Riccardo Drigo
Encyclopedia
Riccardo Eugenio Drigo (ru.
Риккардо Эудженьо Дриго), a.k.a. Richard Drigo (30 June 1846 1 October 1930) was an Italian composer of ballet
music and Italian Opera
, a theatrical conductor
, and a pianist
.
Drigo is most noted for his long career as kapellmeister
and Director of Music of the renowned Imperial Ballet
of St. Petersburg, Russia, for which he composed music for the original works and revivals of the choreographers Marius Petipa
and Lev Ivanov
. Drigo also served as Chef d’orchestre for Italian opera performances of the orchestra the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre. During his career in St. Petersburg, Drigo conducted the premieres and regular performances of nearly every ballet and Italian opera performed on the Tsarist stage, and was considered to be one of the finest theatrical conductors in Europe.
Drigo is equally noted for his original compositions for the ballet, his adaptations of already-existing scores, and the myriad of supplemental music he composed ad hoc
for insertion into already-existing ballets. Many of these pieces are still performed regularly today, though the composer is often not properly credited for them. Among Drigo's original scores for the ballet, he is most noted for Le Talisman
(Petipa, 1889); La Flûte magique
(Ivanov, 1893); Le Réveil de Flore (Petipa, 1894); and Les Millions d’Arlequin (a.k.a. Harlequinade) (Petipa, 1900). Drigo's score for Les Millions d’Arlequin spawned a popular repertory piece, the Serenade, which the composer later adapted into the song Notturno d'Amour for Beniamino Gigli
. Drigo's work on Tchaikovsky
's score for Swan Lake — prepared for the important revival of Petipa and Ivanov — is certainly his most well-known adaptation of existing music.
There are many pieces set to the music of Drigo that are still performed today, many of which are considered cornerstones of the classical ballet repertory. Many of these pieces were arranged long after Drigo left Russia, and/or were set to music fashioned from his full-length scores: Le Corsaire Pas de Deux; La Esmeralda Pas de Deux
; La Esmeralda Pas de Six; the Diane and Actéon Pas de Deux; The Talisman Pas de Deux
; the Harlequinade Pas de Deux; and the Ocean and the Pearls Pas de Trois. Many of Drigo's supplemental variations, etc. can be found in such repertory pieces as the Paquita Grand pas classique
, La Fille mal gardée pas de deux
and the ballets La Esmeralda
, The Fairy Doll, Le Corsaire
and La Bayadère
.
, Italy
on 30 June 1846. His father Silvio Drigo was a barrister
and his mother, a noble Lupati, was active in politics. None of Drigo's family was distinguished in music, but at the age of five he began taking his first piano lessons from a family friend, the Hungarian Antonio Jorich. Drigo excelled quickly, and by his early teens he attained some local celebrity as a pianist. His father eventually agreed to allow Drigo to attend the prestigious Venice Conservatory, where he studied under Antonio Buzzolla
, a student of Gaetano Donizetti
. Drigo scored his first compositions in his early teens, which were primarily romances
and waltz
es. In 1862 he was allowed to perform some of his pieces with the local amateur orchestra in Padua. Through this performance, the young Drigo began to show interest in conducting.
Drigo graduated from the conservatory in 1864, and was hired as a rehearsal pianist at the Garibaldi Theatre
in Padua. His experience as a rehearsal pianist soon lead him to find work as a conductor for various amateur opera troupes in Vicenza
, Rovigo
, Udine
and Venice
.
At age twenty-two, Drigo presented his first opera at the Garibaldi Theatre. The two-act Don Pedro di Portogallo (Don Pedro of Portugal) premiered to considerable success on 25 July 1868, but performances had to be cancelled due to a cholera
epidemic which closed all theatres in the vicinity of Padua for some time.
Drigo's first major opportunity as a conductor occurred in 1868 when the Garibaldi Theatre's kapellmeister fell ill on the eve of the first performance of Costantino Dall'Argine's 1867 comic opera I Due Orsi (The Two Bears). When the concertmaster
refused to conduct the performance, he recommended Drigo, if only because the rehearsal pianist would know the score intimately. Drigo's conducting successful, and soon he was named second kapellmeister.
Drigo gained experience serving as a conductor in provincial theatres throughout Italy and various parts of Europe for almost a decade, conducting many celebrated works in the great theatres of Europe. These included performances of Bizet
's Carmen
in Seville
, Rossini's The Barber of Seville
in Marseille
, Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore
and Caterina Cornaro in Venice
, Gounod
's Faust
in Paris
, and Bellini
's La sonnambula
and Norma
at La Scala
. In time he was conducting some of the first performances of Wagner
's operas at La Scala.
In 1878 Drigo's life would change drastically. During the opera season in Padua the director of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, Baron Karl Karlovich Kister, attended a performance of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore which Drigo conducted. Kister was much impressed with Drigo's conducting talent, which was done without the aid of a score. Drigo then presented Kister with some of his own compositions, which prompted Kister to offer Drigo a six-month contract to conduct the St. Petersburg Imperial Italian Opera.
's Aida
and Un ballo in maschera
from memory. It was custom in Imperial Russia for all theatrical performances to be reported in detail in the newspapers, and Drigo's performances were always reported with praise — " ... the young gentleman will stay here a long time ..." commented one columnist after attending an opera which Drigo conducted.
By 1879 Drigo's contracts had been renewed for seven consecutive one-year terms, allowing him three months out of the year to travel to Padua and to pursue other conducting assignments abroad. At the opera in Seville
, Drigo conducted seventeen performances of twelve operas in seventeen days. Upon returning to St. Petersburg the Spanish ambassador to Russia awarded Drigo the Order of Charles III on behalf of the government of Spain
in honor of this feat.
In 1884 Drigo conducted the St. Petersburg premiere of Ponchielli
's I Lituani
, which was presented under the title Aldona. That same year Drigo traveled to Italy at the behest of Giacomo Puccini
to conduct the Venetian premiere of his opera Le Villi
at the Teatro La Fenice. The great composer was so pleased with Drigo's conducting that he telegraphed his appreciation to Drigo for years to come on the anniversary of the premiere. In 1884 Drigo conducted the inaugural performance at Padua's Teatro Nuovo, which was re-named the Teatro Verdi and renovated by the architect Achille Sfondrini. For the performance, the Mayor of Padua granted Drigo the Order of the cavaliere di Gran Croce
. In 1885 Drigo returned to Milan's Teatro dal Verme
to conduct the premiere of Ponchielli's Marion Delorme.
Drigo's was held in high regard for his abilities as an accompanist. At La Scala he often accompanied the great violinist Antonio Bazzini
during concerts, while in Russia he regularly accompanied touring musicians for recitals at the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre (principal theatre of the Imperial Russian Opera and Ballet until 1886). Drigo was a close friend and colleague of Anton Rubinstein
, and the two musicians were known to play piano for many hours into the night.
On Drigo presented his second Italian operetta, the comic-opera La Moglie Rapita (The Abducted Wife). The work was well-received, but did not last long in the repertory due to the reforms which soon took over the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres.
disbanded the Imperial Italian Opera in an effort to solidify the art of Russian operetta, which left Drigo, the company's kapellmeister, without a position. In 1886 the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet's kappellmeister, Alexei Papkov, retired after thirty-four years of service, leaving the company without a principal conductor. Drigo took over the position before the beginning of the 1886–1887 season. He made his debut as ballet conductor on with a performance of the old grand ballet The Pharaoh's Daughter
, set to the score of Cesare Pugni
, which was the most popular work in the repertory of the Imperial Ballet. In attendance for the performance was the Emperor and his wife, the Empress Maria Fyodorovna, both of whom were fanatic balletomanes and maintained the Imperial Theatres lavishly. So impressed was the Emperor by Drigo's conducting that during the final curtain calls he gave the conductor a standing ovation, and ordered the rest of the house to follow suit.
In 1886 the Imperial Theatre's official composer of ballet music, the Austrian Ludwig Minkus
, retired from his post. In light of this the director of the St. Peterbsurg Imperial Theatres, Ivan Vsevolozhsky
, abolished the position of staff ballet composer in an effort to diversify the music supplied for new works. Minkus was the second composer to occupy the position of Ballet Composer of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, a position originally created in 1850 for Cesare Pugni. Both composers were known as "specialists", i.e. being highly skilled in creation of the musique dansante then in vogue for the ballet. They were required by contract not only to create the scores for new works quickly and "to order", but to compose supplemental pas, variations
, incidental dances, etc. whenever requested, as well as the endless task of correcting and adapting existing scores for the numerous revivals put on by the ballet company. Since Drigo was well known as a capable composer, the director Vsevolozhsky employed him in the dual capacity of kapellmeister and Director of Music, a position which would require Drigo to fulfill all of the duties of the staff composer with regard to adapting and correcting scores at the behest of the Ballet Master.
In 1886 the Imperial Theatre's renowned Premier Maître de Ballet, the Frenchman Marius Petipa
, revived Jules Perrot
's 1841 romantic
masterpiece La Esmeralda
for the visiting Italian ballerina Virginia Zucchi
. For the revival Drigo was assigned the task of refurbishing the old score of Cesare Pugni. As was the custom at that time when reviving an old work, Petipa wanted to add new numbers to the ballet, and in particular a novelty for the ballerina. The Ballet Master had no desire to look outside of the theatre for a composer to score the dances he required, and so approached Drigo, whose four-part Pas d'action not only showcased the dramatic gifts of the ballerina Zucchi, but also included a virtuoso solo for violin crafted by Drigo especially for the great Leopold Auer
, who served as principal violinist in the Imperial Theatre's orchestra. The revival of La Esmeralda premiered to great success on with the Imperial family in attendance. After the performance the Emperor met with Drigo on stage to congratulate him on his additional material as well as his conducting. Placing his hand on Drigo's shoulder, he commented that " ... the music was magnificent! Under your direction the orchestra has made much progress." Drigo's Pas d'action remains part of the performance score for La Esmeralda to the present day, and is often extracted from the full-length work as La Esmeralda Pas de Six.
