Opera "Spanish Mozart" and the Russian Empress. All can be kings, or the outlet of enlightened absolutism

ST. PETERSBURG. At the close of the Earlymusic-2015 festival of early music on October 8, the opera Gore-Bogatyr Kosometovich was performed, written on the libretto of Catherine II.

Literary activity was one of the outlets of the autocracy. Between the reforms, the expansion of the empire and the suppression of the Pugachev riot, the crowned lady tirelessly replenished her writing portfolio. At the sight of the pen, according to Catherine, she wanted to immediately put it into action. Fables, essays, pedagogical works, decrees, comedies and dramas poured out of the cornucopia. Like every actively printing graphomaniac, the empress had talented literary "blacks" - Andrei Shuvalov and Nikolai Ivanovich Novikov. The last owed their success to the queen’s most popular comedies. The content of the tale of "Kosometovich", "turned" into a libretto in 1788, seems more lightweight, sometimes balancing on the verge of decency.

Music author Vicente Martín y Soler (Vicente Martín y Soler) was called "Valencian Mozart." Quotations from Soler are found in the “Don Juan” of this Mozart, which speaks of Vicente’s undoubted talent. In 1788, Vincente Soler moved to Russia as the court composer Catherine. He worked hard for the theater, received well-deserved recognition. At 51, he passed away and was buried in St. Petersburg. His grave was considered lost and was found only at the end of the 20th century.

Popular in life, a couple of centuries stayed in the zone of oblivion. The Spaniards were the first to come to their senses, resuscitating the compatriots’ creative heritage in recent years. After more than two centuries, Soler’s opera returned to the Russian stage. The plot of the opera saw an allusion to circumstances related to the Swedish king and Grigory Potemkin, which gave the libretto a special piquancy.

The production was performed by the ensemble "Soloists of Catherine the Great" and presented as part of the Earlymusic-2015 festival of early music. He owes his appearance to the then director of the British Council, Elizabeth White, violinist Andrei Reshetin (artistic director of Catherine the Great Soloists) and Marc de Moni.

To achieve maximum authenticity, I had to work hard at the lessons on Russian phonetics of the times of Catherine and the classes on baroque gesture. But the result was worth it, having pleased both the artists themselves and the audience of the festival.

Elena Tanakova © Gallerix.ru