Nadezhda Zabela-Vrubel
Nadezhda Ivanovna Zabela-Vrubel (; in Kovno – in Saint Petersburg) was a Ukrainian-born Imperial Russian opera singer, the niece of the famous Ukrainian sculptor Parmen Zabila and a member of Ukrainian Zabila family. Vocally, she is best described as a lyrical (coloratura) soprano, with a particularly high tessitura. In 1891 she graduated from the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, having been in the class of Natalia Iretskaya. She also studied in Paris with Mathilde Marchesi. She sang her debut in 1893 at the I. Setov operatic troupe in Kiev. In the season 1894–95 she sang in Tiflis, in 1895–96  in the St Petersburg Private opera, and in 1896–97 in Kharkov. During 1897–1904 she was a leading soprano in Savva Mamontov's Private Russian Opera. In 1904–11 she became the soloist of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg. In 1896 she married the Russian artist Mikhail Vrubel, who created a series of her portraits. Roles. Her roles include: