Cephalus and Prokris (opera by Sumarokov - Arayi)

Main article: Music in Russia in the XVIII century

Background: Appearance of the first Russian themes in instrumental music

One of the first historiographers of Russian art, Jacob Shtelin, in his memoirs described the background of the production of the opera "Cephalus and Prokris" to which the musician and researcher Andrei Reshetin drew attention.

"The following year, in the fall, the marriage of Grand Duke Peter Feodorovich took place, for whom Araya composed a special drama (" The Combination of Love and Marriage ") to table music for the imperial orchestra with the involvement of the aforementioned church singers, which made an amazing impression from the choirs of the great hall.

After some time, concertmaster Madonis ordered to round up in St. Petersburg from half a dozen of his newly composed violin concerts (unknown in 2017. - A. R.). And soon Domenico Daloglio - six symphonies in which Andante was extremely highly valued. It was to this ardent violinist and composer that it occurred to compose several alla Russa symphonies, which had such universal success that one of them was always supposed to be performed in ordinary concerts on courtages. He chose some of the simplest rural melodies, or peasant songs, and arranged them in the best Italian taste with the constantly occurring passages of these melodies in Allegro, Andante and Presto (including sinfonia "Cossack"). In the same way, Madonis composed a pair of sonatas on Ukrainian melodies, (currently unknown. - A. R.). Following both, choreographer Fusano (full name Antonio Rinaldi) composed several counter-dances on Russian melodies for the court ball and the Italian Russian ballet, which he staged at the next opera with universal approval.

With the participation of a great connoisseur and lover of good music (Grigory Teplov) in the palace of the hetman Count Kirill Grigorievich Razumovsky in Glukhov in Ukraine, a home, or chamber, orchestra subsequently appeared, composed in most of the Russians and only a few foreigners, the like of which was not yet a private person in Russia. It consisted of about forty very skilled musicians, of whom each could perform with honor on his own instrument. When this orchestra performed its concerts for the first time in 1753 in front of a large collection of courtiers and other noble persons in the hetman's mansion in Moscow, he received well-deserved admiration from all listeners.

It housed a young singer from Ukraine named Gavrila (Martsinkevich - tenor, in 1753 Angelo Vakari was given "to teach Italian singing," performed from the mid-1750s to 1760. - K.V. Malinovsky), who sang the most difficult Italian opera arias with the most artful cadences and exquisite decorations and, as a result, had to often perform in ordinary concerts on courtagas with great success.

It was this pleasant singer and several of his other fellow countrymen, who were not much inferior to him in singing, who gave rise to the empress to command to stage a full opera in Russian, which, as you know, due to its softness, many vowels and its own sound, is closer to other European languages ​ ​ approaches Italian and, therefore, is great for singing. "

Empress Elizaveta Petrovna orders the creation of an opera in Russian

The impetus for the creation of the opera in Russian came directly from Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, who had previously commissioned work for the nascent Russian theater. For example, on September 29, 1750, the president of the Academy of Sciences K.G. Razumovsky handed over to professors M.V. Lomonosov and V.K. Trediakovsky the oral decree of the empress "to compose on the tragedy" ^[1].

Empress Elizaveta Petrovna

The expansion of the use of the Russian language was fundamentally important for the empress. The Academy of Sciences in the same 1755 issued "Russian Grammar" by M.V. Lomonosov.

For this purpose, she instructed Sumarokov to "find a text for the Russian opera." Before the premiere, the empress also attended the rehearsal of the opera in the small apartments of the Winter Palace.

Alexander Sumarokov

Sumarokov "chose from Ovid the beautiful history of Cephalus and Procrisa." In choosing the plot, Sumarokov somewhat moved away from the samples familiar to Russian dramatic compositions: mythological plots were common for the European opera series, and historical plots were more familiar in the Russian theater. ^[2]

Before Sumarokov's opera: Russian only for translations in programs

Before the opera "Cephalus and Prokris," the Russian language in Russian opera life was present in the form of books published for each premiere with translations of full texts of foreign-language librettos of performed operas - the tradition is now almost lost. Their first publisher is the opera theater manager and comedy artist Giuseppe Avoglio, who served at the Imperial Court until 1736 and managed to take part in the production of The Forces of Love and Hate. He published the so-called books "for Her Highness the Blessed Sovereign Princess Anna" or "for the bishop and archimandrite" with Italian-Russian, and sometimes Franco-Italian-Russian translations of ^[3]

The author of the translation of the libretto of the first opera staged in Russia ("The Power of Love and Hate") Vasily Trediakovsky translated from French "the content of all drama" and descriptions of the scenery ("jewelry") made to it. Moreover, according to the notes left after him, translating the text of this opera, he "translated speeches from French prose, and in arias he brought the poems of tokmo into fall without rhyme." That is, the translation of Tredyakovsky was a Russian subscript literary translation from Italian. (This tradition was revived in the 2000s by the Mariinsky Theater).