With the success of his work on the score of La Esmeralda, the director Vsevolozhsky gave Drigo his first commission to compose for a complete score. This was La Forêt enchantée (The Enchanted Forest), which was not only Drigo's first full-length ballet but also the first original work choreographed by the Imperial Theatre's newly appointed Deuxieme Maître de Ballet Lev Ivanov
. La Forêt enchantée was staged especially for the annual graduation performance of the Imperial Ballet School, with the top graduates in the leading roles. The work premiered on on the stage of the school's theatre, and was subsequently transferred to the stage of the Mariinsky Theatre, where it premiered on with the Italian ballerina Emma Bessone in the lead role of Ilka. Although Ivanov's choreography was not well-received, Drigo received considerable praise for his score. A critic from the St. Petersburg newspaper The New Time complimented Drigo's music: "The music of this ballet is outstanding in a symphonic sense, reveals an experienced composer, a man with taste, and an excellent orchestrator. There are beautiful melodies in it, the rhythms are not overdone, and everything is listened to with pleasure from beginning to end."
Marius Petipa
was equally impressed with Drigo's score for La Forêt enchantée. In 1888 the Ballet Master was preparing his next work, La Vestale
, a colossal ballet set in the ancient Roman Empire
. The score was written by the music critic Mikhail Ivanov
, who counted Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
among his instructors. Ivanov provided what was at that time considered to be a highly symphonic score for the ballet, and the visiting ballerina for whom the work was produced, the Italian Elena Cornalba, appealed to Petipa for additional, more "dansante" music for her solo numbers. Having just witnessed a performance of La Forêt enchantée, she requested that Drigo should be the composer responsible for supplemental dances she required. Drigo composed two additional variations for Cornalba known as L'echo (The Echo), which was written as a canon
; and a Valse mignonne (Sweet Waltz). Drigo also wrote an extra variation for the character of Cupid known as L'amour, and a variation for the ballerina Maria Gorshenkova. Three of these pieces were later published.
When plans were made for the next ballet starring Elena Cornalba, the ballerina requested that Drigo should be the composer responsible for the entire score. This was Le Talisman
(The Talisman), a work which told the story of a Hindu Goddess who descends from heaven in order to test her heart against the temptations of earthly love. The ballet premiered on on the occasion of Cornalba's benefit performance. Despite a sumptuous production with many inspired choreographic episodes, the ballet's mise-en-scène proved to be a mediocre success. Nevertheless Drigo's score was hailed as a masterwork of ballet music. The artist Alexander Benois told in his memoirs of his extreme delight with Drigo's score, which he said inspired a "short infatuation" in him as a young student at the Saint Petersburg State University
:
Following the successes of his additional music for La Esmeralda and La Vestale and his scores for La Forêt enchantée and Le Talisman, Drigo repeatedly received commissions from both Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov to compose supplemental variations, pas and incidental dances for insertion into older ballets. By the time Drigo left Russia in 1919, nearly every ballet in the repertory of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres contained many of the composer's own additional pieces, and it even became a symbol of one's status as a dancer for Drigo to supply new music for a solo or pas choreographed by Petipa. Drigo later commented in his memoirs that he composed about 80 such pieces, and rarely received any additional payment for them. During the late 19th century, Petipa began to mount revivals of older ballets with increasing frequency, and the Ballet Master invariably called upon Drigo to revise the scores accordingly.
In 1889 Drigo took up residence in the St. Petersburg Grand Hotel
, which was to remain his home for the next thirty years. It was at this time that Drigo developed a close friendship with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
, who was in the process of composing the score for Marius Petipa
's The Sleeping Beauty for the Imperial Ballet. On the eve of the general rehearsal of the ballet Drigo fell ill, and asked Tchaikovsky if he could conduct the orchestra himself. To Drigo's astonishment Tchaikovsky insisted that if he conducted the orchestra he would ruin his score, and so Drigo, still ill, consented to conduct the rehearsal. The shy and reserved Tchaikovsky was ever after grateful to Drigo for his exceptional conducting, particularly after the premiere on . Drigo eventually conducted nearly 300 performances of The Sleeping Beauty at the Mariinsky Theatre. Two years later Drigo conducted the premiere of Tchaikovsky's next work, The Nutcracker
, on .
(The Magic Flute), which told the story of an enchanted instrument that compelled all within earshot to dance when it was played. The ballet was staged by Lev Ivanov, and premiered on to great success on the stage of the ballet school's theatre, with a cast that included the young Mikhail Fokine in the lead role of Luc. Due to the success of the student performance, La Flûte magique was transferred to the Mariinsky Theatre, where it was presented in an expanded staging on . Drigo's score was highly praised by critics:
Drigo's next score was written for Petipa's ballet Le Réveil de Flore (The Awakening of Flora), an anacreontic ballet in one-act that was produced especially for the celebrations held at Peterhof Palace
in honor of the wedding of the Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna to the Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich
. The premiere on was a grand occasion, with an audience composed of the whole of the Imperial court. For his score for Le Réveil de Flore, Emperor Alexander III granted Drigo the Order of St. Anna
.
As with La Flûte magique, Le Réveil de Flore was transferred to the stage of the Mariinsky Theatre, where it was given for the first time on . The ballet soon became a favorite of the ballerinas of the era, among them Mathilde Kschessinska
(who created the principal role of Flora), Tamara Karsavina
and particularly Anna Pavlova, who included an abridged version of the work on her legendary world tours.
, originally produced at the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow in 1877. Following the success of The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker
, Ivan Vsevolozhsky—director of the St. Petersburg Theatres—expressed interest in reviving the ballet. Drigo later recalled: Tchaikovsky died on just as plans to revive Swan Lake were beginning to come to fruition. A revival of the complete work was then planned for the Imperial Ballet's 1894–1895 season, in a staging by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. Tchaikovsky's brother Modest
approved that Drigo should be entrusted with the task of revising the score, which the composer did in accordance with Petipa's instructions. In his memoirs Drigo touched on his revision to the score: The revival premiered on at the Mariinsky Theatre with the Prima ballerina assoluta
Pierina Legnani
in the dual role of Odette/Odile. Drigo's version of Tchaikovsky's score has remained the definitive performance edition of Swan Lake, and is still used to one degree or another by ballet companies throughout the world. Nevertheless, Drigo is rarely given credit when his revisions are performed.
's opera Don Carlos
, and was produced lavishly by Marius Petipa. La Perle premiered on after a performance of Glinka
's A Life for the Tsar
, with the ballet companies of both Moscow and St. Petersburg participating in the performance. Set in an under-water kingdom, La Perle told the story of how the Earth Genie attempted to abduct the White Pearl, causing a colossal battle of the elements of the earth and of the sea. The ballet featured elaborate stage transformations and a grand apotheosis
called The Triumph of the Amphitrions. The performance included six first-class ballerinas from both the St. Petersburg and Moscow troupes: Pierina Legnani in the principal role of the White Pearl, Adelaide Giuri, Lyubov Roslavleva, Mathilde Kschessinska
, Claudia Kulichevskaya and Anna Johanssen. Drigo later commented in his memoirs of how difficult it was to compose effective variations for the ballerinas while still maintaining variety. The score—which boasted offstage choruses—impressed the new Emperor, and Drigo was granted the Order of Saint Stanislaus
.
Music extracted from Drigo's score for La Perle was later used for the so-called Ocean and the Pearls pas de trois. In 1912 the Ballet Master Alexander Gorsky added the piece to his revival of Arthur Saint-Léon
and the composer Cesare Pugni's 1864 ballet The Little Humpbacked Horse
at the Mariinsky Theatre. The piece has survived in an independent form and remains a popular repertory excerpt with ballet companies throughout the world. Drigo's music is often erroneously credited to Cesare Pugni.
, which he called Les Millions d’Arlequin
(The Millions of Harlequin). At the same time he also produced a libretto for an allegorical ballet titled Les Saisons (The Seasons), a plot-less ballet that represneted the four seasons through Petipa's classical formula of danced tableaux. Originally Petipa intended to commission the score of Les Millions d’Arlequin from Drigo's close friend and colleague, the great composer Alexander Glazunov
, while Drigo was originally intended to compose the score for Petipa's Les Saisons. Soon both composers developed an affinity for the other's assigned ballet, with Glazunov adamantly expressing that the subject of Les Millions d’Arlequin was perfect in every respect for the Italian composer's talents. In the end Glazunov composed the score for Les Saisons, and Drigo that of Les Millions d’Arlequin.
While working on the score for Les Millions d’Arlequin, Drigo took daily walks through the St. Petersburg Summer Garden
and along the banks of the Neva River
, all the while thinking of his native Italy. During one such daily walk, Drigo composed the ballet's famous Serenade
, which he set to the accompaniment of a solo mandolin
. Other pieces of note were the Berceuse de Columbine, written especially for the harpist Albert Zabel and the melodious Valse des alouettes.
The ballet premiered at the Imperial Theatre of the Hermitage on with the Prima ballerina assoluta Mathilde Kschessinska
in the role of Columbine and the danseur György Kyaksht in the role of Harlequin. The audience included the Emperor and Empress as well as the whole of the Imperial court. Within moments of the final curtain, the typically subdued courtly audience erupted into thunderous applause. The composer received a tumultuous reception as he went before the curtain and was mobbed by several princes and Grand Dukes who tripped over one another in their enthusiasm to congratulate him. Due to her delight in Drigo's score, the Empress commanded two additional court performances of Les Millions d’Arlequin on the stage of Mariinsky Theatre, the first given on . When plans were under way to publish Drigo's score in piano reduction
by the publisher Zimmermann
, many of Drigo's colleagues urged the composer to dedicate his score to the Empress. Drigo's request was then submitted to the Minister of the Imperial Court, which brought about a lengthy correspondence by a commission set up to investigate whether or not Drigo's character, background and music were worthy of his offering a dedication to a Russian Empress. The response was favorable and the dedication was graciously accepted.
, director of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo
, to produce a ballet in Monaco
. Drigo composed the music for the ballet-divertissement titled La Côte d'Azur (The French Riviera), set to a libretto by Prince Albert I
. The ballet premiered at the Salle Garnier on 30 March 1902, and featured the Prima ballerina Olga Preobrajenska
.
Drigo's final original full-length ballet score was also Marius Petipa's final work — the fantastical La Romance d'un Bouton de rose et d'un Papillon (The Romance of a Rosebud and a Butterfly). The ballet was to have had its premiere at the Imperial Theatre of the Hermitage on but was abruptly canceled, the official reason given being the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War
. It was the belief of the newly appointed director of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, Vladimir Telyakovsky, that the Imperial Ballet had become stagnant under Petipa's leadership. In light of the fact that Petipa still legally held the position of Premier Maître de Ballet of the company, Telyakovsky began to make efforts to drive the eighty-five year old Ballet Master from the theatre; the cancellation of the premiere of La Romance de la rose et le papillon was one such attempt that finally led to Petipa's retirement in 1905.
