Nadezhda Repina

Nadezhda Vasilyevna Repina (Russian: Наде́жда Васи́льевна Ре́пина) (October 7 [O.S. September 25] 1809 – December 2 [O.S. November 20] 1867) was a Russian actress and singer (soprano).

The daughter of a serf actor and musician, she was in the troupe of a landlord called Stolypin, from which she was redeemed in 1825 by the Directors of the Theatrical College. She was famous for her beauty and intelligence and soon assumed a position in Moscow equal to that of Varvara Aksenkova in St Petersburg.

She was especially successful in comedies and vaudevilles where her partner was the famous Russian actor Mikhail Shchepkin. She was a friend and then wife of the composer Alexey Verstovsky. She retired in 1841. Sergei Aksakov called her the “adornment of the Moscow stage”.