The continuation and development of the established tradition of accompanying Italian opera performances with the publication of printed translations of the libretto is also evidenced by the chronicle of chamber-fourier magazines. So, on August 25, 1745, on the day of the premiere of another composition by Araya,... "at the 6th hour of Her Imperial Majesty Elizaveta Petrovna" deigned the procession to have from the Novago Summer House to the opera house, in which, upon arrival, an opera called "Scipio" was presented, which lasted 11 hours to half; for which the operas had several books printed in the Russian, French and Italian dialects, in different ornate frames, which were distributed to all noble persons of both sexes^[4]

Original myth

The plot of the opera is based on the ancient myth of Cephalus (Kefala, translated from Greek. "Head") and his wife Prokris (Prokrid). The main storyline of the myth - the spouses Kefal and Prokrida violated the oath of allegiance to each other. Kefal tested his wife dressed up as a stranger and offered to spend the night with him in exchange for a golden tiara, Prokrida could not resist and succumbed to temptation.

In response, the humiliated Prokrida decided to test her husband and dressed up as a young hunter. She offered Kefal a magic spear, which always hits the mark, in exchange for a night of love. Kefal agreed to share the bed with the boy in exchange for a spear, then his wife opened up to him and shamed him for infidelity. The couple reconciled and forgave each other.

The legend has a sad sequel. A satire in love with Prokrid told Prokrid that he heard Kefal's conversation with his mistress, with whom he agreed to meet on a hunt. Jealous Prokrida decided to follow her husband. While hunting, Kefal heard a rustle in the bush. He decided that a wild beast was sneaking behind him and threw a magic spear that killed Procrid.

Flemish artist Denis van Alslot "Forest landscape with Kefal and Procrida"

For involuntary murder, Kefal was sent into exile. Later, Kefal had a son who became the ancestor of Odysseus. A bear gave birth to a son, Kefala.

In the painting of the artist Piero di Cosimo (1510), the murdered woman is mourned not by her husband, but by the satire through whose fault Prokrida went to the forest to follow her husband.

The details of the myth are different. In the most common version, the games of the gods with human destinies are again involved.

The morning dawn goddess Aurora was in love with Cephalus, but Cephalus rejected the goddess. Aurora invited Cephalus to test his wife. She turned him into a stranger and presented him with a golden tiara. Cephalus appeared to Procrida, who, having flattered herself for decoration, decided to treason against her husband. When she told a stranger about her consent, the spell dissipated, and the husband appeared before his wife. Frightened, Prokrida fled to the island of Crete, where she cured King Minos of her illness. As a reward, the king presented Procrida with a magic spear, which always hits the target, and the dog Lelap, from which you cannot escape.

On the hunt, Prokrida met the hunter goddess Diana. Diana taught Prokrid how to test her husband in response and return home in triumph. Diana turned Procrida into a young hunter. Prokrida appeared before Kefal and offered to conduct a hunting contest. Thanks to a magic spear and a dog, Prokrida won. Mullet wanted to buy a spear and a dog from the "hunter." "Hunter" agreed to the deal only on the condition that Kefal shares a bed of love with him. Kefal agreed, then the spell dissipated, and Prokrida appeared before her husband in her appearance. The amazed Kefal was ashamed and reconciled with his wife.

The plot of Kefal and Prokrid (Cephalus and Prokris) became especially popular in painting and drama in Europe thanks to the medieval play "Kefal" by Niccolo da Correggio. The plot of the myth was censored. The episode of sodomy was removed. After censorship, the plot lost its ancient philosophical meaning, when one character condemns and tests the other, and in the end it turns out to be no better.

The husband finds Procrida in the forest and persuades him to return home. Prokrid's spear and dog are given to Kefala. A happy ending was added by the medieval playwright - Diana revived Procrida, impaled with a spear.

It is surprising that then in the gallant age, when church censorship weakened, and the topic with dressing up became especially popular in plays, the episode with the "hunter" was not played out.

Anton Demin, a researcher in the department of Russian literature of the 18th century at the Pushkin House, conducted an interesting investigation into Kefala and Prokrid in the world history of opera. In all cases of its use in operas, this Greek myth was related to any marriage and served as a warning to the young about treason and jealousy in marriage. The Russian production was an exception.

Rapprochement of the plot with Russian traditions

Sumarokov used not only the canons of European opera drama of that time, but brought to his version the famous plot from Ovid's "Transformations" something close to Russian artistic traditions. For example, Europe the story of the main characters Kefal and Prokrida, who are ready to break their marital vows and later happily forgive each other until an accidental tragic ending separates them (Kefal accidentally spears his wife), has a completely different meaning from Sumarokov. His libretto is the plot embodiment of the idea of ​ ​ devoted love and the tragic fate of two heroes.

When they find themselves separated, they suffer brutally and do not seek compromises. Kidnapped directly from the wedding ceremony from the temple, Cephalus rejects the love of the powerful goddess Aurora. Meanwhile, tormented by jealousy, driven to despair, Prokris inexorably moves towards her death: she is destined to die from the arrow of the bewitched Cephalus, who, as it were, aimed at the beast, but mortally wounded his wife.

In Sumarokov's version, the evil wizard Testor appears as the villain. King Minos, who is in love with Procris, wants to prevent her wedding to Cephalus, he asks Testor to help him. Moreover, in ancient mythology, Testor is not connected either with Minos or with the history of Cephalus and Prokris.

According to the script of Sumarokov, the goddess Aurora herself sent the wizard to the king.

Tester:

The spouses will go so well soon:

You know how nice your collaborator Aurora is.

She will not stop her desire:

The cruelties of love are subject to,

I will be unhappy with my lover,

And out of desperation, hope will be extracted.

Minos:

My Worst Thing You See Flour

Now use all your science.

My only hope is:

In you I see her, and no one else.