Drigo also fell victim to Telyakovsky's disfavor. When the composer and conductor Gustav Mahler
visited a ballet performance conducted by Drigo in 1902, he was invited by the directorate to watch the performance in the Director's lodge. Mahler expressed to Telyakovsky his surprise at the fact that Drigo rarely used his left hand when conducting, and that he had been impressed by his ability to synchronize the music and stage action. Mahler had informed Telyakovsky that he wished to meet Drigo and congratulate him for his abilities as a conductor. Telyakovsky purposefully avoided arranging the meeting, and it was only days later that the Secertary of the Italian Embassy—who had been sitting directly behind Mahler—informed Drigo of the exchange.
In 1909 Drigo prepared a new version of his score for Le Talisman for a revival staged by the Ballet Master and former danseur Nikolai Legat. The revival premiered on at the Mariinsky Theatre, with an audience consisting of the Dowager Empress Marie Fyodorovna. The cast featured Olga Preobrajenska as the Goddess Niriti and Vaslav Nijinsky
, who caused a sensation in the role of Vayou, the God of Wind. Drigo was then invited by Giulio Gatti-Casazza
to assist in mounting Le Talisman at La Scala
. The ballet was presented as Le Porte-bonheur (The Bracelet) in a staging by the Ballet Master Luigi Tornelli, which premiered on 18 July 1908.
Drigo was vacationing in his native Italy during the outbreak of World War I
in 1914, which prevented him from returning to Russia for another two years. Soon after his arrival in Petrograd he was evicted from his home at the Grand Hotel, which was converted to offices for the newly established Soviet government. For a time Drigo was forced to live in considerable poverty in a camp with a group of his fellow Italian émigrés. He later recalled in his memoirs of the many cold evenings he spent with his close friend and colleague Alexander Glazunov
waiting for hours in bread lines and subsequently carrying their rations home through the snow on a sled. Upon his first engagement as conductor after his return to the former Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, Drigo received a fifteen-minute standing ovation from the audience.
read an emotional farewell speech in both Italian and Russian. Allowed to take only 60 kilograms with him, Drigo left all of his belongings in Russia with the exception of a collection of his manuscript scores, which he used as a pillow during his two-month journey to Padua via Odessa
and Constantinople
.
In 1920 Drigo accepted the post of kapellmeister to the Teatro Garibaldi in Padua where he had begun his career many years before. In 1926 he composed the comic opera
Flaffy Raffles for the Opera company of Padua's Teatro Verdi, and in 1929 his last work was given, the opera Il garofano bianco (The White Carnation) at the Teatro Garibaldi. He spent the remainder of his life conducting and composing masses and various songs, including a vocal version of the famous Serenade from Les millions d’Arlequin, which Beniamino Gigli
made a world-wide hit with under the title Notturno d'amour.
Riccardo Drigo died on 1 October 1930 at the age of 84, in his birthplace, Padua. There is now a street in Padua which is named Via Riccardo Drigo in his honour.
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
Риккардо Эудженьо Дриго), a.k.a. Richard Drigo (30 June 1846 1 October 1930) was an Italian composer of ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
music and Italian Opera
Italian opera
Italian opera is both the art of opera in Italy and opera in the Italian language. Opera was born in Italy around the year 1600 and Italian opera has continued to play a dominant role in the history of the form until the present day. Many famous operas in Italian were written by foreign composers,...
, a theatrical conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
, and a pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
.
Drigo is most noted for his long career as kapellmeister
Kapellmeister
Kapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . The words Kapelle and Meister derive from the Latin: capella and magister...
and Director of Music of the renowned Imperial Ballet
Mariinsky Ballet
The Mariinsky Ballet is a classical ballet company based at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Founded in the 18th century and originally known as the Imperial Russian Ballet, the Mariinsky Ballet is one of the world's leading ballet companies...
of St. Petersburg, Russia, for which he composed music for the original works and revivals of the choreographers Marius Petipa
Marius Petipa
Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa was a French ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer. Petipa is considered to be the most influential ballet master and choreographer of ballet that has ever lived....
and Lev Ivanov
Lev Ivanov
Lev Ivanovich Ivanov was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer and later, Second Balletmaster of the Imperial Ballet....
. Drigo also served as Chef d’orchestre for Italian opera performances of the orchestra the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre. During his career in St. Petersburg, Drigo conducted the premieres and regular performances of nearly every ballet and Italian opera performed on the Tsarist stage, and was considered to be one of the finest theatrical conductors in Europe.
Drigo is equally noted for his original compositions for the ballet, his adaptations of already-existing scores, and the myriad of supplemental music he composed ad hoc
Ad hoc
Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning "for this". It generally signifies a solution designed for a specific problem or task, non-generalizable, and not intended to be able to be adapted to other purposes. Compare A priori....
for insertion into already-existing ballets. Many of these pieces are still performed regularly today, though the composer is often not properly credited for them. Among Drigo's original scores for the ballet, he is most noted for Le Talisman
The Talisman (ballet)
The Talisman - Fantastic ballet in 4 Acts-7 Scenes, with choreography by Marius Petipa, and music by Riccardo Drigo. Libretto by Konstantin Augustovich Tarnovsky and Marius Petipa....
(Petipa, 1889); La Flûte magique
The Magic Flute (ballet)
The Magic Flute is a Ballet comique in one act, originally choreographed by Lev Ivanov to the music of Riccardo Drigo. First presented by students of the Imperial Ballet School at the school's theatre on...
(Ivanov, 1893); Le Réveil de Flore (Petipa, 1894); and Les Millions d’Arlequin (a.k.a. Harlequinade) (Petipa, 1900). Drigo's score for Les Millions d’Arlequin spawned a popular repertory piece, the Serenade, which the composer later adapted into the song Notturno d'Amour for Beniamino Gigli
Beniamino Gigli
Beniamino Gigli was an Italian opera singer. The most famous tenor of his generation, he was renowned internationally for the great beauty of his voice and the soundness of his vocal technique. Music critics sometimes took him to task, however, for what was perceived to be the over-emotionalism...
. Drigo's work on Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
's score for Swan Lake — prepared for the important revival of Petipa and Ivanov — is certainly his most well-known adaptation of existing music.
There are many pieces set to the music of Drigo that are still performed today, many of which are considered cornerstones of the classical ballet repertory. Many of these pieces were arranged long after Drigo left Russia, and/or were set to music fashioned from his full-length scores: Le Corsaire Pas de Deux; La Esmeralda Pas de Deux
La Esmeralda (ballet)
La Esmeralda is a ballet in 3 acts, 5 scenes, inspired by Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, originally choreographed by Jules Perrot; with music by Cesare Pugni and design by William Grieve , D. Sloman , Mme...
; La Esmeralda Pas de Six; the Diane and Actéon Pas de Deux; The Talisman Pas de Deux
The Talisman (ballet)
The Talisman - Fantastic ballet in 4 Acts-7 Scenes, with choreography by Marius Petipa, and music by Riccardo Drigo. Libretto by Konstantin Augustovich Tarnovsky and Marius Petipa....
; the Harlequinade Pas de Deux; and the Ocean and the Pearls Pas de Trois. Many of Drigo's supplemental variations, etc. can be found in such repertory pieces as the Paquita Grand pas classique
Paquita
Paquita is a ballet in two acts and three scenes, with libretto by Joseph Mazilier and Paul Foucher. Originally choreographed by Joseph Mazilier to the music of Edouard Deldevez. First presented by at the Salle Le Peletier by the Paris Opera Ballet on 1 April 1846...
, La Fille mal gardée pas de deux
La Fille Mal Gardée
La Fille mal gardée is a comic ballet presented in two acts, inspired by Pierre-Antoine Baudouin's 1789 painting, La réprimande/Une jeune fille querellée par sa mère...
and the ballets La Esmeralda
La Esmeralda (ballet)
La Esmeralda is a ballet in 3 acts, 5 scenes, inspired by Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, originally choreographed by Jules Perrot; with music by Cesare Pugni and design by William Grieve , D. Sloman , Mme...
, The Fairy Doll, Le Corsaire
Le Corsaire
Le Corsaire is a ballet typically presented in three acts, with a libretto originally created by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges loosely based on the poem The Corsair by Lord Byron. Originally choreographed by Joseph Mazilier to the music of Adolphe Adam, it was first presented by the ballet of...
and La Bayadère
La Bayadère
La Bayadère is a ballet, originally staged in four acts and seven tableaux by French choreographer Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus. La Bayadère was first performed by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on...
.
Life
Riccardo Eugenio Drigo was born in PaduaPadua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
on 30 June 1846. His father Silvio Drigo was a barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
and his mother, a noble Lupati, was active in politics. None of Drigo's family was distinguished in music, but at the age of five he began taking his first piano lessons from a family friend, the Hungarian Antonio Jorich. Drigo excelled quickly, and by his early teens he attained some local celebrity as a pianist. His father eventually agreed to allow Drigo to attend the prestigious Venice Conservatory, where he studied under Antonio Buzzolla
Antonio Buzzolla
Antonio Buzzolla was an Italian composer and conductor. A native of Adria, he studied in Venice, and later worked with Gaetano Donizetti and Saverio Mercadante. He composed five operas, but was better known in his lifetime for ariettas and canzonettas in the Venetian dialect...
, a student of Gaetano Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
. Drigo scored his first compositions in his early teens, which were primarily romances
Romances
Romances is the fifteenth studio album by Mexican singer Luis Miguel, released on August 12, 1997, by Warner Music Latina. It is the third album of the Romance series, in which Miguel covers Latin songs from 1940 to 1978...
and waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
es. In 1862 he was allowed to perform some of his pieces with the local amateur orchestra in Padua. Through this performance, the young Drigo began to show interest in conducting.
Drigo graduated from the conservatory in 1864, and was hired as a rehearsal pianist at the Garibaldi Theatre
Garibaldi Theatre
The Garibaldi Theatre is the name of many theatres in Italy, particularly in Sicily:*Garibaldi Theatre *Garibaldi Theatre *Garibaldi Theatre *Garibaldi Theatre *Garibaldi Theatre *Garibaldi Theatre...
in Padua. His experience as a rehearsal pianist soon lead him to find work as a conductor for various amateur opera troupes in Vicenza
Vicenza
Vicenza , a city in north-eastern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, straddling the Bacchiglione...
