During the last two decades of his life he concentrated his attention on creating fantastical operatic worlds built almost entirely on magical combinations of timbres, harmonies and tonal colours, climaxing in The Golden Cockerel. Rimsky was way ahead of his time, anticipating by 50 years the position adopted by many composers of the post-war avant-garde. And yet he loathed modernist tendencies. His most famous pupil, Igor Stravinsky, recalled a performance they had attended of Debussy's La Mer shortly before Rimsky's death: "I asked Rimsky-Korsakov what he thought. He replied, "Better not listen to it; you risk getting used to it, and then you might even end up liking it".