The Early Reign of Oleg THEMA Larissa Kirillina In modo antico: The »Alceste« scene in The Early Reign of Oleg mong numerous dramatical works written even decided to return to her unfinished historical Aby the Empress Catherine II1 there are two play Igor, which had been conceived as the last plays bearing the same subtitle »An imitation part of the trilogy, but her intention for various of Shakespeare without following the ordinary reasons stood unrealized. The full score of Oleg theatrical rules«: From Rurik’s life (Iz zhizni was published in 1791 in the most luxurious Rurika) and The Early Reign of Oleg (Nachal’noye manner, though in an exclusively little number of upravleniye Olega). Both plays were written in copies (only 152). The piano score appeared only 1786 and published as a diptych in 1787 in the in the end of the 19th century (in the press of P. almanac Russian theater or a complete collection Jurgensohn in Moscow, 1893, see examples 1, 2, of Russian theatrical works2. The first of them was and 4); no other reprints or revivals followed until soon forgotten (though translations into French in nowadays. Some of Sarti’s choruses from Oleg are German followed soon after its appearance), but sometimes sung in Russia in concerts, but the whole The Early Reign of Oleg received its second birth work has been never performed or recorded. in 1790 as a pompous public performance, even a There is also no special monograph about The kind of semi-opera with spoken dialogues, and with Early Reign of Oleg, even in Russia, though the play music written by three composers: Giuseppe Sarti itself and its opera-like version are really worth of (1729–1802), Carlo Canobbio (1741–1822), and scholarly attention. This work is usually mentioned Vassily Alexeevich Pashkevich (ca. 1742–1797). The or briefly described in every book dedicated to first three times (25, 27 and 29 October 1790), the the history of Russian literature, theatre or music piece was given in the small court Hermitage theatre of the 18th century, but many questions, which (modeled after Andrea Palladio’s famous »Greek« could have been aroused in connection with its amphitheatre in Vicenza). Then, in November and plot, sources, language, dramatic concept, staging, December, it was played six times in the Kamenny performance and musical realization, are still waiting (Stone) Theatre for a wider audience3. The success for scholars. During the Soviet period, this task was great, and some contemporaries confessed that perhaps could not be even undertaken for the reason the visual magnificence of the performance was of the imperial rank of the author and the monarchic astonishing4. Inspired by this triumph, Catherine II ideological message of the play. The weaknesses of Catherine’s dramatic text are also evident (it 1 For an overview see Lurana D. O’Malley: Dramatic Works of seems that she was simply not able to write a play Catherine the Great, Burlington 2006. strictly following the classicist rules). But the 2 Rossiski teatr ili polnoe sobranie bsech rossiskich teatralnych premiere of her Oleg in 1790 became a significant sotchinenii. Chast’ XIII, St. Petersburg 1787, pp. 107 and 167. All the plays in the volume were written by the Empress event in the cultural history of Russia, and that’s and published anonymously. Several comedies placed before why this baroque »Gesamtkunstwerk« deserves a the historical plays also bear some allusion to Shakespeare’s thorough reappraisal. works. Surely, such aim cannot be attained within a 3 For more details and quotes from sources see: R. Aloys single short article. My humble task is to analyze Mooser: Annales de la Musique et des Musiciens en Russie au only one fragment of the majestic whole: the scene XVIIIe siècle, vol. 2, Genève 1951, pp. 551–557. from Euripides Alkestis (Alceste) in the fifth act, 4 For instance, Heinrich Friedrich von Storch wrote that the luxury of the performance exceeded everything he had seen in Paris and other European cities (H. H. von Storch: Gemälde Abram Akimovich Gosenpud: Muzykal’ny teatr v Rossii ot von St-Petersburg, Riga 1794, vol. 2, pp. 333–334; quoted in: istokov do Glinki, Leningrad 1959, p. 160. ',(721.8167-DQXDU1U-J ,661 53 dtk_1301.indd 53 07.01.2013 11:30:05 THEMA Larissa Kirillina supplied with Giuseppe Sarti’s music. Catherine II The last act of the Early Reign of Oleg was, intended this scene as an inserted episode: the perhaps, the most important and most interesting Byzantine emperor Leon and his wife Zoe show part of the whole play. It contained many important Prince Oleg exciting games (sport competitions) at ideas, connected with both political background the Constantinople hippodrome, and then follows a (Catherine’s ›Greek‹ project) and with some fragment from a genuine ancient tragedy. After that aesthetic