Picture house in Oranienbaum

Main article: History of music in Russia

Picture house in Oranienbaum, early 2020s

Theater

1759: Rinaldi builds large wooden theatre

In 1759, Rinaldi built a large wooden theater, which allows large operas with large-scale scenery and machinery to be staged in Oranienbaum. The size of the new theater (it was two-tier) made it possible to expand the orchestra, which in the Picture House, apparently, could not exceed 20 musicians. Rinaldi's wooden theater was located near the current western entrance to the park, opposite the Picture House, wrote musician and researcher Andrei Reshetin. In 1824 it was dismantled and transported to Petersburg, where it burned down almost immediately.

1757

Staged the full opera "Alexander in India to the music of Araya

Stelin writes about theatrical life in Oranienbaum: "In 1757, the full opera was first staged" Alexander in India to the music of Araya, and then every year a new opera by the grand-ducal bandmaster Manfredini was staged.<...> In the orchestra, almost every time he sat next to the accompanist, on the first violin, the Grand Duke himself, who diligently played the whole opera, once even played Violino solo accompagnate and at the end of the aria a skillful cadence, which each time was accompanied by applause of lodges and stalls. " (It is possible that Stelin writes about Vologez's aria from Araya's Seleucus, which was staged in Oranienbaum in 1761).

Cantata "Prophetic Urania"

Musical performances in Oranienbaum were not limited to theater and concert halls. In 1757, an amazing performance of the cantata "Prophetic Urania" took place in Oranienbaum Park. This is how an eyewitness described this event:

"Against the place where His Imperial Highness, Sovereign Grand Duke, sat, there was a perspective that amused all those present in a dispassionate way. But their pleasure was even more multiplied when, without knowing anything in advance, they suddenly saw at the end of this prospect, great, in the likeness of a solemn chariot, a car made, which was carried by 24 richly decorated and wreaths decorated with oxen. This chariot, arranged in a Roman way, was removed by flowers, festons and other decorations. Musicians and singers sat on it, all in the same dress, I represent different geniuses. At the very top of the machines was the muse Urania, sitting on many shining celestial spheres and globes. It differed from others not only in the elevation of the place, but also in its very rich decoration. Mrs. Garani, chamber singer of Her Imperial Majesty, represented the persona of the muse. The chariot arrived quietly and lushly as it finally approached the table. Before her was a large choir of singers and dancers who produce the most beautiful ballets with all the change. As the car, coming close to the table, stopped, Urania sang a pretty aria... "

It is important to note that the presentation of "Prophetic Urania" was Catherine's birthday gift for Peter. The delighted Grand Duke made a reciprocal gesture, ordering Araya a reciprocal cantata for his wife - "Juno the Helper." Gifts that say a lot about a married couple's relationship.

1756: Production of Araya's "Cephalus and Procris"

The production of the opera "Cephalus and Prokris" in Oranienbaum with the participation of Grand Duke Pyotr Fedorovich could take place at the end of the 1755 season, or at the beginning of the 1756 season. The theater was summer, wrote researcher Andrei Reshetin. The season ended in the fall, before the arrival of cold weather, and began at the end of spring.

The theater in the Picture House was so small that the number of people in the choir, ballet and orchestra, compared to the large court premiere, should have been minimal. Of course, those paintings by Antonio Perezinotti based on the sketches of Giuseppe Valeriani, which were created for the theater on Tsaritsyn Lugu, could not be used in the Picture House, since baroque scenery for the opera seria is always created for a specific theater, for a specific machine. It is impossible to imagine that two sets of scenery in different sizes were immediately made for this opera, especially since that at the time of the premiere of Cephalus and Prokris on February 27, 1755, the theater in the Picture House did not yet exist.

The conservatory set of notes "Cephalus" with a note notebook with the name of the Grand Duke indicate their Oranienbaum origin. All notes, like printed opera librettos, if the name of the Grand Duke stood on them, belonged to Oranienbaum. In addition, the set of notes of "Cephalus" was found in the same collection with those works of Araya that were specially created for Oranienbaum. The existence of these notes confirms that the opera "Cephalus and Prokris" was staged at the theater of the Picture House.

The instability of the voices of children from 11 to 14 years old is a factor that does not allow to postpone the performance of the opera for a long time. The end of the 1755 season, or the beginning of the 1756 season, is the most likely time of the Oranienbaum production. If we take into account the impatience with which Pyotr Fedorovich sought to give life to his new theater, but at the same time take into account the time required by the Grand Duke to learn the parts and rehearsal, then these deadlines are also logical.

It is difficult to imagine a four-hour performance staged at this time with scenery and full-fledged machinery, repeating the court premiere, in the theater, the decision to build which was made so suddenly and which was created in such a short time. As Andrei Reshetin suggested, the surprise of the decision is connected with the choice: to get a very small and cheap theater, but right now, or wait and build a theater in a separate building. Impatience won. The "modesty" of the performance is also indicated by the fact that "Cephalus and Prokris" does not appear in the list of those iconic Oranienbaum productions, which were prepared for a long time, carefully thinking over their decorative side.