Cephalus appeals in the wisdom goddess Minerva to predict their future. Minerva speaks of the misfortunes to come:

These hours are formidable for you:

So the rulers of the heavens set them up,

And Zeves himself.

And all my petitions for you are already late.

The goddess Aurora transports Cephalus into the magical world. Knowing their fate, the lovers say goodbye to each other:

Don't forget those days,

Which we were pleased with.

How fervent we loved each other!

I'm sorry, and let me live at least in my memory.

Cephalus rejects Aurora's love. The Goddess brings Tester and Minos into her world.

You winds in speed to Athens will fly

And bring the king of Crete to Aurora;

But so that Tester was with him!

Like you mistress,

His monarch, fasted,

I know about that.

I am in my sorrow,

Day to thy jealousy,

And your slave resort to magic.

Minos and Aurora agree to separate the lovers. The tester sends the horror of hell to Cephalus.

The formidable jaws of hell dissolve!

Furies serve darkness grieve:

Make this day darker than you are,

And change the groves into a dense forest!

Hide the current of water from the Cephalus eyes,

Mountains, you will become a stone at this hour.

You will inspire my voice to hell, whirlwind!

Soon you furies are in a hurry soon!

In this fearful country,

Once I look at it,

What I'm doing,

The spirit in me flutters.

Immortal Deity

Thy, hell, a river,

And then they are afraid to pass,

What you swear about.

Cephalus remains adamant:

Nothing will intimidate the mya bole;

When there is no kind to me;

Although Aurora will call all hell here.

In such a despicable share,

I don't care that darkness, that light.

Then Aurora takes Prokris to the world of horror and invites her to abandon Cephalus in exchange for his freedom. This dialog completes the first action.

The second action begins with a dialogue between Minos and Testor. They say that "all are carried back," seen was the sacrament-prediction of the goddess Minerva. To avoid death, Prokris must part with Cephalus.

The conspirators meet Procris and tell her of Cephalus' infidelity. The tester inspires Prokris with his charms a sense of jealousy. She tries to explain herself to Cephalus, but does not believe him. Cephalus asks Procris to leave and goes to bed.

Procris sings his last aria:

O restful sleep:

I even roar my peace to them;

But I love him as a soul:

Repeat my moan to him,

Reflect how nice he is to me!

So that the tragedy does not occur in Athens, does not cast a shadow on its city in human word, in the memory of descendants, Minerva expels all the characters from it.

In the next scene, Cephalus is alone on the hunt, he hears a noise in the bush and launches an arrow, thinking that a beast is sneaking towards him. So Cephalus accidentally kills his wife, who followed him. In the finale of the opera, the heroes of the tragedy mourn Prokris.

Aurora also regrets the deed:

You know that Zeves performed bole,

Somehow Aurorina was pleasing to the will.

I myself must pour tears about Procris;

But we cannot revive her with crying.

In the myth of Cephalus and in the productions of this plot, Tsar Yerichtei is absent, who appears in the Russian version twice: at the very beginning with the aria parting words to the newlyweds at the wedding of her daughter Prokris and at the end when Prokris dies. According to researcher Andrei Penyugin, the image of Tsar Yerichtei is the artistic embodiment of Peter the Great for Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, who ordered this opera. That is why Yerichtei is a king sailor.

The message of Elizabeth Petrovna, which the opera contains, boils down to the fact that neither power, nor wealth, nor mutual love with its accompanying youth and beauty - what the whole world strives for, cannot save a person from perishing, hiding from human envy and anger, from the blows of evil rock. Through the figure of silence, the listener is brought to the thought that he must open on his own - there is salvation, but he must be sought not in what we usually all want to find it in. This thought of Elizaveta Petrovna - the substrate of her life experience - so well embodied by Sumarokov and Araya, is deeply Christian in essence, wrote Andrei Reshetin.

Despite Sumarokov's well-invented Semir and Khorev, the idea of ​ ​ a new fairy tale did not seem sufficient for the plot of the first Russian opera. The ancient myth, modified to reflect Christian morality, was more consistent with the significance of the event. The Christianization of the well-known myth, which did not violate its aesthetic value, showed the Russian court as an enlightened successor to ancient cultural traditions. On the other hand, she put the Orthodox queen above other Christian monarchs, who too flirted with shameless paganism in interpretations of this myth in their previously written operas.

Original libretto and full opera text

• [ https://www.tadviser.ru/images/2/28/Tsefal_i_Prokris_libretto.pdf Copy of original libretto from RSD PDF]

• Full text of the opera "Cephalus and Prokris," PDF

Notes

The main obstacle to the performance of the opera "Cephalus and Prokris" is the inaccessibility of the notes on which the large court premiere took place in 1755. They are kept in the Central Music Library (formerly the Imperial Theatres Music Library), which is all de facto barbarically privatized by the Mariinsky Theatre along with the main opera and ballet repertoire of the eighteenth-century Russian court theatre. Leading domestic musicians - researchers of Russian music of the eighteenth century, such as the St. Petersburg ensemble "Soloists of Catherine the Great" or the Moscow collective "Pratum Integrum" never had a chance to study the treasures hidden from all, nor, especially, to perform them, nor even get acquainted with the detailed catalog of this collection. The most notable, iconic rarity of this collection, of course, is "Cephalus and Prokris," as the first Russian-language opera, wrote researcher Andrei Reshetin.

