04
August
August
2009
One of the interesting facets of opera is how it came to spread around Europe and develop as such a refined art form. Of all the operatic styles, I prefer Russian opera. Based usually on folk tales or the works of poets such as Pushkin, the works tend to be more choral, and the singing is at Baritone and Mezzosoprano levels, a register lower than Italians Tenor and Soprano. That interests me as while at university I spend some spare time with local operatic societies – in performances of Strausses “Die Fledermaus” and part of Wagners “The Ring”.
However, in researching the subject of Russian opera – and I know many works by the likes of Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Glinka and Prokofiev amongst others, it became apparent that these are what are now regarded as “the Russian operas” – composed by Russians and usually featuring traditional Russian songs and dances to support them. However, it was not always thus, and it’s the pre-Russian operas that I’m interested in.
Opera actually came to Russia in the 18th century, with composers invited by the court. The first opera performed in Russia was Calandro by the Italian composer Giovanni Alberto Ristori (1692-1753). It was given in Moscow in 1731 under his and his father Tommaso Ristori’s direction, with 13 actors and nine singers including Ludovica Seyfried, Margherita Ermini and Rosalia Fantasia. Sung in Italian, it was by all accounts a resounding success. Several other operas, including some commissioned by the Tsar, were performed, amongst them Araja’s “La forza dell'amore e dell'odio”, staged in 1736 as “Sila lyubvi i nenavisti” (The Power of Love and Hatred). Araja’s next two productions were the operas seria “SIl finto Nino”, with “La Semiramide riconosciuta” given the year after, “Artaserse” a further 12 months on. Araja spent around 25 year in Russia and wrote at least 14 operas for the Russian Court.
In 1742, in connection with the celebration of the coronation of Empress Elizaveta Petrovna in Moscow the opera “Tito Vespasiano” by Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783) was staged. A new theatre was built especially for this event. In 1743 at "Zimnij Dvorets", the (Winter Palace) in St. Petersburg, instead of a small hall of "Comedie et opere" was built a new Opera House (architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli) that held about a thousand persons. The next opera seria by Araja Seleuco, was given in 1744 in Moscow as part of a double celebration of the anniversary of the coronation of Elizaveta Petrovna and conclusion of peace with Sweden. The staging of Araja’s opera seria Bellerofonte, occurred in 1750 in St Petersburg) and was notable for the participation of a Russian singer from “pevchie” of the Court Capella, Mark Poltoratski, who played the role of Ataman, a nobleman of Kingdom of Likia.
The second opera set to a Russian text was “Alceste”, 1758, libretto by Alexander Sumarokov) by German composer Hermann Raupach (1728-1778) also serving to the Russian Court. Raupach spent 18 years in Russia and died in St Petersburg in 1778. In 1757 a private opera enterprise directed by Giovanni Battista Locatelli (1713-c1770) was invited to St. Petersburg. They had show an opera every week for the court, and two-three times a week they were allowed to give open public performances. The repertoire was mostly of Italian opera buffa. For the first three years the troupe had presented the seven operas by Baldassare Galuppi (1706-1785) including “Il mondo della luna” (The World of the Moon), “Il Filosofo di campagna” (The Village Philosopher), and “Il mondo alla roversa, ossia Le donne che commandono” (The Worlds Upside Down, or Women Command). In 60-80s in Russia the were working in turn Venetian Galuppi, Manfredini from Pistoia, Traetta from Bitonto near Barri, Paisiello from Taranto, Sarti, Cimarosa from Campania, and Spaniard Martin y Soler. Each of them brought an important contribution, producing operas to the Italian as well as Russian libretti.
Other prominent Italians also composed opera for the Russian market, amongst them
Vincenzo Manfredini (1737-1799) spent 12 years in Russia and died in St Petersburg. The son and pupil of famous baroque composer Francesco Manfredini, he was a music teacher for Pavel Petrovich who later became Emperor of Russia. For the Russian Imperial Court Manfredini wrote five operas including: Semiramide (1760, St Petersburg), L'Olimpiade (1762 Moscow) and Carlo Magno (1763 St Petersburg).
Tommaso Traetta (1727-1779) was a maestro di cappella at the Russian Imperial Court for eight years (1768-1775, and wrote there five operas, including: Astrea placata (1770 St Petersburg), Antigone (1772 St Petersburg), and Le quattro stagioni e i dodici mesi dell'anno (1776 St Petersburg).
Giovanni Paisiello (1740 – 1816), a famous Neapolitan composer of more than 100 operas seria and buffa, he spent in Russia eight years (1776-1783), where he wrote 12 operas including Nitteti (1777 St. Petersburg), Lucinda e Armidoro (1777 St. Petersburg), Il barbiere di Siviglia, ovvero La precauzione inutile (1782 Hermitage Theatre), and Il mondo della luna (1782 Kamenny Island Theatre).