tendencies in the European art of the late Leon and Zoe crown the champions with laurels 18th century. and say farewell to Prince Oleg, who orders his shield to be fixed to the gates of Constantinople to immortalize his heroic deeds5. I – The choice of Hercules It was Catherine’s II personal will, that the music for the last act should have been completely Catherine’s choice of genre and subject of the last commissioned to Giuseppe Sarti: she disliked the act demonstrate a quite astonishing modulation choirs written by Domenico Cimarosa, and rejected from an »imitation of Shakespeare« to a »Greek them in favor of Sarti, whose choir compositions tragedy« represented as a theatre within the theatre she admired6. Although Sarti was absent from (and following in some way the »mousetrap« scene Petersburg and at this time held no position at the in Hamlet)7. This decisive turn to Shakespeare8, Court chapel (from 1787 he was employed as Prince on the one hand, and to the ancient Greek drama Grigory Alexandrovich Potyomkin’s maestro with choruses, on the other hand, became a kind di capella and worked in the south of Russia), of mainstream in German theatre in the second Catherine II met him personally and listened to half of the 18th century, including musical theatre. his new works during her journey to the south in The German writers of »Sturm und Drang« 1787. After a successful performance of Oleg and admired Shakespeare as a poet of the sublime, and after Potyomkin’s death (1791) Sarti returned to the great composers, beginning with Christoph Petersburg, and in 1793 was restored in the position Willibald Gluck and Tommaso Traetta, turned to of the imperial court Kapellmeister. Greek tragedy, using the subjects not common for metastasian opera seria. In Austria and Germany 5 Leo VI The Wise (866–912), Byzantine emperor from 886, this turn to »genuine« antiquity occurred, for and his fourth wife Zoe Carbonopsina. Prince Oleg (called example, in the reform operas of Gluck written for »The Prophet«) ruled in 879–912; he is told to have moved Vienna ( , 1762, and , 1767) the capital of Russia from north (Novgorod) to the south Orfeo ed Euridice Alceste (Kiev). In Catherine’s play he is also shown as the founder and for Paris (Ifigénie en Aulide, 1774, and Ifigénie of Moscow (which was not true). Prince Oleg’s famous (and en Tauride, 1779), in Christoph Martin Wieland’s perhaps legendary) raid to Constantinople took place in 907; later, in 911 (a year before the Prince’s death), a trade treaty was concluded. The episode with the shield might have been a 7 Hamlet was known in 18th century Russia in French legend, but the trade treaty with Byzantine empire was Oleg’s adaptations and in Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov’s version real achievement. written in 1748 and staged in 1750 in Petersburg (see Vasily A. 6 See her correspondence with Prince Potyomkin (some Lebedev: Znakomstvo c Shekspirom v Rossii do 1812 goda, in: passages quoted by Mooser, Op. cit, p. 552) : »In addition, Russkii vestnik 120 [1875] no. 12). There is no »mousetrap« my friend, I ask you not to forget in due time to order Sarti scene in Sumarokovs version, but the Empress Catherine first to make choruses for Oleg. One choir of him we just have read Shakespeare in the German translation of 1786 before here, and it is rather good. Nobody here can compose so she started her emulation projects, according to Sir John well. Please don’t forget about it« (Letter of December 3, Sinclair: General Observation Regarding the Present State 1789; Ekaterina II I G. A. Potyomkin. Litchnaya perepiska of the Russian Empire, 1787, quoted after Anthony Cross: A [1769–1791], Moscow 1997, No 1020). This passage and Royal Blue-Stocking: Catherine the Great’s Early Reputation some other utterances of Catherine about the music for Oleg in England as an Authoress, in: Gorski Vijenats: A Garland show, that the lack of musical sense, openly declared by the of Essays Offered to Professor Elizebeth Mary Hill, ed. by Empress, was not absolute. In some cases, her taste was really Robert Auty et al., Cambridge 1970, pp. 85–99, here p. 94. demanding, and her judgment quite exact. See also the text of 8 See Ernest J. Simmons: Catherine the Great and Shakespeare, Melanie Wald-Fuhrmann. in: PMLA 47 (1932), pp. 790–806, and O’Malley, pp. 121–168. ',(721.8167-DQXDU1U-J ,661 54 dtk_1301.indd 54 07.01.2013 11:30:06 The Early Reign of Oleg THEMA Alceste performed with Anton Schweizer’s music by Ranieri Calzabigi, 1767). This new Alceste (1773), and in Goethe’s Iphigenie auf Tauris (1787). was treated as a very serious and strict play, »an The »ordinary theatrical rules« mentioned accomplished tragedy«, as Gluck himself called it11, by Catherine meant adherence to the principles containing nothing external.