Today we can hear the opera performed by the ensemble "Soloists of Catherine the Great" only due to chance. American musicologist Michael Pesenson, working in the mid-2010s in the manuscript department of the library of the St. Petersburg Conservatory, found a non-catalogized set of Cephalus and Prokris parts. This was the impetus for the library's researchers to catalog and begin to study the entire collection of music they have from Francesco Araya. They concluded that their entire collection was related to the Picture House in Oranienbaum. The musicians of the ensemble "Soloists of Catherine the Great," who have devoted many years to the study and performance of Russian music of this period. For more details see Picture house in Oranienbaum.

To the plot about the inaccessibility of the notes of "Cephalus and Prokris" in the Central Musical library in the Mariinsky, it is worth adding that in addition to the conservative "Oranienbaum" set of parts for 2017, a copy of this opera is known in the library of the Academy of St. Cecilia in Rome. Back in Soviet times, microfilms of notes by Italian composers from the CMB collection were transferred there. Then this library was not yet transferred to the Mariinsky Theater.

Listen to snippets

Overture

Act I

Act II

Harmony of Music and Russian

The composer Araya had been working in Russia since 1735, and by 1755 he had composed at least 14 operas for the Russian court scene; "Cephalus and Prokris" is the last of them and the only one with a Russian libretto.

I.-B. Frankart "Portrait of composer F. Araya "/from the collection of the St. Petersburg State Museum of Theater and Musical Art

A cautious and diplomatic historian, a contemporary of Araya and Sumarokov, Y. Shtelin, did not fail to notice that the Russian language libretto then seemed in the opera to everyone "in its tenderness, colorfulness and modernity closer to all other European languages ​ ​ to Italian." The librettist himself, in a fit of admiration, dedicated a laudatory madrigal to the composer:

Araya explained the lovers in the drama of passion

And in common with Prokrisa of Cephalov misfortunes

So, strongly, as if he knew the Russian language,

Il pache, as if he himself was moaning about them.

For Araya, who did not know the Russian language, the implementation of this creative act was a professional breakthrough that marked a new starting point in Russian musical history, the real significance of which today, perhaps, remains not fully appreciated by us.

Recreating the musical and stage model of the Italian opera seria on a different literary and style basis, Araya was not as neutral in his professionalism as was previously believed. His work not only combined the artistic ideas and forms of two different cultures - the Italian opera model and the Russian literary and dramatic text of Sumarokov, but for the first time literally "spawned" them. Most clearly, contemporaries felt the author's desire to "pronounce," to convey in music the intonation of Russian speech in secco scenes and recitatives (accompanied only by a harpsichord). Meanwhile, it was these episodes of the performance according to the laws of the opera genre that seria were called upon to develop the stage action, revealing the course of reasoning and the motives of the actions of the heroes in free vocal and speech dialogues and monologues.

A different role was assigned to the poetic text of arias. Their main dramatic task is not in the melodically flexible embodiment of the hero's speech, but in the transmission of the emotional and psychological depth of his experiences. Therefore, Sumarokov's syllable here is characterized by song lightness and laconism (in contrast to the texts of recitative episodes close to the "fable").

According to the reviews of the same J. Shtelin, "listeners and connoisseurs were amazed primarily at the clear pronunciation, good performance of long arias and skillful cadences."

Recitatives and arias

Following the Italian opera series, Sumarokov operas also consist of recitatives (Italian recitativo, chant) and arias. Recitatives are divided into two types:

• recitativo secco (Italian: dry) with minimal musical accompaniment (individual chords on the harpsichord), and
• recitativo accompagnato, walking accompanied by orchestra especially in dramatic places.

In Italian operas, arias had a specific form - the so-called "aria da capo" (Italian aria da capo or da capo aria). In the surviving scores of "Cephalus and Prokris," 12 of the 18 arias have the explicit indication "da capo." The aria "da capo" consists of three stanzas, in each stanza from three to six lines. The first stanza is the part completed inside itself; the second is contrasted with the first tonality and mood, and sometimes ^[2]. " The third part of the aria is a repetition of the first stanza ("da capo" means "from the head," i.e. "first"), a kind of musical coda (Italian coda, lit. "tail"). This final part of the aria adopted vocal improvisation (often aria di bravura, bravura aria).

Unlike Italian practice, in recitatives, mainly written in differential iambic, Sumarokov uses rhymes, which gives them more dramatic and musical tension than Italians.

Performers: teenagers instead of castrats and a choir of singers

The eldest of the "young operists" who played roles in Araya's work was only 14 years old. Tessiturally high vocal parts, traditionally performed in the opera seria by Italian castrati singers, in "Cephalus and Prokris" were first entrusted to young singers from the court chapel. The roles were played by the so-called "small singers":

• Aurora - Stefan Evstafiev;
• Yerichtei, king of Athens - Stefan Ragevsky;
• Cephalus, Tsarevich Focida - Gavrila Martsenkevich;
• Minos, Tsar of Crete - Nikolai Ktitarev;
• Tester, nobleman Minosov and wizard - Ivan Tatishchev.

The figure of Gavrilushka Martsinkevich - Cephalus, his outstanding talent and human charm are captured by Jacob Shtelin.

The role of Prokris in the first production was played by Elizaveta Belogradskaya. Stelin says she was the youngest daughter of the Lutnist of Beligrade. Konstantin Vladimirovich Malinovsky clarifies that "Elizaveta Osipovna is the daughter of the singer Osip of Beligradsky, brother of the lutnist Timothy of Beligradsky, "leaving their surname in the spelling of Shtelin. Moreover, in the libretto of 1755 it is indicated as Belogradskaya, in Great Russian spelling.

