Russian opera
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Russian opera (
Russian opera includes the works of such composers as Glinka, Rubinstein, Mussorgsky, Borodin, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich.
Searching for its typical and characteristic features, the Russian opera (and Russian music as a whole), has often been under strong foreign influence. Italian, French, and German operas have served as examples, even when composers sought to introduce special, national elements into their work. This dualism, to a greater or lesser degree, has persisted throughout the whole history of Russian opera.[citation needed]
18th century
Patrons |
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Catherine II of Russia (1729–1796) (1751–1809)Nikolai Sheremetev |
Opera came to Russia in the 18th century. At first there were Italian language operas presented by
Italians
Originating in Italy in c1600, opera spread all over Europe and reached Russia in 1731, when the King of
After that Italian opera troupes were welcomed to Russia for the entertaining of the Empress and her Court. In 1735 a big Italian opera troupe led by a composer Francesco Araja was invited for the first time to work in Saint Petersburg. The first opera given by them was Araja's La forza dell'amore e dell'odio, with a text by Francesco Prata, staged on 8 February [OS 29 January], 1736 as Sila lyubvi i nenavisti (The Power of Love and Hatred).
In 1742, in connection with the celebration of the coronation of Empress
The next
The staging of
The first opera written in Russian was
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 Saint Petersburg in 1778.
In 1757 a private opera enterprise directed by
In the 1760–80s in Russia there 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. Here are listed some of the operas written and premiered in Russia:
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
There were also extremely popular the operas by
Russians
Companies |
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St Petersburg ) |
Two talented young Russians
At the same time in Russia, a successful one-act opera
The music of another successful Russian opera Melnik – koldun, obmanshchik i svat (The Miller who was a Wizard, a Cheat and a Match-maker, text by
Librettists |
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Stefano Benedetto Pallavicino (1672–1742) Giuseppe Bonecchi [?-?] Alexander Sumarokov (1717–1774) Catherine II (1729–1796) Alexander Ablesimov (1742–1783) Mikhail Vasilyevich Popov (1742–1790) Yakov Knyazhnin (1742/1740–1791) Mikhail Matinsky (1750–c. 1820) Vladislav Ozerov (1769–1816) |
Italian-trained
19th century
The 19th century was the golden age of Russian opera. It began with a success of a massive and slowly developing operatic project: the opera Lesta, dneprovskaya rusalka and its three sequels (1803–1807, first in Saint Petersburg) based on the German romantic-comic piece Das Donauweibchen by Ferdinand Kauer (1751–1831) with the Russian text and additional music by Russianized Venetian immigrant Catterino Cavos (1775–1840) and Stepan Davydov (1777–1825).
The next success was a patriotic opera Ivan Susanin (1815) by
This success was continued with the brilliant operatic career of Alexey Verstovsky (1799–1862), who composed more 30 opera-vaudevilles and 6 grand-operas including Askold's Grave (Askoldova mogila, first performed in 1835) that received about 200 performances in Saint Petersburg and 400 in Moscow only for the first 25 years.
However the most important events in the history of Russian opera were two great operas by
Since these, opera became a leading genre for the most of Russian composers. Glinka was followed by Alexander Dargomyzhsky (1813–1869) with his Rusalka (1856) and revolutionary The Stone Guest (Kamenny gost, completed by Rimsky-Korsakov and premiered in 1872).
Other composers were:
- Semen Hulak-Artemovsky (1813–1873) with his 3 operas including Zaporozhets za Dunayem (1863);
- Alexander Serov (1820–1871) with his Judith (1863) Rogneda (1865) The Power of the Fiend (Vrazhya sila, 1871);
- Anton Rubinstein (1829–1894) with his 19 operas including The Demon (1875 Saint Petersburg);
- César Cui (1835–1918), with his 14 operas including William Ratcliff (1861–1868);
- Eduard Nápravník (1839–1916), with his 4 operas including Dubrovsky (1895);
- Sergei Taneyev (1856–1915), with Oresteia, (1895, Saint Petersburg);
- Anton Arensky (1861–1906), with his 3 operas including A Dream on the Volga (1880).
Russian opera reached its apogee with the works by Modest Mussorgsky and his antipode Pyotr Tchaikovsky.