, Rovigo
Rovigo
Rovigo is a town and comune in the Veneto region of North-Eastern Italy, the capital of the eponymous province. -Geography:...
, Udine
Udine
Udine is a city and comune in northeastern Italy, in the middle of Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic sea and the Alps , less than 40 km from the Slovenian border. Its population was 99,439 in 2009, and that of its urban area was 175,000.- History :Udine is the historical...
and Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
.
At age twenty-two, Drigo presented his first opera at the Garibaldi Theatre. The two-act Don Pedro di Portogallo (Don Pedro of Portugal) premiered to considerable success on 25 July 1868, but performances had to be cancelled due to a cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
epidemic which closed all theatres in the vicinity of Padua for some time.
Drigo's first major opportunity as a conductor occurred in 1868 when the Garibaldi Theatre's kapellmeister fell ill on the eve of the first performance of Costantino Dall'Argine's 1867 comic opera I Due Orsi (The Two Bears). When the concertmaster
Concertmaster
The concertmaster/mistress is the spalla or leader, of the first violin section of an orchestra. In the UK, the term commonly used is leader...
refused to conduct the performance, he recommended Drigo, if only because the rehearsal pianist would know the score intimately. Drigo's conducting successful, and soon he was named second kapellmeister.
Drigo gained experience serving as a conductor in provincial theatres throughout Italy and various parts of Europe for almost a decade, conducting many celebrated works in the great theatres of Europe. These included performances of Bizet
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
in Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
, Rossini's The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville, or The Futile Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The libretto was based on Pierre Beaumarchais's comedy Le Barbier de Séville , which was originally an opéra comique, or a mixture of spoken play with music...
in Marseille
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
, Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore is an opera by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. It is a melodramma giocoso in two acts...
and Caterina Cornaro in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
's Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, and Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
's La sonnambula
La sonnambula
La sonnambula is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ballet-pantomime by Eugène Scribe and Jean-Pierre Aumer called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur.The first...
and Norma
Norma (opera)
Norma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after Norma, ossia L'infanticidio by Alexandre Soumet. First produced at La Scala on December 26, 1831, it is generally regarded as an example of the supreme height of the bel canto tradition...
at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
. In time he was conducting some of the first performances of Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's operas at La Scala.
In 1878 Drigo's life would change drastically. During the opera season in Padua the director of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, Baron Karl Karlovich Kister, attended a performance of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore which Drigo conducted. Kister was much impressed with Drigo's conducting talent, which was done without the aid of a score. Drigo then presented Kister with some of his own compositions, which prompted Kister to offer Drigo a six-month contract to conduct the St. Petersburg Imperial Italian Opera.
Russia
Almost immediately after arriving in St. Petersburg, Drigo was conducting the entire repertory of the Imperial Italian Opera, which at that time performed at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre. He impressed the management a great deal, conducting such works as VerdiGiuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
and Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera , is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. The libretto is loosely based on an 1833 play, Gustave III, by French playwright Eugène Scribe who wrote about the historical assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden...
from memory. It was custom in Imperial Russia for all theatrical performances to be reported in detail in the newspapers, and Drigo's performances were always reported with praise — " ... the young gentleman will stay here a long time ..." commented one columnist after attending an opera which Drigo conducted.
By 1879 Drigo's contracts had been renewed for seven consecutive one-year terms, allowing him three months out of the year to travel to Padua and to pursue other conducting assignments abroad. At the opera in Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
, Drigo conducted seventeen performances of twelve operas in seventeen days. Upon returning to St. Petersburg the Spanish ambassador to Russia awarded Drigo the Order of Charles III on behalf of the government of Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
in honor of this feat.
In 1884 Drigo conducted the St. Petersburg premiere of Ponchielli
Amilcare Ponchielli
Amilcare Ponchielli was an Italian composer, largely of operas.-Biography:Born in Paderno Fasolaro, now Paderno Ponchielli, near Cremona, Ponchielli won a scholarship at the age of nine to study music at the Milan Conservatory, writing his first symphony by the time he was ten years old.Two years...
's I Lituani
I Lituani
I Lituani is an opera consisting of a prologue and three acts by Amilcare Ponchielli to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on the historical poem Konrad Wallenrod written by Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz...
, which was presented under the title Aldona. That same year Drigo traveled to Italy at the behest of Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
to conduct the Venetian premiere of his opera Le Villi
Le Villi
Le Villi is an opera-ballet in two acts composed by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Ferdinando Fontana, based on the short story Les Willis by Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr. Karr's story was in turn based in the Central European legend of the Willis, also used in the ballet Giselle...
at the Teatro La Fenice. The great composer was so pleased with Drigo's conducting that he telegraphed his appreciation to Drigo for years to come on the anniversary of the premiere. In 1884 Drigo conducted the inaugural performance at Padua's Teatro Nuovo, which was re-named the Teatro Verdi and renovated by the architect Achille Sfondrini. For the performance, the Mayor of Padua granted Drigo the Order of the cavaliere di Gran Croce
Military Order of Italy
The Military Order of Italy is the highest military order of the Italian Republic and the former Kingdom of Italy. It was founded as the Military Order of Savoy, a national order by the King of Sardinia, Vittorio Emanuele I, Duke of Savoy in 1815...
. In 1885 Drigo returned to Milan's Teatro dal Verme
Teatro Dal Verme
The Teatro Dal Verme is a theatre in Milan, Italy located on the Via San Giovanni sul Muro, on the site of the former private theatre the Politeama Ciniselli. It was designed by Giuseppe Pestagalli to a commission from Count Francesco Dal Verme, and was used primarily for plays and opera...
to conduct the premiere of Ponchielli's Marion Delorme.
Drigo's was held in high regard for his abilities as an accompanist. At La Scala he often accompanied the great violinist Antonio Bazzini
Antonio Bazzini
Antonio Joseph Bazzini was an Italian violinist, composer and teacher. As a composer his most enduring work is his chamber music which has earned him a central place in the Italian instrumental renaissance of the 19th century...
during concerts, while in Russia he regularly accompanied touring musicians for recitals at the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre (principal theatre of the Imperial Russian Opera and Ballet until 1886). Drigo was a close friend and colleague of Anton Rubinstein
Anton Rubinstein
Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein was a Russian-Jewish pianist, composer and conductor. As a pianist he was regarded as a rival of Franz Liszt, and he ranks amongst the great keyboard virtuosos...
, and the two musicians were known to play piano for many hours into the night.
On Drigo presented his second Italian operetta, the comic-opera La Moglie Rapita (The Abducted Wife). The work was well-received, but did not last long in the repertory due to the reforms which soon took over the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres.
Composer and conductor
In 1884 Emperor Alexander IIIAlexander III of Russia
Alexander Alexandrovich Romanov , historically remembered as Alexander III or Alexander the Peacemaker reigned as Emperor of Russia from until his death on .-Disposition:...
disbanded the Imperial Italian Opera in an effort to solidify the art of Russian operetta, which left Drigo, the company's kapellmeister, without a position. In 1886 the St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet's kappellmeister, Alexei Papkov, retired after thirty-four years of service, leaving the company without a principal conductor. Drigo took over the position before the beginning of the 1886–1887 season. He made his debut as ballet conductor on with a performance of the old grand ballet The Pharaoh's Daughter
The Pharaoh's Daughter
The Pharaoh's Daughter , is a ballet choreographed by Marius Petipa, to the music of Cesare Pugni, with libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges from Théophile Gautier's Le Roman de la Momie...
, set to the score of Cesare Pugni
Cesare Pugni
Cesare Pugni was an Italian composer of ballet music, a pianist and a violinist. In his early career he composed operas, symphonies, and various other forms of orchestral music. Pugni is most noted for the ballets he composed while serving as Composer of the Ballet Music to Her Majesty's Theatre...
, which was the most popular work in the repertory of the Imperial Ballet. In attendance for the performance was the Emperor and his wife, the Empress Maria Fyodorovna, both of whom were fanatic balletomanes and maintained the Imperial Theatres lavishly. So impressed was the Emperor by Drigo's conducting that during the final curtain calls he gave the conductor a standing ovation, and ordered the rest of the house to follow suit.
In 1886 the Imperial Theatre's official composer of ballet music, the Austrian Ludwig Minkus
Ludwig Minkus
Ludwig Minkus a.k.a. Léon Fyodorovich Minkus was an Austrian composer of ballet music, a violin virtuoso and teacher.Minkus is most noted for the music he composed while serving as Ballet Composer of the St...
, retired from his post. In light of this the director of the St. Peterbsurg Imperial Theatres, Ivan Vsevolozhsky
Ivan Vsevolozhsky
Ivan Alexandrovich Vsevolozhsky was the Director of the Imperial Theatres in Russia from 1881 to 1898.A competent administrator, Vsevolozhsky ran the Imperial Theatres with a determination for excellence...
, abolished the position of staff ballet composer in an effort to diversify the music supplied for new works. Minkus was the second composer to occupy the position of Ballet Composer of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, a position originally created in 1850 for Cesare Pugni. Both composers were known as "specialists", i.e. being highly skilled in creation of the musique dansante then in vogue for the ballet. They were required by contract not only to create the scores for new works quickly and "to order", but to compose supplemental pas, variations
Variation (ballet)
Variation or Classical Variation in ballet is a solo dance. As with an Aria in opera, which allows the singer to demonstrate his or her interpretive skills, the variation in ballet has the same function...
, incidental dances, etc. whenever requested, as well as the endless task of correcting and adapting existing scores for the numerous revivals put on by the ballet company. Since Drigo was well known as a capable composer, the director Vsevolozhsky employed him in the dual capacity of kapellmeister and Director of Music, a position which would require Drigo to fulfill all of the duties of the staff composer with regard to adapting and correcting scores at the behest of the Ballet Master.
In 1886 the Imperial Theatre's renowned Premier Maître de Ballet, the Frenchman Marius Petipa
Marius Petipa
Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa was a French ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer. Petipa is considered to be the most influential ballet master and choreographer of ballet that has ever lived....
, revived Jules Perrot
Jules Perrot
Jules-Joseph Perrot was a dancer and choreographer who later became Balletmaster of the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia...