Giuseppe Sarti (1729-1802), a composer of about 40 operas, he spent in Russia eighteen years (1784-1802). After being for eight years a maestro di cappella at the Imperial Court , he spent the next four years at the service of Prince Grigori Alexandrovich Potemkin at his estate in Southern Russia. Then he returned to the Court. In 1901 he solicited permission to return, because his health was broken. The emperor Alexander I dismissed him in 1802 with a liberal pension. Sarti died in Berlin. His most successful operas in Russia were Armida e Rinaldo and The Early Reign of Oleg (Nachal'noye upravleniye Olega), for the latter of which the empress herself wrote the libretto. Among the nine operas written in Russia are also: Gli amanti consolati (1784 St Petersburg), I finti eredi (1785 St Petersburg, Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre), Castore e Polluce (1786 Hermitage Theatre) and La famille indienne en Angleterre (1799 St Petersburg, Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre).
Domenico Cimarosa, (1749-1801) another famous Neapolitan composer, singer, violinist, harpsichordist, conductor ant teacher, who composed about 75 operas, was a maestro di cappella in Russia for five years (1787-1791), where wrote: La felicità inaspettata (1788 Hermitage Theatre), La vergine del sol'e (1788? Hermitage Theatre; 1789 St Petersburg, Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre) and La Cleopatra (Cleopatra e Marc Antonio 1789 Hermitage Theatre)
Vicente Martin y Soler (1754-1806) a Spanish organist and composer of 21 operas and 5 ballets, he settled in Russia c1788, where he was called "Martini". He wrote there: Gore-Bogatyr Kosometovich (libretto by Catherine II of Russia, 1789 Hermitage Theatre) with overture on three Russian tunes, Pesnolyubie (1790 Hermitage Theatre), and La festa del villagio (1798 Hermitage Theatre).
Two of his operas premiered in Vienna, but also staged in Russia, Una cosa rara, o sia Bellezza ed onestà (The Rare Thing) and L'arbore di Diana (Diana's Tree) were especially popular. The first of them performed in Russian translation of Ivan Dmitrievsky had some elements of the antifeudal directivity. He died in St Petersburg in January 1806.
Ivan Kerzelli (also known as I. I. Kerzelli, or Iosif Kertsel) was a representative of a big family of foreign musicians Kerzelli (probably of Czech origin), settled in Russia in 18th century. He is regarded as a composer of a few famous operas: Lyubovnik - koldun (The Lover-Magician 1772 Moscow), Rozana i Lyubim (Rozana und Lyubim 1778, Moscow), Derevenskiy vorozheya (The Village Wizard c1777 Moscow) (Overture and songs were printed in Moscow 1778; They were the first opera fragments printed in Russia) and Guljanye ili sadovnik kuskovskoy (Promenade or the Gardener from Kuskovo 1780 or 1781 Kuskovo, Private Theatre of Count Nikolai Sheremetev).
Antoine Bullant (also known as Antoine or Jean Bullant, 1750-1821), another composer of Czech origin settled in Russia in 1780 wrote a large number of operas with Russian librettos, often within Russian national settings. He was especially famous for his comic opera Sbitenshchik (Сбитеньщик — Sbiten Vendor), comic opera in 3 acts, written to the libretto by Yakov Knyazhnin (remake of Molière's L'école des femmes). The opera was staged 1783 or 1784 in St Petersburg, at the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, and was played until 1853.
There were also extremely popular the operas by Belgian/French André Ernest Modeste Grétry (1741-1813), like L'Amitié à l'épreuve (first staged 1779, Kuskovo theatre) or Les Mariages samnites that was performed during 12 years (since 1885, Kuskovo, Ostankino theatres) with serf-soprano Praskovya Zhemchugova at the private opera of Nikolai Sheremetev.
So there’s a huge body of work there. However, here’s the rub: The US Library of Congress lists about 25,000 operas as having been registered with it, of which only 100 are regularly performed today. That’s some 24,900 operas that no-one ever gets to hear. Now, I’m sure a lot of those are rubbish, but I suspect the Italian operas written for the Russian court of the day do not fall into that category. Yet can I find them? Or any works by the composers? Not a chance. More research will have to be done, and almost certainly trips to Rome, St. Petersburg and Vienna, which sounds like a lot of fun. The Italian composers who traveled to live and work in Russia have now been forgotten by the Italians, and superseded by the development of Russia’s own composers. That’s a great shame, and I shall try and find those lost masterpieces.