Unfortunately, the studies of S. B. Gorbatenko and M. A. Pavlova, dedicated to the Picture House and the theater in it, do not clarify the situation with theatrical machinery. What did Jimelli manage to build in two weeks in June 1755? What basic concept did he and Peter Feodorovich have? What was added for later productions? What was done in the first stage? One thing is clear, the size of the theater in the Picture House does not imply the opportunities for machinery that the theater had in the Promenade garden on Tsaritsyn Meadow in St. Petersburg, and Pyotr Feodorovich himself rather preferred to spend personal finances on training young Russian musicians and dancers than on decorative luxury. Maybe, that there were no sets at all for the production of Cephalus. If in the Oranienbaum production, according to the notes of which the ensemble "Soloists of Catherine the Great" restored the opera in 2016, an ascetic style was assumed, during the reconstruction at the Hermitage Theater there was also no need to create anything special instead of the black cabinet that was there. As in Oranienbaum, all attention was focused on the performance of actor-singers.

Such asceticism of the Oranienbaum production, in comparison with the luxury of the premiere of the Great Court, does not indicate its inferiority, wrote Andrei Reshetin. The peculiarities of the musical taste that prevailed in Oranienbaum become clear when comparing the music of the same composers written by them for the Big or Small Yards. The owners of Oranienbaum could afford to prefer intimacy to splendor.

Opening a school for children, from which Berezovsky and Khandoshkin subsequently left

By personal order of Pyotr Fedorovich, a school was opened in Oranienbaum for "gardening and bobyl children." Subsequently, many famous Russian artists came out of the walls of this school: dancers, musicians, singers, composers, including Maxim Berezovsky and Ivan Khandoshkin.

1755

The first staging of the dialogue to the music of Araya "Captive Cupid"

In the theater of the Picture House, the Grand Duke, playing the violin, together with his Italian teacher friends, violinists of the court orchestra Luigi Madonis, Domenico Dalolio, Tito Porto, with the cellist Giuseppe Dalolio and Francesco Araya performed Araya operas for his home and friends.

If in St. Petersburg in the 1730-1740s no more than one new opera was staged per year, then in the period from 1755 to 1762 all Russian Araya operas were staged in Oranienbaum. In addition, especially for Oranienbaum, the composer wrote several cantatas dedicated to various festivals.

The first production in the new theater was the play "Captive Cupid" (Amor prigioniero), one-act in two scenes "dialogue to music" by Francesco Araya to poems by Pietro Metastasio. When its premiere took place on June 30, 1755, in the theater and in the Picture House itself, the work was still in full swing: on the day of the premiere, 65 builders worked there; carpenters and finishers were released only on July 1. For the production, two sets were performed: "a charming area with waterfalls, hills and mountains," and the other depicted grottoes, fountains, and statues surrounded by vases and plants. They were also invented by Valeriani and performed by Perezinotti. All this information is provided by M. A. Pavlov in his book "Oranienbaum Notebooks," which was published by the publishing house "Historical Illustration. St. Petersburg "in 2016.

Jacob Shtelin creates the Picture House for Pyotr Fedorovich and Ekaterina Alekseevna

Before arriving in Russia, Jacob Stelin was a flutist in the Leipzig orchestra of I. S. Bach, was close to his family, played a lot with his older sons. It was Stelin who created the Picture House in Oranienbaum, with its library, collection of paintings, theater.

Jacob Stelin

In the Picture House, created by Shtelin for the grand-ducal couple Pyotr Fedorovich and Ekaterina Alekseevna, a very small theater was arranged. As you can understand from the book by M. A. Pavlova, "Oranienbaum Notebooks," which was published by the publishing house "Historical Illustration. St. Petersburg "in 2016, the idea of ​ ​ the theater in the Picture House arose already during the plastering work, in May 1755. We read page 175: "On May 25, 1755, the contractor O. Kozhin received money 'for cutting down the picture house from the right wing where there is an opera, the upper ceiling all the beams, for lowering them to the bottom and pulling them out...', that is, the decision to expand the functions of the Picture House entailed the alteration of the floor structures."

On the other hand, at the end of the same page, M. A. Pavlova writes: "It is known that in early February 1755, the'machinist' Carlo Jibelli 'came to Oranienbaum to show opera machines." Since any baroque the theater begins with machineria, it is clear that dreams of their own theater began to materialize with this visit. On June 14, Jibelli arrives in Oranienbaum with a team of 25 people and by July 1 they had done all the work on the construction of the stage, theatrical mechanisms and the interior of the hall, including two stairs in the box, as well as balconies. "The theater machinist acted as a theater architect" - M. A. Pavlova, p. 176.

1751: Upper Park Stone Concert Hall

In 1751, a stone Concert Hall ("Stone Hall") was built in Upper Park.

1750: Opening of the wooden opera room at the palace wharf

In the middle of the 18th century, Oranienbaum unexpectedly became the musical and theatrical capital of Russia. The summer stay of the "young court" of Peter Fedorovich and Ekaterina Alekseevna in the seaside residence transforms it not only architecturally. Thanks to Pyotr Fedorovich's passionate passion for violin, concert halls are built one after another in Oranienbaum, in which music constantly sounds.

The predecessor of the Opera House was a wooden opera hall at the palace pier on the sea canal. On July 25, 1750, the hall was inaugurated.

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