's 1841 romantic
Romantic ballet
The Romantic ballet is defined primarily by an era in ballet in which the ideas of Romanticism in art and literature influenced the creation of ballets. The era occurred during the early to mid 19th century primarily at the Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique of the Paris Opera Ballet and Her...
masterpiece La Esmeralda
La Esmeralda (ballet)
La Esmeralda is a ballet in 3 acts, 5 scenes, inspired by Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, originally choreographed by Jules Perrot; with music by Cesare Pugni and design by William Grieve , D. Sloman , Mme...
for the visiting Italian ballerina Virginia Zucchi
Virginia Zucchi
Virginia Zucchi was an Italian dancer. Her career as a ballerina spanned from 1864 to 1898, and she was known as "the Divine Virginia" for her artistry, expressiveness, and virtuosity....
. For the revival Drigo was assigned the task of refurbishing the old score of Cesare Pugni. As was the custom at that time when reviving an old work, Petipa wanted to add new numbers to the ballet, and in particular a novelty for the ballerina. The Ballet Master had no desire to look outside of the theatre for a composer to score the dances he required, and so approached Drigo, whose four-part Pas d'action not only showcased the dramatic gifts of the ballerina Zucchi, but also included a virtuoso solo for violin crafted by Drigo especially for the great Leopold Auer
Leopold Auer
Leopold Auer was a Hungarian violinist, teacher, conductor and composer.-Early life and career:...
, who served as principal violinist in the Imperial Theatre's orchestra. The revival of La Esmeralda premiered to great success on with the Imperial family in attendance. After the performance the Emperor met with Drigo on stage to congratulate him on his additional material as well as his conducting. Placing his hand on Drigo's shoulder, he commented that " ... the music was magnificent! Under your direction the orchestra has made much progress." Drigo's Pas d'action remains part of the performance score for La Esmeralda to the present day, and is often extracted from the full-length work as La Esmeralda Pas de Six.
With the success of his work on the score of La Esmeralda, the director Vsevolozhsky gave Drigo his first commission to compose for a complete score. This was La Forêt enchantée (The Enchanted Forest), which was not only Drigo's first full-length ballet but also the first original work choreographed by the Imperial Theatre's newly appointed Deuxieme Maître de Ballet Lev Ivanov
Lev Ivanov
Lev Ivanovich Ivanov was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer and later, Second Balletmaster of the Imperial Ballet....
. La Forêt enchantée was staged especially for the annual graduation performance of the Imperial Ballet School, with the top graduates in the leading roles. The work premiered on on the stage of the school's theatre, and was subsequently transferred to the stage of the Mariinsky Theatre, where it premiered on with the Italian ballerina Emma Bessone in the lead role of Ilka. Although Ivanov's choreography was not well-received, Drigo received considerable praise for his score. A critic from the St. Petersburg newspaper The New Time complimented Drigo's music: "The music of this ballet is outstanding in a symphonic sense, reveals an experienced composer, a man with taste, and an excellent orchestrator. There are beautiful melodies in it, the rhythms are not overdone, and everything is listened to with pleasure from beginning to end."
Marius Petipa
Marius Petipa
Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa was a French ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer. Petipa is considered to be the most influential ballet master and choreographer of ballet that has ever lived....
was equally impressed with Drigo's score for La Forêt enchantée. In 1888 the Ballet Master was preparing his next work, La Vestale
The Vestal
The Vestal - Grand ballet in 3 Acts-4 Scenes, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Mikhail Ivanov.The ballet was first presented by the Imperial Ballet on February 17/29, 1888 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia...
, a colossal ballet set in the ancient Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. The score was written by the music critic Mikhail Ivanov
Mikhail Ivanov (composer)
Mikhail Mikhailovich Ivanov was a Russian composer, critic and writer on music.-Biography:Mikhail Mikhailovich Ivanov was born in Moscow in 1849. He studied at the Technological Institute, St Petersburg, then at the Moscow Conservatory for a year, under Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Alexandre...
, who counted Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
among his instructors. Ivanov provided what was at that time considered to be a highly symphonic score for the ballet, and the visiting ballerina for whom the work was produced, the Italian Elena Cornalba, appealed to Petipa for additional, more "dansante" music for her solo numbers. Having just witnessed a performance of La Forêt enchantée, she requested that Drigo should be the composer responsible for supplemental dances she required. Drigo composed two additional variations for Cornalba known as L'echo (The Echo), which was written as a canon
Canon (music)
In music, a canon is a contrapuntal composition that employs a melody with one or more imitations of the melody played after a given duration . The initial melody is called the leader , while the imitative melody, which is played in a different voice, is called the follower...
; and a Valse mignonne (Sweet Waltz). Drigo also wrote an extra variation for the character of Cupid known as L'amour, and a variation for the ballerina Maria Gorshenkova. Three of these pieces were later published.
Le Talisman
The Talisman (ballet)
The Talisman - Fantastic ballet in 4 Acts-7 Scenes, with choreography by Marius Petipa, and music by Riccardo Drigo. Libretto by Konstantin Augustovich Tarnovsky and Marius Petipa....
(The Talisman), a work which told the story of a Hindu Goddess who descends from heaven in order to test her heart against the temptations of earthly love. The ballet premiered on on the occasion of Cornalba's benefit performance. Despite a sumptuous production with many inspired choreographic episodes, the ballet's mise-en-scène proved to be a mediocre success. Nevertheless Drigo's score was hailed as a masterwork of ballet music. The artist Alexander Benois told in his memoirs of his extreme delight with Drigo's score, which he said inspired a "short infatuation" in him as a young student at the Saint Petersburg State University
Saint Petersburg State University
Saint Petersburg State University is a Russian federal state-owned higher education institution based in Saint Petersburg and one of the oldest and largest universities in Russia....
:
Following the successes of his additional music for La Esmeralda and La Vestale and his scores for La Forêt enchantée and Le Talisman, Drigo repeatedly received commissions from both Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov to compose supplemental variations, pas and incidental dances for insertion into older ballets. By the time Drigo left Russia in 1919, nearly every ballet in the repertory of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres contained many of the composer's own additional pieces, and it even became a symbol of one's status as a dancer for Drigo to supply new music for a solo or pas choreographed by Petipa. Drigo later commented in his memoirs that he composed about 80 such pieces, and rarely received any additional payment for them. During the late 19th century, Petipa began to mount revivals of older ballets with increasing frequency, and the Ballet Master invariably called upon Drigo to revise the scores accordingly.
In 1889 Drigo took up residence in the St. Petersburg Grand Hotel
Grand Hotel Europe
Grand Hotel Europe vies with Corinthia Nevskij Palace Hotel and Hotel Astoria for the title of the most luxurious five-star hotel in Saint Petersburg, Russia....
, which was to remain his home for the next thirty years. It was at this time that Drigo developed a close friendship with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
, who was in the process of composing the score for Marius Petipa
Marius Petipa
Victor Marius Alphonse Petipa was a French ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer. Petipa is considered to be the most influential ballet master and choreographer of ballet that has ever lived....
's The Sleeping Beauty for the Imperial Ballet. On the eve of the general rehearsal of the ballet Drigo fell ill, and asked Tchaikovsky if he could conduct the orchestra himself. To Drigo's astonishment Tchaikovsky insisted that if he conducted the orchestra he would ruin his score, and so Drigo, still ill, consented to conduct the rehearsal. The shy and reserved Tchaikovsky was ever after grateful to Drigo for his exceptional conducting, particularly after the premiere on . Drigo eventually conducted nearly 300 performances of The Sleeping Beauty at the Mariinsky Theatre. Two years later Drigo conducted the premiere of Tchaikovsky's next work, The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
, on .
La Flûte magique and Le Réveil de Flore
In 1893 Drigo composed another score for the annual graduation performance of the Imperial Ballet school. This was the one-act ballet La Flûte magiqueThe Magic Flute (ballet)
The Magic Flute is a Ballet comique in one act, originally choreographed by Lev Ivanov to the music of Riccardo Drigo. First presented by students of the Imperial Ballet School at the school's theatre on...
(The Magic Flute), which told the story of an enchanted instrument that compelled all within earshot to dance when it was played. The ballet was staged by Lev Ivanov, and premiered on to great success on the stage of the ballet school's theatre, with a cast that included the young Mikhail Fokine in the lead role of Luc. Due to the success of the student performance, La Flûte magique was transferred to the Mariinsky Theatre, where it was presented in an expanded staging on . Drigo's score was highly praised by critics:
Drigo's next score was written for Petipa's ballet Le Réveil de Flore (The Awakening of Flora), an anacreontic ballet in one-act that was produced especially for the celebrations held at Peterhof Palace
Peterhof Palace
The Peterhof Palace in Russian, so German is transliterated as "Петергoф" Petergof into Russian) for "Peter's Court") is actually a series of palaces and gardens located in Saint Petersburg, Russia, laid out on the orders of Peter the Great. These Palaces and gardens are sometimes referred as the...
in honor of the wedding of the Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna to the Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich
Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia
Grand Duke Alexander Mihailovich of Russia, Александр Михайлович Aleksandr Mihailovits was a dynast of the Russian Empire, a naval officer, an author, explorer, the brother-in-law of Emperor Nicholas II, and an advisor of the said Emperor.-Biography: Alexander was born the son of Grand Duke...
. The premiere on was a grand occasion, with an audience composed of the whole of the Imperial court. For his score for Le Réveil de Flore, Emperor Alexander III granted Drigo the Order of St. Anna
Order of St. Anna
The Order of St. Anna ) is a Holstein and then Russian Imperial order of chivalry established by Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp on 14 February 1735, in honour of his wife Anna Petrovna, daughter of Peter the Great of Russia...
.
As with La Flûte magique, Le Réveil de Flore was transferred to the stage of the Mariinsky Theatre, where it was given for the first time on . The ballet soon became a favorite of the ballerinas of the era, among them Mathilde Kschessinska
Mathilde Kschessinska
Mathilda-Marie Feliksovna Kschessinskaya She was known in the West as Mathilde Kschessinska or Matilda Kshesinskaya.- Life :Kschessinska was born at Ligovo, near Peterhof. Like all her Polish family, to whom she was known as Matylda Krzesińska, Mathilde performed at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre...
(who created the principal role of Flora), Tamara Karsavina
Tamara Karsavina
Tamara Platonovna Karsavina was a famous Russian ballerina, renowned for her beauty, who was most noted as a Principal Artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and later the Ballets Russes of Serge Diaghilev...
and particularly Anna Pavlova, who included an abridged version of the work on her legendary world tours.
Swan Lake
In late 1894 Drigo prepared an important revision of Tchaikovsky's score for Swan LakeSwan Lake
Swan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...