-
Pyotr Tchaikovsky
-
Aleksandr Borodin
- Salammbô (1866)
- Zhenit'ba(The Marriage, 1868)
- Khovanshchina (1872–1880)
- The Fair at Sorochyntsi (1874–1880)
- Voyevoda(The Voivode), 1867–1868, destroyed by the composer, but posthumously reconstructed
- Undina (or Undine), 1869, not completed, partly destroyed by the composer
- The Oprichnik, 1870–1872, 1874 Saint Petersburg
- Vakula the Smith (Kuznets Vakula), 1874, 1876 Saint Petersburg
- The Maid of Orleans (Orleanskaya deva), 1878–1879, 1881 Saint Petersburg
- Mazepa 1881–1883, 1884 Moscow
- Cherevichki (rev. of Vakula the Smith) 1885, 1887 Moscow
- The Enchantress (also The Sorceress or Charodeyka), 1885–1887, 1887 Saint Petersburg
- Iolanta(Iolanthe), 1891, 1892 Saint Petersburg
Not less important was Aleksandr Borodin’s (1833–1887) Prince Igor – (Knyaz Igor, completed by Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov, 1890).
Prolific Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908) completed fifteen operas, the most significant achievements of the art of opera in Russia at the end of the century. The most notable of them are:
- May Night (Majskaja noch) 1878–1879
- The Snow Maiden (Snegurochka 1881 1st version, premiered 1882, Saint Petersburg; c. 1895 2nd version)
- Sadko (1896, premiered 1898, Moscow)
- The Tsar's Bride (Tsarskaya nevesta1898, premiered 1899, Moscow)
- The Tale of Tsar Saltan(Skazka o tsare Saltane, premiered 1900, Moscow)
- Kashchey the Immortal(Kashchey bessmertny, 1902)
- The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya (Skazanie o nevidimom grade Kitezhe i deve Fevronii, 1904)
- The Golden Cockerel (Zolotoy petushok, 1907)
The last three of them already belong to the 20th-century Russian opera.
There were built a lot of new opera theatres including Bolshoi Theatre (opened since 1825 Moscow), and Mariinsky Theatre, opened since 1860 Saint Petersburg).
The history of 19th century Russian opera could be observed in the selected list of premieres at the Saint Petersburg theatres:
- 1835 – Askold's Grave
- 1836 – A Life for the Tsar
- 1842 – Ruslan and Lyudmila
- 1856 – Rusalka
Mariinsky Theatre (since 1860)
- 1863 – Judith
- 1865 – Rogneda
- 1871 – The Power of the Fiend (Vrazya sila)
- 1872 – The Stone Guest
- 1874 – Boris Godunov
- 1874 – The Oprichnik
- 1875 – The Demon
- 1876 – Vakula the Smith
- 1881 – The Maid of Orleans
- 1882 – The Snow Maiden
- 1886 – Khovanshchina
- 1886 – Prince Igor
- 1887 – The Enchantress (Charodeyka)
- 1890 – The Queen of Spades
Opera spread to the provincial centres of
20th century
The political collisions of the 20th century divided Russian opera composers into those who managed to escape to the West, successfully or not, and those who continued to live in not the particular friendly atmosphere of the Soviet and Post-Soviet regimes. And nevertheless, the process of producing new operas was not diminished, but just the opposite, it was immensely grown.
Zimin Opera established in 1904, Sergei Diaghilev's Saisons Russes began in Paris in 1913.
Vladimir Rebikov (1866–1920) composer of more than 10 operas is best of all known for his opera The Christmas Tree (Yolka, 1894–1902) in which he presented his ideas of "melo-mimics" and "rhythm-declamation" (see melodeclamation).
- Aleko(1892, staged 1893)
- The Miserly Knight (Skupoy Rytsar Op. 24, 1904)
- Francesca da Rimini (Op. 25, 1904, staged 1906).
All three operas were staged at the Bolshoi Theatre. He began but did not finish the fourth
Unlike him, Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) had been returning to this genre again and again, full of fresh and innovative ideas. Sometimes it is difficult to qualify these works as pure operas but rather "opera-ballets", "opera-cantatas", or "music theatre". Here is the list:
- Le rossignol (The Nightingale) (1914)
- Renard, burlesque for 4 pantomimes and Chamber Orchestra (1916) opera-ballet
- Histoire du Soldatfor chamber group and three speakers (1918), narration with music
- Mavra (1922)
- Oedipus rex (1927)
- Perséphone for speaker, soloists, chorus and orchestra (1934)
- Babel (1944)
- The Rake's Progress (1951)
- The Flood (1962)
Sergei Prokofiev’s (1891–1953) operas are full of humour, wit, and novelty. Here is the list of his completed operas:
- Maddalena, (1911–1913)
- The Gambler (1915–1916, rev. 1927)
- The Love for Three Oranges(1919)
- The Fiery Angel (1919–1927)
- Semyon Kotko(1939)
- Betrothal in a Monastery(1940–1941)
- War and Peace(1941–1952)
- The Story of a Real Man, Op. 117 (1947–1948)
There were a lot more of the composers about the same generation, who had managed to create hundreds of operas. Some of them shared the same problems with Shostakovich and Prokofiev who returned to live in Soviet Russia and were deadly embraced by its suffocative regime. Others were on the opposite side, serving the suffocating roles. A serious condemnation and persecution of the Soviet Union's foremost composers, such as Prokofiev, Shostakovich and many others, had emerged in 1948 in connection to the opera by Vano Muradeli (1908–1970), Velikaya druzhba (The Great Friendship); see Zhdanov Doctrine.
