Riccardo Drigo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maestro Riccardo Eugenio Drigo, St. Petersburg, c. 1900.
Maestro Riccardo Eugenio Drigo, St. Petersburg, c. 1900.

Riccardo Eugenio Drigo (June 30, 1846 - October 1, 1930) was an Italian composer and conductor who spent many years working with the Saint Petersburg Imperial Ballet and Imperial Opera.

Contents

[edit] Life

Drigo studied music in his home town Padua, Italy, and at the Venice Conservatory. He attained some local celebrity as a composer and conductor, then moved to Russia in 1878, where he was soon appointed the conductor of the St. Petersburg Italian Opera. After considerable success there, he became Chief Conductor of ballet performances and resident composer to the Imperial Ballet (though unlike Léon Minkus or Cesare Pugni, he never held an official post), where he created many of the works for which he is best known.

During the late 1910s and early 1920s Drigo served as musical director on the tours of the legendary ballerina Anna Pavlova. Drigo returned to his native Padua in 1927, where he died in 1930.

Drigo conducted the premieres of Tchaikovsky's ballets Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, and Glazunov's Raymonda, as well as the premieres of Tchaikovsky's 1890 opera The Queen of Spades, and his 1892 opera Iolanthe, which premiered alongside The Nutcracker. He also made modifications to scores, including Swan Lake, for performance, some of which are in use to this day.

In modern times Drigo has been characterized by his critics with composers such as Léon Minkus and Cesare Pugni as a 'hack' composer, and is largely unknown by the general public. However, during the 1890s, when ballet music was taking on a major transformation with the likes of Glazunov and Tchaikovsky, Drigo's ballets were staged alongside them and were able to hold their own in critical and audience response, being noted for their beautiful dansante music with melodic charm, rhythmic verve, and harmonic color. His other compositions range far beyond simply creating state music. A few of his works have been recorded in recent years by conductor Richard Bonynge.

[edit] Some Facts

  • 'Serenade' and 'Valse Bluette' from Les Millions d'Arlequin are today major cornerstones of the salon repertory, and are often heard in soloist instrumental performance.
  • In March 1997, in celebration of Drigo's 150th birthday, the Arena Ballet of Drigo's native Padua restaged his 1889 ballet The Talisman, with the ballerina Carla Fracci in the lead role of Niriti. As well, a conference was held on the composer.
  • Drigo's Grand Pas de Deux from Marius Petipa's 1899 revival of the ballet Le Corsaire, which he wrote especially for the ballerina Pierina Legnani is still performed by ballet companies all over the world, and is perhaps the most famous pas de deux in all ballet. (In Drigo's memoirs he noted that this pas de deux was composed without extra payment)
  • Drigo's 1893 ballet The Magic Flute is often shown in various stagings by ballet companies around the world. One notable staging was by Peter Martins in 1983 for the New York City Ballet.
  • The great dancers of the Imperial Ballet, Sergei Legat and his brother Nikolai Legat staged Joseph Bayer's 1888 ballet The Fairy Doll (or Die Puppenfee) in 1903. For the great ballerina Mathilde Kchessinska who danced the lead, they interpolated the Grand Pas de Trois from Drigo's Les Millions d'Arlequin, which is still often danced as "The Fairy Doll Pas de Trois".

[edit] The Works of Riccardo Drigo

These ballets were all created for the Imperial Ballet and, unless noted otherwise, premiered at the Imperial Mariinksy Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia.

[edit] Notable Operas

  • Don Pedro di Portogallo (Don Pedro of Portugal) (1868, Padua)
  • La Moglie Rapita (The Captured Wife) (1884, St. Petersburg)
  • The Côte d'Azur (The French Riviera) (1895, Monte Carlo)
  • Flaffy Raffles (1890, Moscow)
  • Il Garofano Bianco (The White Garafano) (1929, Padua; Drigo's last work)