, originally produced at the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow in 1877. Following the success of The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
, Ivan Vsevolozhsky—director of the St. Petersburg Theatres—expressed interest in reviving the ballet. Drigo later recalled: Tchaikovsky died on just as plans to revive Swan Lake were beginning to come to fruition. A revival of the complete work was then planned for the Imperial Ballet's 1894–1895 season, in a staging by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. Tchaikovsky's brother Modest
Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian dramatist, opera librettist and translator.-Early life:Modest Ilyich was born in Alapayevsk, the younger brother of the future composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. He graduated from the School of Jurisprudence with a degree in law...
approved that Drigo should be entrusted with the task of revising the score, which the composer did in accordance with Petipa's instructions. In his memoirs Drigo touched on his revision to the score: The revival premiered on at the Mariinsky Theatre with the Prima ballerina assoluta
Prima ballerina assoluta
Prima ballerina assoluta is a rank or title given to notable female ballet dancers. To be recognised as a prima ballerina assoluta is a very rare honour, reserved only for the most exceptional soloists, usually those who have achieved international acclaim....
Pierina Legnani
Pierina Legnani
Pierina Legnani was an Italian ballerina, a terre-à-terre virtuosa extraordinaire, considered one of the greatest ballerinas of all time.-Career:...
in the dual role of Odette/Odile. Drigo's version of Tchaikovsky's score has remained the definitive performance edition of Swan Lake, and is still used to one degree or another by ballet companies throughout the world. Nevertheless, Drigo is rarely given credit when his revisions are performed.
La Perle
Drigo's next score for the ballet was the grand piece d'occasion La Perle (sometimes known in Russian as Чудесная жемчужина — The Miraculous Pearl), produced especially for the gala held at the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow in honor of the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna. The ballet's scenario was based on the danced tableau La Pérégrina from VerdiGiuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's opera Don Carlos
Don Carlos
Don Carlos is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French language libretto by Camille du Locle and Joseph Méry, based on the dramatic play Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien by Friedrich Schiller...
, and was produced lavishly by Marius Petipa. La Perle premiered on after a performance of Glinka
Mikhail Glinka
Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka , was the first Russian composer to gain wide recognition within his own country, and is often regarded as the father of Russian classical music...
's A Life for the Tsar
A Life for the Tsar
A Life for the Tsar , as it is known in English, although its original name was Ivan Susanin is a "patriotic-heroic tragic opera" in four acts with an epilogue by Mikhail Glinka. The original Russian libretto, based on historical events, was written by Nestor Kukolnik, Georgy Fyodorovich Rozen,...
, with the ballet companies of both Moscow and St. Petersburg participating in the performance. Set in an under-water kingdom, La Perle told the story of how the Earth Genie attempted to abduct the White Pearl, causing a colossal battle of the elements of the earth and of the sea. The ballet featured elaborate stage transformations and a grand apotheosis
Apotheosis
Apotheosis is the glorification of a subject to divine level. The term has meanings in theology, where it refers to a belief, and in art, where it refers to a genre.In theology, the term apotheosis refers to the idea that an individual has been raised to godlike stature...
called The Triumph of the Amphitrions. The performance included six first-class ballerinas from both the St. Petersburg and Moscow troupes: Pierina Legnani in the principal role of the White Pearl, Adelaide Giuri, Lyubov Roslavleva, Mathilde Kschessinska
Mathilde Kschessinska
Mathilda-Marie Feliksovna Kschessinskaya She was known in the West as Mathilde Kschessinska or Matilda Kshesinskaya.- Life :Kschessinska was born at Ligovo, near Peterhof. Like all her Polish family, to whom she was known as Matylda Krzesińska, Mathilde performed at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre...
, Claudia Kulichevskaya and Anna Johanssen. Drigo later commented in his memoirs of how difficult it was to compose effective variations for the ballerinas while still maintaining variety. The score—which boasted offstage choruses—impressed the new Emperor, and Drigo was granted the Order of Saint Stanislaus
Order of Saint Stanislaus
The Order of Saint Stanislaus , also spelled Stanislas, was an Order in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and The Kingdom of Poland between 1765 and 1831 and of Russian Empire from 1831 to 1917.-History of the Order of Saint Stanislaus:Stanisław August Poniatowski, King of Poland, established the...
.
Music extracted from Drigo's score for La Perle was later used for the so-called Ocean and the Pearls pas de trois. In 1912 the Ballet Master Alexander Gorsky added the piece to his revival of Arthur Saint-Léon
Arthur Saint-Leon
Arthur Saint-Léon was the Maître de Ballet of St. Petersburg Imperial Ballet from 1859 until 1869 and is famous for creating the choreography of the ballet Coppélia.-Biography:...
and the composer Cesare Pugni's 1864 ballet The Little Humpbacked Horse
The Little Humpbacked Horse (ballet)
The Little Humpbacked Horse, or The Tsar Maiden is a ballet in four Acts and eight scenes with apotheosis. The original choreography was by Arthur Saint-Léon, and was set to music by Cesare Pugni...
at the Mariinsky Theatre. The piece has survived in an independent form and remains a popular repertory excerpt with ballet companies throughout the world. Drigo's music is often erroneously credited to Cesare Pugni.
Les Millions d’Arlequin
In 1899 Petipa began work on the scenario for a ballet based on episodes from the Italian commedia dell’arteCommedia dell'arte
Commedia dell'arte is a form of theatre characterized by masked "types" which began in Italy in the 16th century, and was responsible for the advent of the actress and improvised performances based on sketches or scenarios. The closest translation of the name is "comedy of craft"; it is shortened...
, which he called Les Millions d’Arlequin
Les Millions d'Arlequin
Les millions d'Arlequin is a ballet in two acts with libretto and choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Riccardo Drigo. First presented at the Imperial Theatre of the Hermitage by the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia on Friday,...
(The Millions of Harlequin). At the same time he also produced a libretto for an allegorical ballet titled Les Saisons (The Seasons), a plot-less ballet that represneted the four seasons through Petipa's classical formula of danced tableaux. Originally Petipa intended to commission the score of Les Millions d’Arlequin from Drigo's close friend and colleague, the great composer Alexander Glazunov
Alexander Glazunov
Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was a Russian composer of the late Russian Romantic period, music teacher and conductor...
, while Drigo was originally intended to compose the score for Petipa's Les Saisons. Soon both composers developed an affinity for the other's assigned ballet, with Glazunov adamantly expressing that the subject of Les Millions d’Arlequin was perfect in every respect for the Italian composer's talents. In the end Glazunov composed the score for Les Saisons, and Drigo that of Les Millions d’Arlequin.
While working on the score for Les Millions d’Arlequin, Drigo took daily walks through the St. Petersburg Summer Garden
Summer Garden
The Summer Garden occupies an island between the Fontanka, Moika, and the Swan Canal in Saint Petersburg and shares its name with the adjacent Summer Palace of Peter the Great.-Original:...
and along the banks of the Neva River
Neva River
The Neva is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length , it is the third largest river in Europe in terms of average discharge .The Neva is the only river flowing from Lake...
, all the while thinking of his native Italy. During one such daily walk, Drigo composed the ballet's famous Serenade
Serenade
In music, a serenade is a musical composition, and/or performance, in someone's honor. Serenades are typically calm, light music.The word Serenade is derived from the Italian word sereno, which means calm....
, which he set to the accompaniment of a solo mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
. Other pieces of note were the Berceuse de Columbine, written especially for the harpist Albert Zabel and the melodious Valse des alouettes.
The ballet premiered at the Imperial Theatre of the Hermitage on with the Prima ballerina assoluta Mathilde Kschessinska
Mathilde Kschessinska
Mathilda-Marie Feliksovna Kschessinskaya She was known in the West as Mathilde Kschessinska or Matilda Kshesinskaya.- Life :Kschessinska was born at Ligovo, near Peterhof. Like all her Polish family, to whom she was known as Matylda Krzesińska, Mathilde performed at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre...
in the role of Columbine and the danseur György Kyaksht in the role of Harlequin. The audience included the Emperor and Empress as well as the whole of the Imperial court. Within moments of the final curtain, the typically subdued courtly audience erupted into thunderous applause. The composer received a tumultuous reception as he went before the curtain and was mobbed by several princes and Grand Dukes who tripped over one another in their enthusiasm to congratulate him. Due to her delight in Drigo's score, the Empress commanded two additional court performances of Les Millions d’Arlequin on the stage of Mariinsky Theatre, the first given on . When plans were under way to publish Drigo's score in piano reduction
Piano reduction
A piano reduction is sheet music for the piano that was once music for other instruments that was reduced to its most basic components within a two line staff for piano. It is also considered a style of orchestration or music arrangement less well known as contraction scoring, a subset of elastic...
by the publisher Zimmermann
Zimmermann (publisher)
Musikverlag Zimmermann is a German music publisher that claims to be the first specialized publisher for instrumental methods. Until 1933, it was also a manufacturer of brass, string, wind musical instruments as well as mechanical musical instruments....
, many of Drigo's colleagues urged the composer to dedicate his score to the Empress. Drigo's request was then submitted to the Minister of the Imperial Court, which brought about a lengthy correspondence by a commission set up to investigate whether or not Drigo's character, background and music were worthy of his offering a dedication to a Russian Empress. The response was favorable and the dedication was graciously accepted.
Later years in Russia
In the spring of 1902, Drigo and a group of dancers from the Imperial Ballet were invited by Raoul GunsbourgRaoul Gunsbourg
Raoul Samuel Gunsbourg was a Jewish-Romania-born opera director, impresario, composer and writer...
, director of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo
Opéra de Monte-Carlo
The Opéra de Monte-Carlo is an opera house located in the principality of Monaco.With the lack of cultural diversions available in Monaco in the 1870s, Prince Charles III, along with the Société des Bains de Mer, decided on the construction of an opera house. Initially, it was Charles III's...
, to produce a ballet in Monaco
Monaco
Monaco , officially the Principality of Monaco , is a sovereign city state on the French Riviera. It is bordered on three sides by its neighbour, France, and its centre is about from Italy. Its area is with a population of 35,986 as of 2011 and is the most densely populated country in the...
. Drigo composed the music for the ballet-divertissement titled La Côte d'Azur (The French Riviera), set to a libretto by Prince Albert I
Albert I, Prince of Monaco
Albert I was Prince of Monaco and Duke of Valentinois from 10 September 1889 until his death.-Early life:...
