Catterino Cavos
Encyclopedia
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, organist
Organist
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...
and conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
settled in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. He played an important role in the history of Russian opera
Russian opera
Russian opera is the art of opera in Russia. Operas by composers of Russian origin, written or staged outside of Russia, also belong to this category, as well as the operas of foreign composers written or intended for the Russian scene. These are not only Russian-language operas...
and was the father of Alberto Cavos
Alberto Cavos
Alberto Cavos was a Russian–Italian architect best known for his theatre designs, the builder of the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow .-Early years:Alberto Cavos was born in Saint Petersburg to Venetian opera composer Catterino Cavos Alberto Cavos (Russified...
.
Cavos is celebrated in Russian musical history as the man who composed the opera Ivan Susanin in 1815, 20 years before Mikhail Glinka
Mikhail Glinka
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka , was the first Russian composer to gain wide recognition within his own country, and is often regarded as the father of Russian classical music...
's opera of the same name
A Life for the Tsar
A Life for the Tsar , as it is known in English, although its original name was Ivan Susanin is a "patriotic-heroic tragic opera" in four acts with an epilogue by Mikhail Glinka. The original Russian libretto, based on historical events, was written by Nestor Kukolnik, Georgy Fyodorovich Rozen,...
. The plot, based on an episode from Russian history, tells the story of the Russian peasant and patriotic hero Ivan Susanin
Ivan Susanin
Ivan Susanin was a Russian folk hero and martyr of the early 17th century's Time of Troubles.-Evidence:In 1619, a certain Bogdan Sobinin from Domnino village near Kostroma received from Tsar Mikhail one half of Derevischi village. According to the extant royal charter, these lands were granted...
who sacrifices his life for the Tsar by leading astray a group of marauding Poles who were hunting him.
Biography
Cavos was a son of the director of the theatre La FeniceLa Fenice
Teatro La Fenice is an opera house in Venice, Italy. It is one of the most famous theatres in Europe, the site of many famous operatic premieres. Its name reflects its role in permitting an opera company to "rise from the ashes" despite losing the use of two theatres...
in Venice, Alberto Giovanni Cavos. At the age of 12 Cavos composed a cantata to celebrate the arrival to Venice of Leopold II
Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor
Leopold II , born Peter Leopold Joseph Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard, was Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary and Bohemia from 1790 to 1792, Archduke of Austria and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790. He was a son of Emperor Francis I and his wife, Empress Maria Theresa...
. At the age of 14 he obtained the place of the organist at St Mark's
St Mark's Basilica
The Patriarchal Cathedral Basilica of Saint Mark is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Venice, northern Italy. It is the most famous of the city's churches and one of the best known examples of Byzantine architecture...
.
In 1797, together with the Italian operatic company Astariti, he came to St Petersburg. The company was soon disbanded, but Cavos entered the service of the Imperial Theatres, at first as composer for a French opera troupe with the responsibility to write music for the opera-vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
s. In 1803 he was appointed as the Kapellmeister
Kapellmeister
Kapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . The words Kapelle and Meister derive from the Latin: capella and magister...
of Italian and Russian opera and, furthermore, obtained the place of teacher of singing at the Saint Catherine School. In 1811 he occupied the same place in the Smolny Convent
Smolny Convent
Smolny Convent or Smolny Convent of the Resurrection , located on Ploschad Rastrelli, on the bank of the River Neva in Saint Petersburg, Russia, consists of a cathedral and a complex of buildings surrounding it, originally intended for a convent.-History:This Russian Orthodox convent was built to...
.
He was involved in a massive operatic project: the opera tetralogy
Tetralogy
A tetralogy is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works, just as a trilogy is made up of three works....
Rusalka
Rusalka
In Slavic mythology, a rusalka was a female ghost, water nymph, succubus, or mermaid-like demon that dwelled in a waterway....