[edit] Other Work for the Ballet

  • In 1890, at the behest of the ballet master Marius Petipa, Drigo made modifications to Tchaikovsky's score for the premiere of The Sleeping Beauty. Drigo also added 4 bars of music to No. 15 of the score (this addition occurs at the end of the Waltz in no.15 - the Pas d'Action of Tchaikovsky's score, during the so-called 'Vision Scene' of Act II. The number takes place after the Adagio for Aurora and Prince Desiré: a Waltz for the Corps de Ballet which precedes Aurora's Variation. This came about because Marius Petipa decided to delete the variation Tchaikovsky had originally scored for Aurora during this scene, and instead placed the music of Variation I from no. 23 in the score (the music of the Gold Fairy), as he felt that piece of music better suited the ballerina Carlotta Brianza, the first Aurora. Since the preceding number lead right into the variation that was originally composed, a key-change was warranted, thus the addition of 4 bars of music to lead into the supplemental variation. This addition is only intact in the performance score). As well, Drigo extended the harp arpeggios for the Rose Adagio (No. 8 in the score) as well as Aurora and Prince Desiré's Adagio during the Vision Scene (No. 15 in the score). This version of the music is performed by many ballet companies today, though there are those that opt to use Tchaikovsky's original score. In 1999, the Kirov Ballet (the former Imperial Ballet) reconstructed the original 1890 staging of The Sleeping Beauty.
  • In 1892, Drigo revised the score of Filippo Taglioni's 1832 ballet La Sylphide for Marius Petipa's revival. The original score was by the composer Jean Schnietzhoeffer. A variation composed by Drigo that was added to the ballet for the ballerina Varvara Nikitina was later extracted by the legendary ballerina Anna Pavlova into the famous Grand Pas Classique of the ballet Paquita during the early 1910s. This music, with its famous solo for harp, is still retained in the Grand Pas Classique to this day, and is traditionally danced by the lead ballerina of the pas. This music is almost always attributed to Léon Minkus, as he was the original composer of the Paquita Grand Pas Classique.
  • In 1895 Drigo revised the score of Tchaikovsky's 1877 ballet Swan Lake for the definitive revival of Marius Petipa and his assistant Lev Ivanov. This version of the music, better known as the "performance score" is still used by almost all ballet companies today when performing Swan Lake. For the 1895 revival, Drigo edited the score as required, adjusted Tchaikovsky's original orchestration, and also arranged numbers from Tchaikovsky's Op.72 for piano to be interpolated into various scenes of the ballet (No. 12 L'Espiegle was fashioned into the Variation of Odile of the Black Swan Pas de Deux, No.11 Valse Bluette was fashioned into the Waltz of the Swans for the final Act, and No.15 Un Poco di Chopin was fashioned into a pas de deux for the Odette and Siegfried for the final Act). Drigo also modified the Adagio or 'Love-Duet (5 of no.13 in Tchaikovsky's original score) from Act II of Swan Lake, for which he extended the opening harp arpeggios, and most importantly omitted Tchaikovsky's original allegro ending for a tacked on epilogue composed by himself). Likewise, Drigo changed the ending of the Adagio of the so-called Black Swan Pas de Deux (2 of No. 5 in Tchaikovsky's original score), omitting Tchaikovsky's original Allegro ending for a closing epilogue of his own composition. Many still marvel to this day at Drigo's magnificent work on Tchaikovsky's score for Swan Lake, as the numbers he orchestrated for interpolation blend in perfectly, as well as the numbers he modified.
  • In 1898 Drigo added music to the Pas de Six from Act II of Cesare Pugni's ballet La Esmeralda for Marius Petipa's revival. Drigo added a Dance for Coryphees and a Grand Coda to the pas. Also Drigo composed the famous La Esmeralda Pas de Deux in 1898 especially for the ballerina Mathilde Kchessinska. This music is often incorrectly attributed to Cesare Pugni.
  • In 1899 Drigo arranged a Pas de deux for Marius Petipa's revival of the ballet Le Corsaire (the opening Adagio taken from his nocturne Dreams of Spring, while the male variation was taken from Yuli Gerber's score for Petipa's Trilby, and the female variation was taken from Baron Boris Fitinhof-Schell's score for the Petipa/Cecchetti/Ivanov Cinderella ). The pas was written especially for the Prima Ballerina Assoluta Pierina Legnani, to be added into Act II of the ballet. It was first staged in the west by the great dancer Rudolf Nureyev, who performed the pas with Margot Fonteyn. For Nureyev's staging the Drigo music was re-orchestrated by John Lanchbery, with the original female variation substituted out for a variation by the composer Anton Simon. This variation, often incorrectly credited either to Drigo or to Léon Minkus, was interpolated into the ballet Don Quixote as a solo for the Variation of the Queen of the Dryads by Alexander Gorsky for his revival of the work in 1900. Today the pas is danced by ballet companies all over the world.
  • In 1903, for Kschessinska, Drigo composed two additional variations to be added into her performances of Alexander Gorsky's revival of Petipa's ballet Don Quixote. The first is the Variation of Kitri with the Fan, with its famous solo for harp, that occurs during the famous Grand Pas de Deux. The second is the Variation of Kitri as Dulcinea, which takes place during Don Quixote's so-called 'Dream Scene' in the 'Garden of Dulcinea'. Both of these variations are almost always credited to Léon Minkus, as they turn up in his works. These variations are now included in every production of the ballet around the world.
  • In 1903, Drigo composed new music for Petipa's revival of the ballet Tsar Candavl. Some of this music was utilized in 1935 by Agrippina Vaganova her revival of the ballet La Esmeralda, for a pas de deux called Diane and Actèon, first danced by Galina Ulanova and Vakhtang Chabukiani. Today this pas de deux is performed by ballet companies all over the world. It is often said that this pas was originally composed in 1886 for Petipa's revival of La Esmeralda, though this is not accurate.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../r/i/c/Riccardo_Drigo_3616.html"
In other languages