. The ballet premiered at the Salle Garnier on 30 March 1902, and featured the Prima ballerina Olga Preobrajenska
Olga Preobrajenska
Olga Iosifovna Preobrajenska was probably the best loved ballerina of the Russian Imperial Ballet....
.
Drigo's final original full-length ballet score was also Marius Petipa's final work — the fantastical La Romance d'un Bouton de rose et d'un Papillon (The Romance of a Rosebud and a Butterfly). The ballet was to have had its premiere at the Imperial Theatre of the Hermitage on but was abruptly canceled, the official reason given being the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
. It was the belief of the newly appointed director of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, Vladimir Telyakovsky, that the Imperial Ballet had become stagnant under Petipa's leadership. In light of the fact that Petipa still legally held the position of Premier Maître de Ballet of the company, Telyakovsky began to make efforts to drive the eighty-five year old Ballet Master from the theatre; the cancellation of the premiere of La Romance de la rose et le papillon was one such attempt that finally led to Petipa's retirement in 1905.
Drigo also fell victim to Telyakovsky's disfavor. When the composer and conductor Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
visited a ballet performance conducted by Drigo in 1902, he was invited by the directorate to watch the performance in the Director's lodge. Mahler expressed to Telyakovsky his surprise at the fact that Drigo rarely used his left hand when conducting, and that he had been impressed by his ability to synchronize the music and stage action. Mahler had informed Telyakovsky that he wished to meet Drigo and congratulate him for his abilities as a conductor. Telyakovsky purposefully avoided arranging the meeting, and it was only days later that the Secertary of the Italian Embassy—who had been sitting directly behind Mahler—informed Drigo of the exchange.
In 1909 Drigo prepared a new version of his score for Le Talisman for a revival staged by the Ballet Master and former danseur Nikolai Legat. The revival premiered on at the Mariinsky Theatre, with an audience consisting of the Dowager Empress Marie Fyodorovna. The cast featured Olga Preobrajenska as the Goddess Niriti and Vaslav Nijinsky
Vaslav Nijinsky
Vaslav Nijinsky was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish descent, cited as the greatest male dancer of the 20th century. He grew to be celebrated for his virtuosity and for the depth and intensity of his characterizations...
, who caused a sensation in the role of Vayou, the God of Wind. Drigo was then invited by Giulio Gatti-Casazza
Giulio Gatti-Casazza
Giulio Gatti-Casazza was an Italian opera manager. He was general manager of La Scala in Milan, Italy and later the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.-Life and career:...
to assist in mounting Le Talisman at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
. The ballet was presented as Le Porte-bonheur (The Bracelet) in a staging by the Ballet Master Luigi Tornelli, which premiered on 18 July 1908.
Drigo was vacationing in his native Italy during the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in 1914, which prevented him from returning to Russia for another two years. Soon after his arrival in Petrograd he was evicted from his home at the Grand Hotel, which was converted to offices for the newly established Soviet government. For a time Drigo was forced to live in considerable poverty in a camp with a group of his fellow Italian émigrés. He later recalled in his memoirs of the many cold evenings he spent with his close friend and colleague Alexander Glazunov
Alexander Glazunov
Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was a Russian composer of the late Russian Romantic period, music teacher and conductor...
waiting for hours in bread lines and subsequently carrying their rations home through the snow on a sled. Upon his first engagement as conductor after his return to the former Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, Drigo received a fifteen-minute standing ovation from the audience.
Drigo returns to Italy
In 1919 Drigo was finally repatriated to his native Italy. For his farewell gala at the former Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, the Ballet Master Fyodor Lopukhov mounted a new version of Drigo and Petipa's final collaboration, the ballet La Romance d'un Bouton de rose et d'un Papillon which Lopukhov staged under the title Le Conte du bouton (The Tale of the Rosebud). At the close of the gala, the renowned bass Feodor ChaliapinFeodor Chaliapin
Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin was a Russian opera singer. The possessor of a large and expressive bass voice, he enjoyed an important international career at major opera houses and is often credited with establishing the tradition of naturalistic acting in his chosen art form.During the first phase...
read an emotional farewell speech in both Italian and Russian. Allowed to take only 60 kilograms with him, Drigo left all of his belongings in Russia with the exception of a collection of his manuscript scores, which he used as a pillow during his two-month journey to Padua via Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
and Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
.
In 1920 Drigo accepted the post of kapellmeister to the Teatro Garibaldi in Padua where he had begun his career many years before. In 1926 he composed the comic opera
Comic opera
Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...
Flaffy Raffles for the Opera company of Padua's Teatro Verdi, and in 1929 his last work was given, the opera Il garofano bianco (The White Carnation) at the Teatro Garibaldi. He spent the remainder of his life conducting and composing masses and various songs, including a vocal version of the famous Serenade from Les millions d’Arlequin, which Beniamino Gigli
Beniamino Gigli
Beniamino Gigli was an Italian opera singer. The most famous tenor of his generation, he was renowned internationally for the great beauty of his voice and the soundness of his vocal technique. Music critics sometimes took him to task, however, for what was perceived to be the over-emotionalism...
made a world-wide hit with under the title Notturno d'amour.
Riccardo Drigo died on 1 October 1930 at the age of 84, in his birthplace, Padua. There is now a street in Padua which is named Via Riccardo Drigo in his honour.
Operas
- Don Pedro di Portogallo. 25 July 1868, Teatro nuovo di Padova, PaduaPaduaPadua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
.
- La Moglie Rapita. , Imperial Mariinsky Theatre.
- Flaffy Raffles. ? 1926, Teatro Verdi, Padua.
- Il Garafano Bianco. ? 1929. Garibaldi TheatreGaribaldi TheatreThe Garibaldi Theatre is the name of many theatres in Italy, particularly in Sicily:*Garibaldi Theatre *Garibaldi Theatre *Garibaldi Theatre *Garibaldi Theatre *Garibaldi Theatre *Garibaldi Theatre...
, Padua.
Ballets
- La Forêt enchantée. Ballet fantastique in one act. Choreography by Lev IvanovLev IvanovLev Ivanovich Ivanov was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer and later, Second Balletmaster of the Imperial Ballet....
. , Imperial Ballet School. , Imperial Mariinsky Theatre.
- Le Talisman. Grand ballet in four acts and seven tableaux with prologue and apotheosis. Choreography by Marius PetipaMarius PetipaVictor Marius Alphonse Petipa was a French ballet dancer, teacher and choreographer. Petipa is considered to be the most influential ballet master and choreographer of ballet that has ever lived....
. , Imperial Mariinsky Theatre.
- La Flûte magiqueThe Magic Flute (ballet)The Magic Flute is a Ballet comique in one act, originally choreographed by Lev Ivanov to the music of Riccardo Drigo. First presented by students of the Imperial Ballet School at the school's theatre on...
. Ballet comique in one act. Choreography by Lev Ivanov. , Imperial Ballet School. , Imperial Mariinsky Theatre.
- Le Réveil de Flore. Ballet anacréontique in one act. Choreography by Marius Petipa. , Imperial Theatre of PeterhofPeterhof PalaceThe Peterhof Palace in Russian, so German is transliterated as "Петергoф" Petergof into Russian) for "Peter's Court") is actually a series of palaces and gardens located in Saint Petersburg, Russia, laid out on the orders of Peter the Great. These Palaces and gardens are sometimes referred as the...
. . , Imperial Mariinsky Theatre.
- Les Dryades prétendues. Ballet in one act, two tableaux. Choreography by Pavel GerdtPavel GerdtPavel Andreyevich Gerdt, also known as Paul Gerdt , was the Premier Danseur Noble of the Imperial Ballet, the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, and the Mariinsky Theatre for 56 years, making his debut in 1860, and retiring in 1916...
. , Imperial Theatre of the Russian Museum of His Majesty Emperor Alexander IIIMichael PalaceMichael Palace may refer to one of the following palaces in St. Petersburg, Russia:*Saint Michael's Castle, constructed in 1797-1801 as a residence for Emperor Paul I...
. Music based on airs from Cesare Pugni's score for the ballet Éoline, ou La Dryade.
- La Perle. Ballet divertissement in one act with apotheosis. Choreography by Marius Petipa. , Imperial Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow. , Imperial Mariinsky Theatre.
- Les Millions d’ArlequinHarlequinadeHarlequinade is a comic theatrical genre, defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "that part of a pantomime in which the harlequin and clown play the principal parts". It developed in England between the 17th and mid-19th centuries...
(a.k.a. Harlequinade). Harlequinade in two acts. Choreography by Marius Petipa. , Imperial Theatre of the Hermitage. , Imperial Mariinsky Theatre.
- La Côte d’Azur. Ballet comique in two acts. Choreography by Alexander Shiryaev. 30 March 1902, Salle Garnier, Monte-Carlo.
- La Romance d'un Bouton de rose et d'un Papillon. Ballet fantastique in one act, three tableaux. Choreography by Marius Petipa. , Imperial Theatre of the Hermitage (never premiered).
- Le Porte-bonheur (revival of Le Talisman). Choreography by Luigi Tornelli. 18 July 1908, La ScalaLa ScalaLa Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
, MilanMilanMilan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
.
- Le Conte du bouton (revival of La Romance d'un Bouton de rose et d'un Papillon). Choreography by Fyodor Lopukhov. 16 April 1919, Mariinsky Theatre.
Revisions to existing scores
- La EsmeraldaLa Esmeralda (ballet)La Esmeralda is a ballet in 3 acts, 5 scenes, inspired by Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo, originally choreographed by Jules Perrot; with music by Cesare Pugni and design by William Grieve , D. Sloman , Mme...
, 1886. Original score by Cesare PugniCesare PugniCesare Pugni was an Italian composer of ballet music, a pianist and a violinist. In his early career he composed operas, symphonies, and various other forms of orchestral music. Pugni is most noted for the ballets he composed while serving as Composer of the Ballet Music to Her Majesty's Theatre...
, 1844.
- Catarina, ou La Fille du bandit, 1888. Original score by Cesare Pugni, 1846.
- La SylphideLa SylphideLa Sylphide is one of the world's oldest surviving romantic ballets. There were two versions of the ballet; the version choreographed by the Danish balletmaster August Bournonville is the only version known to have survived....
, 1892. Original score by Jean-Madeleine Schneitzhoeffer, 1832.
- Le Roi Candaule, 1891. Original score by Cesare Pugni, 1868.
- Swan LakeSwan LakeSwan Lake ballet, op. 20, by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, composed 1875–1876. The scenario, initially in four acts, was fashioned from Russian folk tales and tells the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer's curse. The choreographer of the original production was Julius Reisinger...
