Arias from St. Petersburg

Monday, December 8, 2014

The new CD St. Petersburg by Cecilia Bartoli will certainly be a present under many Christmas trees this year.

The Italian singer consulted the archives of the Mariinsky Theater Library in St. Petersburg (RUS-SPtob) for this album. These holdings are not yet cataloged in RISM but many of the arias by Italian and German composers who were employed at the Russian court can be found in other libraries.

A copy of Domenico Cimarosa’s aria “Agitata in tante pene” from La Vergine del sole can also be found in Beroun, Czech Republic (CZ-BER HU 396, RISM ID no. 550019143) and a copy of the full opera is in Schwerin, Germany (D-SWl Mus. 1492, RISM ID no. 240001291).

Not as well known are the settings by Hermann Raupach (1728-1778), who was assistant harpsichordist at the St. Petersburg court orchestra starting in 1755 and succeeded Francesco Araja as maestro di cappella in 1759. Other arias – apart from the ones on the CD – from his opera Siroe can be found today in Belgium and Sweden.

Photo credit: Mariinsky.ru: The Mariinsky Theatre prior to reconstruction in 1885, designed by the architect Alberto Cavos

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