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Boris Godunov, the only project out of nine that Mussorgsky completed himself, has been cited as the great masterpiece of nineteenth-century Russian opera – with its thrilling crowd scenes, historic panorama and the chilling power of its principal character. Boris was unusual in having its chief male role written for a bass voice and for the ‘sung prose’ ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1914–93, Bulgarian As the leading Boris Godunov of his generation, Christoff benefited from his Russian mother’s insistence that he adopt her country’s culture. A difficult personality meant that controversy followed him throughout his life. Having sung with a church choir and local opera company in Bulgaria, Christoff emigrated to Italy in 1942 to pursue an operatic career. By ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1914–93 Bulgarian bass Christoff made his debut in Italy in La bohème (1946). He was most famous as Boris Godunov in the Rimsky-Korsakov version of the Mussorgsky opera. He made his US debut in San Francisco in 1956 in the same role. His Verdi roles included Philip II in the Giulini-Visconti Don Carlos at Covent Garden in 1958, and as ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1799–1837, Russian Russian composers of the High Romantic era were able to enjoy a ready-made source of stories for operas in the works of Alexander Pushkin. His first success was the romantic poem Ruslan i Lyudmila (1820), which Glinka used for his opera of the same name, first performed in 1842. Pushkin produced not only poetry, but essays ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(D’me’-tre Shus-ta-ko’vich) 1906–75 Russian composer Shostakovich was the first of his country’s composers to come to attention after the Russian Revolution of 1917, and since Stravinsky, Rachmaninov and (until the 1930s) Prokofiev were all living abroad, his early successes made him the great hope of Soviet music. He became associated with the Western-influenced modernist movement in the Soviet ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1873–1938, Russian Almost entirely self-taught as a singer, Chaliapin began singing in Tbilisi and St Petersburg. He made a name for himself singing both Boris and Valaam from Modest Mussorgsky’s (1839–81) Boris Godunov (1874). Although best known for singing the Russian repertoire, Chaliapin performed in a wide range of operas, including those by Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) and ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1832–1906, Russian Ivan Melnikov, the Russian baritone, was best known for creating the role of Boris Godunov in Mussorgsky’s opera in 1869. Trained in Russia and Italy, Melnikov had made his debut at the Maryinsky Imperial Theatre in St Petersburg only two years earlier, as Riccardo in Bellini’s I puritani. Melnikov continued to sing at the ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1839–81, Russian Modest Mussorgsky was born in to a family of aristocratic landowners – a status in life that afforded him both luxury and leisure. His musical talent was evident from an early age. Taught at first by his mother and his governess, Mussorgsky could play concertos by John Field (1782–1837) at the age of nine. At age 10 ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(Mod-yest’ Moo-zôrk’-ske) 1839–81 Russian composer Mussorgsky was the most radical of the Russian composers known as ‘The Five’. Born to a land-owning family, he joined the army in 1856, where he encountered Borodin, then a military doctor, and Cui, who introduced him to Balakirev, with whom he studied. In 1858 he resigned to pursue a ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1929–2004 Bulgarian bass He studied at the Bulgarian State and Moscow conservatories, making his stage debut in Sofia in 1955 as Don Basilio (Rossini’s Barber of Seville). To this he added many of the other great bass roles: Mephistopheles in Gounod’s Faust (his Italian debut in Rome), Philip II in Verdi’s Don Carlos, and the title roles in Verdi’s ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(Ni’-ku-li Rim’-ske Kôr’-sa-kôf) 1844–1908 Russian composer Born to a land-owning family, Rimsky-Korsakov served in the Russian navy and composed the first ‘Russian’ symphony while on duty off Gravesend. He joined Balakirev’s circle, ‘The Five’, in 1861 and following the success of Sadko (1867), a tone-poem about the sea, was appointed professor at the new St Petersburg Conservatory. In addition ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1806–78, Russian Osip Petrov, a Russian bass with a rich, dark voice and strong dramatic instincts, made his debut in 1826 and sang regularly at St Petersburg from 1830 until his death. He soon established himself as the first great Russian bass. His arrival on the Russian opera scene was fortuitous. Nationalist composers sought him out to ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

1840–93, Russian Tchaikovsky was an intensely emotional, painfully sensitive man, much given to depression and morbid states of mind. He almost went mad with grief when his mother died of cholera in 1854, when he was 14. To compound his melancholy mindset, Tchaikovsky was tortured by his homosexuality, and saw marriage as a possible solution. ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

The 1860s saw a number of major reorganizations in European politics. Italy became a united country under the king of (former) Piedmont-Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel II, in 1861 and its new national government tried to retain the kingdom’s liberal ideals, such as removing instances of operatic and intellectual censorship. However, Italy’s liberalism was not aspired to by other ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

That music has a double history – a social and a stylistic one – is amply proven by its development in the second half of the nineteenth century. Its progress was marked, though not entirely determined, by the revolutions that swept Europe in 1848. There were perceptible changes of emphasis, not only in concert and operatic life from ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie
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