(The Mermaid), also known as Dneprovskaya Rusalka or Lesta, dneprovskaya rusalka (1803-1807, first given in St Petersburg), based on the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
romantic-comic piece Das Donauweibchen (The Mermaid of Danube) by Ferdinand Kauer
Ferdinand Kauer
Ferdinand August Kauer , was an Austrian composer and pianist.-Biography:Kauer was born in Klein-Thaya near Znaim in South Moravia. He studied in Znaim, Tyrnau, and Vienna, and later settled in Vienna around 1777. In 1781 he joined Karl von Marinelli's newly formed company at Vienna as leader and...
, with a new Russian text by Nikolai Krasnopolsky and Prince Alexander Shakhovskoy. Cavos, together with Stepan Davydov
Stepan Davydov
-Biography:When the principal choirboy of the Imperial Court Capella, he drew the attention of the Empress Catherine II, who consigned him to the care of the Italian composer Giuseppe Sarti ....
, provided the additional music for the opera.
Cavos acquainted the Russian public with the opera's by Luigi Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini
Luigi Cherubini was an Italian composer who spent most of his working life in France. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries....
, Étienne Méhul
Étienne Méhul
Etienne Nicolas Méhul was a French composer, "the most important opera composer in France during the Revolution." He was also the first composer to be called a "Romantic".-Life:...
, Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
, and others. He conducted the first performance of Glinka's Ivan Susanin (A Life for the Tsar
A Life for the Tsar
A Life for the Tsar , as it is known in English, although its original name was Ivan Susanin is a "patriotic-heroic tragic opera" in four acts with an epilogue by Mikhail Glinka. The original Russian libretto, based on historical events, was written by Nestor Kukolnik, Georgy Fyodorovich Rozen,...
) in 1836, twenty years after the first performance of his own opera on the same story (though with a different ending). Cavos generously admitted that Glinka's work was musically superior.
Cavos spent more than 40 years in Russia and died in St Petersburg.
His two sons, grandson and other members of the Cavos
Cavos
-Cavos Family:Cavos is the name of an Italian family of composers, musicians, and architects who settled in Russia at the end of 18th century. They came of an old, well-to-do Venetian family.The most prominent representatives are:...
family, all well known musicians and architects, made a notable contribution to 19th-century Russian culture
Russian culture
Russian culture is associated with the country of Russia and, sometimes, specifically with ethnic Russians. It has a rich history and can boast a long tradition of excellence in every aspect of the arts, especially when it comes to literature and philosophy, classical music and ballet, architecture...
.
Legacy
Cavos wrote a great number of operas, ballets, and orchestral pieces. His operas Ilya the Hero (1806), Ivan Susanin (1815), and The Firebird (1823) earned a public success in their time. The Cossack as Poet, a one-act vaudevilleVaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
(1812), remained in the repertory till 1852. Some of his ballets were performed abroad. Orlando Figes
Orlando Figes
Orlando Figes is a British historian of Russia, and Professor of History at Birkbeck, University of London.-Overview:Figes is the son of the feminist writer Eva Figes. His sister is the author and editor Kate Figes. He attended William Ellis School in north London from 1971-78...
says of him:
In 1803 the Emperor AlexanderAlexander I of RussiaAlexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
took control of the public theatres and placed Cavos in charge of the Bolshoi KamennyBolshoi Kamenny TheatreThe Saint Petersburg Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre was a theatre in Saint Petersburg.- History :It was built in 1783 to Antonio Rinaldi's Neoclassical design as the Kamenny Theatre. It was rebuilt in 1802 and renamed the Bolshoi, but burned down in 1811. The building was restored in 1818, and...
, until then the only public opera house and exclusively reserved for Italian opera. Cavos built the Bolshoi Kamenny into a stronghold of Russian opera. He wrote works such as Ilya Bogatyr (1807) on heroic national themes with librettos in Russian, and his music was strongly influenced by Russian and Ukrainian folk songs. Much of Glinka's operatic music, which the nationalists would champion as the foundation of the Russian tradition, was in fact anticipated by Cavos. The 'national character' of Russian music was thus first developed by a foreigner.
