37. Russian Comic Opera in the Age of Catherine the Great

Abstract

Comic opera was introduced in Russia in the early 1770s. It remained one of the favorite dramatic forms until the early decades of the nineteenth century. The term "comic opera" may be misleading in this case. We are not talking of La Serva padrona or Le nozze di Figaro or of any other eighteenth-century comic opera that requires opera singers to perform. Russian comic opera of the age of Catherine was essentially a literary rather than a musical-dramatic genre. It was a brief (oneor two-act) play that included songs, vocal ensembles, and occasionally choruses. The performers were actors with some singing ability rather than trained singers. The music for these productions was at times composed by Russian or resident foreign composers, but equally often there would be no original musical score, the performers being instructed to sing their vocal numbers to a tune of this or that popular air of the day. In its native France, this form of music drama