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Previous research has convincingly established the strong connection between the Russian bass singer Osip Petrov and the development of lead bass characters in Russian 19th century opera, starting with Glinka’s Zhizn’ za tsaria from 1836. This thesis builds on that research and studies not only Zhizn’ za tsaria, but also three additional operas from the same era that Glinka knew well before composing his opera. The three operas represent the opera traditions from Germany, France and Italy. Glinka’s opera is first studied to establish what factors made it such a success, apart from the quality of Petrov’s performance in the lead role, Ivan Susanin. Glinka’s opera is then compared with its three contemporaries to find similarities and differences, with special attention to the bass role. The analysis shows that Zhizn’ za tsaria was the perfect embodiment of the political situation in Russia at the time. A Polish uprising had recently been quashed, and the opera solidified the connection between the happiness of the people and the benevolent patriarch. In addition, Glinka’s opera was considered to be of higher musical quality than previous Russian operas.  The comparison with Glinka’s European contemporaries shows that opera in Germany and France was also strongly affected by the rising nationalism. In Italy, opera was a business dominated by Rossini, but his early retirement brought forward the next generation lead by Bellini. In compositional details, Glinka was much influenced by the Italian style. In all operas in this study, the bass role is traditional and part of one of two groups, the father/king/priest or the devil’s henchman.