Operas
- Soliman second, ou Les trois Sultanes one-act vaudeville after Charles Simon FavartCharles Simon FavartCharles Simon Favart was a French dramatist.Born in Paris, the son of a pastry-cook, he was educated at the college of Louis-le-Grand, and after his father's death he carried on the business for a time...
, June 7 [OS Mai 26] 1798 St. Petersburg. (Also with Russian libretto: Suliman vtoroi, ili Tri sultanshi – Сулиман второй или три султанши, 1813) - Les Trois bossus (Three Brothers Crouchbacks)
- L'Alchimiste
- L'Intrigue dans les ruines
- Le Mariage d'Aubigny
- Lesta, dneprovskaya rusalka (May 17 [OS May 5], 1804, St Petersburg, Bolshoi Kamenny TheatreBolshoi Kamenny TheatreThe Saint Petersburg Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre was a theatre in Saint Petersburg.- History :It was built in 1783 to Antonio Rinaldi's Neoclassical design as the Kamenny Theatre. It was rebuilt in 1802 and renamed the Bolshoi, but burned down in 1811. The building was restored in 1818, and...
) by Ferdinand KauerFerdinand KauerFerdinand August Kauer , was an Austrian composer and pianist.-Biography:Kauer was born in Klein-Thaya near Znaim in South Moravia. He studied in Znaim, Tyrnau, and Vienna, and later settled in Vienna around 1777. In 1781 he joined Karl von Marinelli's newly formed company at Vienna as leader and...
with the additional music by Cavos and Stepan DavydovStepan Davydov-Biography:When the principal choirboy of the Imperial Court Capella, he drew the attention of the Empress Catherine II, who consigned him to the care of the Italian composer Giuseppe Sarti ....
. - Knyaz nevidimka, ili Licharda volshebnik (Князь-невидимка – The Invisible Prince, libretto by Lifanov, in 4 acts May 17, 1805 St Petersburg)
- Lyobovnaya pochta (Любовная почта – The Mail of Love, libretto by Alexander Shakhovskoy1806)
- Ilya Bogatyr (Илья-Богатырь – Ilya the Hero, libretto by Ivan KrylovIvan KrylovIvan Andreyevich Krylov is Russia's best known fabulist. While many of his earlier fables were loosely based on Aesop and Jean de La Fontaine, later fables were original work, often satirizing the incompetent bureaucracy that was stifling social progress in his time.-Life:Ivan Krylov was born in...
, January 12, 1807 St Petersburg) - Tri brata gorbuna (Три брата-горбуна – Three Brothers Crouchbacks, 1808) [revision of Les trois bossus]
- Kazak-stikhotvorets (Казак-стихотворец – The Cossack as Poet, May 27, 1812, St Petersburg)
- Ivan Susanin (Иван Сусанин, libretto by Alexander Shakhovskoy, October 30 [OS October 19], 1815 St Petersburg)
- Dobrynya Nikitich (Добрыня Никитич, 1818) [together with F. Antonolini]
- Zhar-ptitsa (Царь-Птица – The Firebird, 1823)
Ballets
- Zefir i Flora (1808)
- Opolchenie ili lyubov' k Otechestvu (1812)
- Raul Kreki (1819)
- Kavkazsky plennik ili ten' nevesty (1823)
CDs
- The Golden Age of Russian Guitar, Vol.2CD: Ovchinnikov, Oleg TimofeyevOleg TimofeyevOleg Vitalyevich Timofeyev , is an American musicologist and musician of Russian origin, specializing in lute and Russian guitar. He is best known for his pioneering work in the discovery, promotion, interpretation, and authentic performance of the repertoire for the 19th- and 20th-century Russian...
, D. Kushenov-Dmitrievsky, Andrei Osipovich Sychra, Catterino Cavos