Here is just a shortlist of the opera composers of those times:
- Yuri Shaporin (1887–1966), opera The Decembrists (written during a period of 33 years 1920–1953, staged 1953)
- Isaak Dunayevsky (1900–1955), 14 operettas including White Acacia (1955)
- Alexander Mossolov(1900–1973), 4 operas including. The Barrage (1929–1930)
- Vissarion Shebalin (1902–1963), 3 operas including The Taming of the Shrew (1957)
- Dmitri Kabalevsky(1904–1987), 7 operas including Colas Breugnon (1936–1976)
- Veniamin Fleishman (1913–1941), opera Rothschild's Violin (1941) completed and orchestrated by Dmitri Shostakovich
- Tikhon Khrennikov (1913–2007), 5 operas including "Into the Storm" (1936–1939)
- Grigory Frid (1915–2012), 2 chamber mono-operas including The Diary of Anne Frank (1968)
- Mieczysław Weinberg (1919–1996), 7 operas including The Portrait (1980) and The Idiot (1985)
Also:
The next generations who found themselves already in the Post-Stalin epoch had their own specific problems. The ideological and stylistic control and limitation of creative freedom by the authorities and older colleagues-composers in the hierarchical structures of the
As a result even quite new phenomena appeared: a "samizdat (underground) opera" (see Nikolai Karetnikov). Some of these operas still never been performed, others luckily received their premieres in the West, and only a few found their place at the operatic stages of the homeland. The collapse of the Soviet Union did not improve this hopeless situation much.
The list of the composers who contributed to the development of Russian opera nearer to the end of the 20th century:
- Edison Denisov (1929–1996), 3 Operas including L'écume des jours ( The Foam of Days, completed 1981)
- Nikolai Karetnikov (1930–1994), 2 operas including Till Eulenspiegel, opera in two acts (1965–1985)
- Sergei Slonimsky (born 1932), 3 operas including Mary Stewart (1978–1980)
- Rodion Shchedrin (born 1932), 3 operas including Myortvye dushi (Dead Souls 1976)
- Alfred Schnittke (1934–1998), 3 operas including Zhizn’ s idiotom (Life with an Idiot, 1990–1991)
- Boris Tishchenko (b. 1939 ) 2 operas including Kradenoe solntse (The Stolen Sun, 1968)
- The Canterville Ghost, 1965–1966)
- Nikolai Korndorf (1947–2001), chamber opera MR (Marina and Rainer) (1989)
- The Nightingale and the Rose
Also:
21st century
The Russian opera is continuing its development in the 21st century. It began with the noisy premieres of two comic operas, whose genre could be described as "opera-farce":
The first was Tsar Demyan – a frightful opera performance (a collective project of the five participants: composers
Another opera The Children of Rosenthal by Leonid Desyatnikov to the libretto by Vladimir Sorokin, was commissioned by the Bolshoi Theatre and premiered on 23 March 2005.
List of Russian opera theatres
- "Comedie et opere", (small hall in a wing of St Petersburg)
- Theatre of St Petersburg)
- Opera House (with 1000 seats, at St Petersburg)
- Moscow Theatre (built 1742 for the coronation of Elizaveta Petrovna, Moscow)
- Kuskovo Summer Theatre (from 1755, Kuskovo near Moscow)
- St Petersburg)
- St Petersburg)
- Petrovsky Theatre (with 1000 seats, from 1780 to 1805, Moscow)
- St Petersburg)
- St Petersburg)
- Ostankino Theatre (from 22 July 1795, Ostankino near Moscow)
- St Petersburg)
- Petrovka Theatre(from 1786 to 1805 Moscow)
- Bolshoi Theatre (from 1825 Moscow)
- St Petersburg)
- St Petersburg)
See also
- List of Russian opera singers
- Music of Russia#18th and 19th century: Russian classical music
- Russian culture#Opera
- Opera#Russian opera
- Comic opera#Russian comic opera
References
- ^ Charlton, David. "Giovanni Alberto Ristori". Classical Net. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
Bibliography
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