leading soprano roles in "A Life for the Tsar", "Ruslan and Lyudmila", and "Dmitry Donskoy".
Ruslan and Lyudmila (Russian: Руслан и Людмила , "Ruslan i Lyudmila") is an opera in five acts (eight tableaux) composed by Mikhail Glinka between 1837 and 1842.
 The opera is based on the 1820 poem of the same name by Alexander Pushkin.
 The Russian libretto was written by Valerian Shirkov, Nestor Kukolnik and N. A. Markevich, among others.
 Pushkin's death in the famous duel prevented him from writing the libretto himself as planned.
Kathryn Day (née Bouleyn) is an American opera singer who has had an active international career spanning five decades.
 She began her career as a leading soprano under the name Kathryn Bouleyn in the 1970s and 1980s with companies like the New York City Opera, the San Francisco Opera, and the Opera Theater of Saint Louis.
 With the latter institution she created the role of Cora in the world premiere of Stephen Paulus' "The Postman Always Rings Twice" (1982).
Karin Branzell (24 September 189115 December 1974) was a Swedish operatic contralto (sometimes described as a mezzo-soprano), who had a prominent career at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, and in Europe.
 Her very wide range enabled her to sing both contralto roles and the occasional soprano role.
 She was particularly noted for her singing of the music of Richard Wagner, in roles such as Ortrud ("Lohengrin"), Venus ("Tannhäuser"), Erda ("Das Rheingold" and "Siegfried"), Brangäne ("Tristan und Isolde"), and Brunnhilde ("Die Walküre").
 She was considered on a par with Margarete Klose and Kerstin Thorborg as a Wagnerian contralto.
 Amneris ("Aida"), Dalila ("Samson et Dalila"), Herodias ("Salome"), and Clytemnestra ("Elektra") were among her other renowned roles.
"The Cloud" is a major 1820 poem written by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
 "The Cloud" was written during late 1819 or early 1820, and submitted for publication on 12 July 1820.
 The work was published in the 1820 collection "Prometheus Unbound, A Lyrical Drama, in Four Acts, With Other Poems" by Charles and James Ollier in London in August 1820.
 The work was proof-read by John Gisborne.
 There were multiple drafts of the poem.
 The poem consists of six stanzas in anapestic or antidactylus meter, a foot with two unaccented syllables followed by an accented syllable.
Camellia Johnson (September 15, 1953 – August 26, 2015) was an American concert and opera singer.
 She began her career performing works from the mezzo-soprano repertoire, but after encouragement from the staff at the Metropolitan Opera retrained her voice as a soprano.
 She successfully made that transition after winning the Young Concert Artists competition in 1993.
 She went on to perform as a leading soprano with orchestras and opera companies internationally.
Emma Howson (28 March 1844 – 28 May 1928) was an Australian opera singer and actress primarily known as the creator of the principal soprano role of Josephine in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera "H.M.S. Pinafore".
Adelina, sometimes Adelaide or Adele, Catalani (fl.
 1818–1832) was a Franco-Italian soprano.
 She is remembered today largely for the circumstances surrounding her performance of the lead soprano role in Gaetano Donizetti's first staged opera, "Enrico di Borgogna", in 1818.