, 1895. Original score by Pyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
, 1877.
- Les Caprices du Papillon, 1895. Original score by Nikoli Krotkov, 1889.
- Les Élèves de Dupré, 1897 (one act version of Marius Petipa's L'Ordre du Roi). Original score by Albert VizentiniAlbert VizentiniAlbert Vizentini was a French violinist, composer, conductor and music writer, born in Paris on 9 November 1841, and died there on 21 October 1906...
(based the airs of Johann Strauss IIJohann Strauss IIJohann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
, Léo DelibesLéo DelibesClément Philibert Léo Delibes was a French composer of ballets, operas, and other works for the stage...
, Daniel AuberDaniel AuberDaniel François Esprit Auber was a French composer.-Biography:The son of a Paris print-seller, Auber was born in Caen in Normandy. Though his father expected him to continue in the print-selling business, he also allowed his son to learn how to play several musical instruments...
, Jules MassenetJules MassenetJules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
, and Anton RubinsteinAnton RubinsteinAnton Grigorevich Rubinstein was a Russian-Jewish pianist, composer and conductor. As a pianist he was regarded as a rival of Franz Liszt, and he ranks amongst the great keyboard virtuosos...
), 1886.
Supplemental pieces for various ballets
- La Vestale. Original score by Mikhail IvanovMikhail Ivanov (composer)Mikhail Mikhailovich Ivanov was a Russian composer, critic and writer on music.-Biography:Mikhail Mikhailovich Ivanov was born in Moscow in 1849. He studied at the Technological Institute, St Petersburg, then at the Moscow Conservatory for a year, under Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Alexandre...
(1888).- Variation for Elena Cornalba known as L'echo (1888)
- Variation for Elena Cornalba known as the Valse Mignonne (1888)
- Variation for Maria Anderson known as L'amour (1888)
- Variation for Maria Gorshenkova (1888)
- The Pharaoh's DaughterThe Pharaoh's DaughterThe Pharaoh's Daughter , is a ballet choreographed by Marius Petipa, to the music of Cesare Pugni, with libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges from Théophile Gautier's Le Roman de la Momie...
. Original score by Cesare PugniCesare PugniCesare Pugni was an Italian composer of ballet music, a pianist and a violinist. In his early career he composed operas, symphonies, and various other forms of orchestral music. Pugni is most noted for the ballets he composed while serving as Composer of the Ballet Music to Her Majesty's Theatre...
(1862).- Pas de sabre (1885)
- Variation orientale for Virginia Zucchi (1885)
- Pizzicato (1898)
- Variation for Mathilde Kschessinska (1898)
- Polonaise variation for Anna Pavlova (c. 1902)
- GiselleGiselleGiselle is a ballet in two acts with a libretto by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Théophile Gautier, music by Adolphe Adam, and choreography by Jean Coralli and Jules Perrot. The librettist took his inspiration from a poem by Heinrich Heine...
. Original score by Adolphe AdamAdolphe AdamAdolphe Charles Adam was a French composer and music critic. A prolific composer of operas and ballets, he is best known today for his ballets Giselle and Le corsaire , his operas Le postillon de Lonjumeau , Le toréador and Si j'étais roi , and his Christmas...
(1841).- Variation for Elena Cornalba (c. 1888)
- La Esmeralda. Original score by Cesare Pugni (1844).
- Pas de six for Virginia Zucchi (1886)
- Adaptation of the Pas des fleurs into a Grand pas classique (1899)
- Pizzicato variation for Olga Preobrajenska (1899)
- Variation for Nikolai Legat (1901)
- Pygmalion, ou La Statue de ChyprePygmalion, ou La Statue de ChyprePygmalion, ou La Statue de Chypre is a ballet in 4 Acts-6 Scenes, with choreography by Marius Petipa and music by Prince Nikita Trubestkoi....
. Original score by Prince Nikita Trubestkoi (1883).- Variation for Pierina Legnani (1895)
- L’Ordre du Roi. Original score by Albert Vinzentini (1886).
- Pas d'action known as Le Pêcheur et la Perle (c. 1887)
- Variation for Mathilde Kschessinska (1897)
- Variation for Nikolai Legat (1897)
- Le Roi Candaule. Original score by Cesare Pugni (1868).
- Pizzicato for Carlotta Briaza (1891)
- Adaptation of the Pas de Vénus (1891)
- Adaptation of the scene La Naissance du papillon (1891)
- Adaptation of the Pas de Vénus (1891)
- Bacchanale (1891)
- Variations for the three graces (1903)
- The Little Humpbacked Horse. Original score by Cesare Pugni (1864).
- Music for a new prologue (1895)
- Variation for Pierina Legnani for the final Grand pas (1895)
- Variation for Lyubov Egorova for the Grand Pas des Nereids (1912)
- Variation for Olga Preobrajenska for the final Grand pas (1912)
- Le Miroir magique. Original score by Arsenii Koreshchenko (1903)
- Variation for Mathilde Kschessinskaya (1903)
- Variation for Sergei Legat (1903)
- La Source. Original score by Léo DelibesLéo DelibesClément Philibert Léo Delibes was a French composer of ballets, operas, and other works for the stage...
and Ludwig MinkusLudwig MinkusLudwig Minkus a.k.a. Léon Fyodorovich Minkus was an Austrian composer of ballet music, a violin virtuoso and teacher.Minkus is most noted for the music he composed while serving as Ballet Composer of the St...
(1866)- Grand pas de deux (1903)
- La Fille mal gardéeLa Fille Mal GardéeLa Fille mal gardée is a comic ballet presented in two acts, inspired by Pierre-Antoine Baudouin's 1789 painting, La réprimande/Une jeune fille querellée par sa mère...
. Original score by Peter-Ludwig Hertel (1864)- Variation for Hedwige Hantenberg (1894)
- Variation for Alexander Gorsky (1897)
- Variation for Mathilde Kschessinska (1903)
- CoppéliaCoppéliaCoppélia is a sentimental comic ballet with original choreography by Arthur Saint-Léon to a ballet libretto by Saint-Léon and Charles Nuitter and music by Léo Delibes. It was based upon two macabre stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, Der Sandmann , and Die Puppe...
. Original score by Léo Delibes (1870)- Variation for Pierina Legani (1894)
- Male variation (c. 1900)
- Le CorsaireLe CorsaireLe Corsaire is a ballet typically presented in three acts, with a libretto originally created by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges loosely based on the poem The Corsair by Lord Byron. Originally choreographed by Joseph Mazilier to the music of Adolphe Adam, it was first presented by the ballet of...
. Original score by Adolphe Adam (1856)- Grand pas de deux for Emma Bessone and Enrico Cecchetti (1887)
- Pas d'action (a.k.a. Le Corsaire pas de deux) adagio set to Drigo's nocturne Dreams of Spring and a coda (1915)
- La BayadèreLa BayadèreLa Bayadère is a ballet, originally staged in four acts and seven tableaux by French choreographer Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus. La Bayadère was first performed by the Imperial Ballet at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, on...
. Original score by Ludwig Minkus (1877)- Variation for Mathilde Kschessinska (c. 1900)
- La Naïade et le pêcheur (a.k.a. Ondine, ou La Naïade). Original score by Cesare Pugni (1843 and 1858)
- Adage for Anna Pavlova (1903)
- Variation for Sergei Legat (1903)
- Two variations for the Grand pas des Naïades (1903)
- MladaMlada (ballet)Mlada is a Fantastic ballet in 4 Acts/9 Scenes, with choreography by Marius Petipa, and music by Ludwig Minkus.The ballet was first presented by the Imperial Ballet on December 2/14 , 1879 at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia...
. Original score by Ludwig Minkus (1879)- Variation for Mathilde Kschessinska (1896)
- Danse des slaves (1896)
- La CamargoCamargo (ballet)Camargo is a "Grand ballet" in 3 acts/9 scenes, with choreography by Marius Petipa, and music by Ludwig Minkus. The libretto, by Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Marius Petipa, is based on an incident in the life of the 18th century dancer Marie Camargo, in which she and her sister...
. Original score by Ludwig Minkus (1872)- Grand pas de deux for Pierina Legnani and Sergei Legat (1901)
- Don QuixoteDon Quixote (ballet)Don Quixote is a ballet originally staged in four acts and eight scenes, based on an episode taken from the famous novel Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes. It was originally choreographed by Marius Petipa to the music of Ludwig Minkus and was first presented by the Ballet of the...
. Original score by Ludwig Minkus (1869)- Variation for Mathilde Kschessinskaya for the Grand pas des Dryades (1902)
- Variation for Mathilde Kschessinskaya known as L'Éventail (1902)
- La SylphideLa SylphideLa Sylphide is one of the world's oldest surviving romantic ballets. There were two versions of the ballet; the version choreographed by the Danish balletmaster August Bournonville is the only version known to have survived....
. Original score by Jean-Madeleine Schneitzhoeffer (1832)- Pas des Sylphides (1892)
- Danse écossaise (1892)
- Variation for Varvara Nikitina (1892)
- Adage for Varvara Nikitina and Pavel Gerdt (1892)
- PaquitaPaquitaPaquita is a ballet in two acts and three scenes, with libretto by Joseph Mazilier and Paul Foucher. Originally choreographed by Joseph Mazilier to the music of Edouard Deldevez. First presented by at the Salle Le Peletier by the Paris Opera Ballet on 1 April 1846...
. Original score by Edouard DeldevezEdouard DeldevezÉdouard Deldevez was a French violinist, conductor, composer, and music teacher. He is also known as Ernest or Ernst Deldevez. The names Edmé or Émile are occasionally substituted for Edouard.-Biography:Édouard Deldevez was born and died in Paris, France. He won many prizes as a violinist...
(1846)- Variation for Anna Pavlova (1904)
- Variation for Varvara Rykhliakova (c. 1900)
- La Tulipe de Haarlem. Original score by Baron Boris Vietinghoff-Scheel (1887)
- Romance variation for Vera Trefilova (1903)
- Danse des Gobelins (1903)
- The Fairy Doll. Original score by Josef BayerJosef BayerJosef Bayer was an Austrian composer and the director of the Austrian Court Ballet from 1883 until his death. He was born and died in Vienna...
(1888)- Pas de trois for Mathilde Kschessinskaya, Sergei Legat and Nikolai Legat (1903)
- Variation for Olga Chumakova as the French Doll (1903)