Until that time, there were no Russian actresses or theater singers on the Russian stage; and in the tragedies of Sumarokov and in his second opera "Alceste," women's parts were performed by men.

Reprint from the publication of the text of the libretto by the Russian Feater magazine. 1788 g

Sumarokov also expressed his enthusiastic review of Belogradskaya's performance in verse:

The lovers of Procrisa presented a bond,

The daughter of a muse worthy of everything,

To the pleasure of Cefalov the creator

With passion, you, singing, touched all hearts

And by action, exceeded the desired measures

In the game, a semblance of the glorious Lecouvrera.

From the beginning of the opera to the very end,

Oh, Belogradskaya! lovely you played,

And Procris was truly dying in this drama.

"St. Petersburg Vedomosti" of 1755 (No. 18) described the appearance of "young operists" in a new performance: "Six young people of the Russian nation,<...> and who have never been to other people's lands<...>, represented the opera composed by A.P. Sumarokov in Russian and the court bandmaster Aray to the music,"Cephalus and Prokris "is called, with such art in music and Italian manners and with such pleasant actions that everyone who knows rightly recognized this theatrical performance for what happened in the image of the best operas in Europe."

From the notes of Jacob Shtelin:

"The opera was staged in St. Petersburg in 1755 and was repeated several times with general success, during carnival celebrations, in honor of and to the special pleasure of the empress and the initiator of this new Russian musical performance. The performers, of which the eldest could be barely 14 years old, were Mademoiselle of Beligrade, a strong virtuoso on a harpsichord and the youngest daughter of the court lutnist of Beligrade; Gavrila Martsenkovich (this is how Stelin pronounces their names, and in the libretto of the opera, published in 1755, they are recorded as Belogradskaya and Martsenkevich. - Andrey Reshetin), nicknamed Gavrilushka; Nikolai Ktitarev, Stepan Razhevsky and Stepan Evstafiev. For these so young, so new opera singers, listeners and connoisseurs admired primarily their accurate recitation, their pleasant performance of long arias and their skillful cadences; not to mention natural, not exaggerated, or too artificial gestures. "

Stelin begins by mentioning skillful recitation in recitatives as a major virtue. This praise is not even so much relevant to all six young singers as to Sumarokov, as the work on the recitation was largely his area of ​ ​ responsibility, in which Araya only helped him. As Andrei Reshetin noted, by pleasure in arias, Shtelin means primarily good taste, that is, the ability to follow a new style. The length of the arias is mentioned here not as a disadvantage of Araya, but to emphasize that "pleasantness," or the stylistic correspondence of musical drama, simply taste, did not change young singers anywhere. If in short arias there is enough good training for this, then long ones cannot be sung without a genuine understanding of the style. This is again a compliment towards teachers, primarily Araya.

The skill of cadence, during the period of rococo and classicism, meant not only virtuosity and fantasy, but also fluency in a new style, new manners, the ability to improvise not according to the old fashion. The fact that Stelin means exactly this meaning here follows from how he positions himself in his notes. He's not just a connoisseur of the graceful. On each page of his voluminous notes on fine arts in Russia, he proves to those who doubted that he is a true connoisseur and the most qualified expert in the field that he is talking about.

The fact that the gestures were "not exaggerated or too artificial" should be understood not only as praise for young actors, but also as a stone in the garden of the previous fashion. However, it should be noted that the naturalness of rococo gestures has nothing to do with the naturalness we understand in the style of Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko.

"At the end of this musical performance, the empress, the whole Court and the packed stalls clapped their hands. And for even more tangible evidence of all-merciful approval in a few days, all young opera singers were presented with beautiful materials for new dresses, and bandmaster Araya - with an expensive sable fur coat and 100 semi-empires in gold. " (K.V. Malinovsky "Materials by Jacob Shtelin, Volume III. Notes and letters by Jacob Shtelin about theater, music and ballet in Russia." Ed. "Kriga," 2015).

The main idea of ​ ​ the opera, as well as the main idea of ​ ​ rococo - the education of feelings, was noted by musician and researcher Andrei Reshetin. In the performance of very young singers, she gained special strength when children with all perfection taught a lesson in exquisite feelings to adults. One can only imagine how deeply the audience was shocked.

Reviewers also highlighted another significant "Russian" touch in the staged style of the performance. I remember the sound power of the "incomparable choir, of 50<...> singers," unusual for the opera genre<...> seria. The appearance of such a musical image in Araya is associated with a certain influence on the composer's work of the Russian singing tradition and, in particular, which has become the natural participation of singers in the performances of the Italian troupe and joint performances in palace concerts. The desire to emphasize in the orchestral accompaniment of powerful choral polyphony the favorite colors of palace celebrations - "trumpets and timpani" also speaks of the influence on the opera style of the composer of his "Russian" creative experience.

Scenery

The scenery of the play, created by Giuseppe Valeriani, "corrected with colors" by the painter Anthony Perezinotti, also struck a lot: "The theater's decorations<...> were surprising in the caretakers."

In the collectibles of the State Hermitage Museum, some sketches of the scenery created by Valeriani have been preserved, which are conditionally attributed to the production of Cephalus and Prokris:

• "Minervin temple, and in front of it the square" (to the first action);
• "Beautiful at the mountains, groves and springs valley" (to the second action);
• "Groves near the city of Athens" (to the third action).

Five sketches of scenery were needed for the opera, wrote in 2017 musician and researcher Andrei Reshetin, who staged the opera.

The No. 1 set to Act I could fit this drawing, but a more detailed analysis rather refutes this assumption.

Sketch by Giuseppe Valeriani

The libretto describes the scenery as follows: "The theater presents the Minervin Temple and before it is an area of. " The sketch presented depicts the temple of Minerva in the background and area on the front. But there are several reasons to doubt that this sketch fits the role of the scenery No. 1 from Act I of the opera. Consider the most obvious. Before Minerva's ominous prophecy at the center of the first act of "This Clock Is Formidable to You...," which represents the climactic dramatic scrapping of the action, we read in the libretto: "The doors of the temple's Minervin dissolve and the voice of Minerva is heard." At the far the temple shown in this drawing has no doors at all, although the spear figure on the dome is most likely Minerva. In two buildings, the porticoes of which we see left and right in the foreground, it is impossible to see how the doors will open, or their opening will be so poorly effective that it will cause only laughter, but not shock and admiration of the public.

The remark "The doors of the Minervin of the temple dissolve..." suggests that before the formidable prophecy, the public is offered a new solemn spectacle, bringing everyone to amazement and preparing a dramatic climax with its affect. This function should be performed by the new scenery No. 2 that opened in front of the audience. Based on the logic of baroque spectacles, the majestically dissolving doors of the temple of the scenery No. 1 reveal its interior decoration, depicted in the scenery No. 2, which with its splendor should surpass the previous painting.

A prerequisite for such an effect - the decoration number 2 should be enough large, so that the audience, wherever it sits, can enjoy the new painting and art of the artist that has opened. Such a task requires that the entrance to the temple be depicted large on the scenery No. 1, which is impossible if the temple is depicted in its entirety, as in the presented sketch. The scenery No. 1 most likely shows only the portico of the temple of Minerva and the doors, somehow especially decorated on the occasion of the wedding of the daughter of the king of Athens. Among the famous works of Valeriani there are no those that would be suitable for the scenery No. 1 and No. 2, Andrei Reshetin is sure.

The clearest attribution for the scenery No. 3 and No. 4, which replace each other twice during the II Act. One shift (from No. 3 to No. 4) occurs instantly in the middle of the Second Act between the recitative of the sorcerer Testor and his aria. After the words "Soon you are furies, soon in a hurry!" Two code chords sound, which takes less than two seconds, and during this time "Teyatr, premѣnyayetsya and the day turns into night, and the beautiful desert into the desert is terrible."

Sketch by Giuseppe Valeriani

Then, in the ballet that concludes Act II, "Nymphs and Satires express their joy that their dwellings received their former beauty." So the scenery No. 4 changes again to the scenery No. 3, and it will be more expressive if, in contrast to the first transformation, it happens slowly and gradually. Everything that should be depicted on the scenery No. 3 is clearly described three times in Act II of the opera's libretto: in Cephalus's recitative opening Act II, then in Aurora's recitative "O, the nymphs of the places here" from the 4th phenomenon and in the above-mentioned recitative of Testor "Terrible Jaws Hell, dissolve."

The scenery No. 4 is structurally a repetition of the scenery No. 3, that is, they compositionally coincide with each other when superimposed. In place of caressing eyes groves scattered by islands among the valleys suddenly turns out to be a black forest, and maybe be, in places, a holo sticking out dead dryer. On the site of winding streams, in the water of which the sun plays, their dried and apparently cracked channels open, and the cheerful sound from small waterfalls and rapids is replaced by the numbness of their stones left without water. The soft lines of the grape-covered hills turn into bare, sharp cliffs. Attributing these two sketches, as we can see, is easy, and today we do not find them among the famous works of Valeriani.

Sketch for the scenery No. 5 for Act III, about which the libretto says: "Groves near cities of Athens, "is also absent. What should be depicted on it is not as obvious as on No. 3 and No. 4, but the analysis of the text of Act III can clarify a lot. There should definitely be thickets (one of the wings), where Prokris is hiding and where Cephalus, awakened from a nightmare, shoots. The other wings must approach the mise-en-scène, in which Procris seeks out Cephalus hiding from her everywhere until by chance they meet. Before that, just as accidentally, Prokris, looking for Cephalus, meets Minos with Testor instead.

A space in which so much movement and chance encounters are conceived must be very maze-like. Most likely, the sketch for the scenery No. 5 is a labyrinth in a section with a free central part, all the events of Act III are played out there. In the background of the picture, it is expected to see Athens, in the front - the bosquets of the maze with trees behind them. Among Valeriani's famous works, there is not a single such one.

Thus, today we do not know any of his sketches that can would be used in the production of "Cephalus and Procris."

Scenography

Sumarokov's remarks today are unlikely to give an idea of ​ ​ the real stage appearance of the play of 1755: for example, the phrase "lightning is visible and thunder is heard," testifying to the curse of the gods at the time of the marriage of Cephalus and Prokris, or "the teyatra changes, and transforms day into night, and the beautiful desert into the desert is terrible."

Meanwhile, the staging technique of those years was really able to embody this kind of stage metamorphosis. As evidenced by the archival materials of the Directorate of the Imperial Theaters, the wonderful images of the flame in the productions really showed the viewer a real fire produced from special "tubes of tin for flames." Sudden changes in the scenery (the so-called "pure changes"), which cause the smile of other skeptics today, were then really carried out with impressive swiftness, because the spectacular movements of the decoration screens on both sides of the stage were provided by the unique mechanisms of the 18th century production machinery - "the Pyaltsy German manner with wheels" and so on. It was these "starters" - i.e. large wooden frames on wheels - that provided a lightning-fast change of disassembled screen decorations, which were attached to them with numerous "iron wires," etc.

The most spectacular scenographic techniques were various kinds of enchanting flights and sudden disappearances of heroes. For example, Sumarokov's remarks that "Aurora descends from heaven" or "Cephalus whirls up into the air and is carried away from the eyes" were not only technically feasible, but looked more than usual.

As evidenced by all the same documents of theatrical archives, for "flights," all kinds of "disappearances" or sudden "appearances" of heroes, special "thread belts for camisoles for flying on ropes" were used, fastened with special "rings of iron and buckles." Practical "ascent" or "descent" of heroes, as a rule, was carried out by "ministers at the upper screens" (for example, by a team of "12 people who were at the screens during the opera") in special "elk gloves to control ropes."

Ballet inclusions

The traditional ballet "inclusions" - divertissements - created a special spectacular beauty and splendor in the opera performance. In accordance with the canons of the genre, the plot canvas "Cephalus and Prokris" contained special "lacunae," which gave freedom to the fantasy of the choreographer Antonio Rinaldi (nicknamed Fusano; Ital. tusano - vertun). And if in 1751 the choreographer himself argued that "ballets in Italian operas with the represented action usually, although they do not have any similarities, but<...> in opera they are completely decent," then the choreographic episodes introduced by him four years later in Araya's opera "Cephalus and Prokris" became a very noticeable part of musical drama.

In the first act of the opera, this is the episode when "the priest of Minerva, the priest of Jupiter, the Athenians and the Athenians, by offering a sacrifice, tried to soften Jupiter." The next of the choreographic sketches opened the second action: here "nymphs and satires expressed their joy that their dwellings received their former beauty."

After the last action of the opera, a full one-act ballet "Bahanta" was played, which did not complement, but philosophically developed the motives of the main plot. Rinaldi seemed to continue the story of Cephalus, who remained in tragic loneliness, using possible analogies for this with the famous ancient myth of Orpheus, who twice lost Eurydice. The first edition of the libretto of the opera (St. Petersburg, 1755) retained for us the "location of the ballet," created by Rinaldi to complete the play "Cephalus and Prokris":

"To the lost lover of his Euridis, the desperate Orpheus delights in his sorrow by singing and playing the lyre. Beasts, birds, proverbial animals and trees listen to him are approaching. Bakhants, fierce by his contempt for them, on the occasion of the Bakhusov holiday attack him and kill him. According to this, to honor the celebration of the day and the victory of the bacchants is Bacchus himself, and his presence of the triumph ends. "

Who was the author of music for ballets is not known, since Araya himself did not write ballets.

Empress's Remuneration and Establishment of the First Russian Theater

The "opening" of the opera "Cephalus and Prokris" of the Russian language on the Russian opera stage was an exceptional event for the Russian theater and for the domestic music scene. There is no information about how the merits of Sumarokov, who created the first Russian libretto, were assessed. But Araya was especially noted. "At the end of this magnificent action, Her Imperial Majesty deigned to publicly show their highest favor" to the Italian musician. For this "surprise, worthy experience" he was granted sables of a fur coat and 100 semi-imperials in gold (500 rubles).

A significant series of events that took place in domestic art in 1755-1756 filled a completely new meaning with the situation in the musical and theatrical world and literary work. Literally coincided in the "historical time," marking its highest semantic point, such significant achievements as the publication of the famous "Russian Grammar" by Lomonosov (1755) and the premiere of the first Russian opera seria "Cephalus and Prokris" (1755).

In many ways, it was the success of the opera "Cephalus and Prokris" that led to the decision to establish on August 30, 1756 by Empress Elizaveta Petrovna "Russian for Performances of Tragedies and Comedies of the Theater" led by "foreman and Director" A. P. Sumarokov.

Libretto edition

The text of the libretto in the XVIII century was published three times:

• printing house of the Imperial Academy of Sciences (1755),
• University Printing House of N. Novikov (1787),
• magazine "Russian Feater" (1788).

Statements

1755

Premiere in the "Opera House" at the Summer Garden

The premiere of the opera took place in the presence of Elizaveta Petrovna on February 27, 1755 in the wooden theater of the Promenade Garden, designed by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli on Tsaritsyn Meadow (now the Field of Mars).

F. B. Rastrelli Theater in the Garden of the Promenade, where the opera premiered in 1755. The canal on the left, with walkways, is the Swan Groove, beyond which is the Summer Garden.

Theater in the garden "Promenade." Longitudinal cut/from catalog "by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli. Architectural projects from the collection of the State Museum of History of St. Petersburg, "2000

• "Project of the garden" Promenade "as an example of the Russian ideal park of the 18th century," A.A. Gladkikh, 2014

F.B. Rastrelli. Plan of the hall of the theater in the garden 'Promenade', where the premiere of the opera took place

The production was very successful and repeated on March 10, May 2, May 10, September 8 and February 24, 1756.

Production at the Picture House in Oranienbaum

The production of the opera "Cephalus and Prokris" in the Picture House 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. Read more here.

It is known that the opera was given in a chamber version in the same scenery by Giuseppe Valeriani. The violin part was performed by the future emperor Peter III. The notes of this version were preserved in the Scientific Library of the St. Petersburg State Conservatory, and the missing recitatives for the 2016 premiere were added by violinist Andrei Penyugin^[5].

1763: Production in Moscow

After the accession of Empress Catherine II, the opera was performed in Moscow at the Golovinsky Palace on April 27, 1763 during the celebrations for her birthday.

1777: Execution in St. Petersburg at the request of the Swedish king Gustav III

During the reign of Catherine II, the opera was also staged at court. Interesting information, which Boris Illarionov pointed out to the ensemble "Soloists of Catherine the Great," is contained in the report of L. I. Gitelman, read at a symposium at Stockholm University in August 1998. The symposium focused on the problems of 18th-century opera. The report was published in the form of the article "Creative discoveries of Gustav III, King of Sweden (creative personality and artistic space of the era)" in the collection "Kafis" of St. Petersburg State Unitary Enterprise (2003, issue 1, pp. 64-74). The article talks about the work of Gustav III in Paris on the production of the ballet opera Andre Gretry "Cephalus and Procris" on the text of Jean Francois Marmontel even before the premiere in 1773.

When Gustav III visited St. Petersburg in 1777, Catherine II by his the request showed him excerpts from our "Cephalus" performed by court artists in French. According to L. I. Gitelman, the secretary of the Empress A. V. Khrapovitsky writes this in his "Memoirs." Perhaps the information about the French language should be taken literally, rather sang in Russian, and the king had a French translation. Unless some aria, an experiment for the sake of, someone could sing in French.

1993: Performance led by Alexander Rudin

And in the very early 1990s, Alexander Rudin, the great Russian cellist, an outstanding versatile musician with his team performed "Cephalus" in Moscow, having received copies of notes at the Central Library.

2001: Failed concert performance at the Mariinsky Theater

On June 14, 2001, the opera "Cephalus and Prokris" was performed in concert on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater.

Then, in one evening in two departments, fragments from two operas of the 18th century were presented: "Cephalus," which goes on entirely for more than four hours, and one of Chimarosa's operas. Performed in an academic manner, without any idea of ​ ​ the style, Araya's music then did not seem so convincing to the Mariinsky Theater as to show the entire opera, the musician Andrei Reshetin later wrote. Create a Baroque orchestra, learn Baroque singers, deal with Baroque recitatives, with the rules of Baroque gesture and pronunciation, study the features of European and Russian Baroque drama, create a Baroque ballet troupe - all this from that attempt in 2001 did not reach the hands. To other musicians, the notes of the opera locked in the library of the theater are not available, which is obviously a crime against Russian culture.

2016: Production at the Hermitage Theater of the Ensemble "Soloists of Catherine the Great"

On October 3, 2016, the opera was performed by the ensemble "Soloists of Catherine the Great" under the direction of Andrei Reshetin on the stage of the Hermitage Theater.

"Equal skill in recitation, in singing and in gestures," their unity, meaningful complementarity, is what constituted the art of an opera singer in the 18th century. In our time, two of these instruments have long been broken and forgotten, only vocals remain, wrote Andrei Reshetin in his article on critics' issues. The return of the old approach, the restoration of the art of baroque gesture and recitation based on the study of ancient treatises, a successful modern French experience, combined with our musical discoveries in the field of the Rococo language, projected both on understanding theatrical gestures, and on reading the libretto, and on the principles of recitation and phonetics - all this was our work on the reconstruction of the first Russian opera.

• Elizaveta Sveshnikova (soprano) - Cephalus
• Julia Hotai (soprano) - Prokris
• Varvara Turova - Aurora
• Julia Korpacheva (soprano) - Minos

Costumes by Larisa Pogoretskaya. The director is Danila Vedernikov.

It is known that Araya himself did not write ballets. However, for the music of the ballet to Act I, the directors took the composition of Araya, the second part of the overture to his opera Pretend Nin or Recognized Semiramid in memory of the first opera seria composed in St. Petersburg in 1736. The music for the ballets of Act II and Act III, as well as the violin interlude with which Act II begins, belong to Domenico Dalolio.

The ballets in the opera were directed by Klaus Abromait and performed by a small dance ensemble, "The Baroque Ballet of Angiolini," under his direction and with his participation. In the pantomime included in the last ballet, the role of Orpheus was played by Danil Vedernikov, the director of the entire performance. Dancers of the "Baroque Ballet Angiolini" - Konstantin Chuvashev, Kamil Nurlygayanov, Polina Artemyeva and Ekaterina Barasheva. The Baroque Ballet of Angiolini was created by the EARLYMUSIC festival in 2007, when the production of the opera by Hamburg composer Johann Mattheson "Boris Godunov" (1710) was being prepared.

Message to critics. Andrey Reshetin. PDF

2019

EARLYMUSIC Festival, September 2, 2019 "Cephalus and Prokris," Second Action

• Elizaveta Sveshnikova (soprano) - Cephalus
• Julia Hotai (soprano) - Prokris
• Vera Chekanova (soprano) - Yerichtei
• Jeanne Afanasyeva (soprano) - Testor
• Julia Korpacheva (soprano) - Minos
• "Soloists of Catherine the Great"

Шаблон:XVIII Century Music CD

Notes