Zamečanija o recepcii ital’janskoj opery-seria v period ot carstvovanija Anny Ioannovny do carstvovanija Ekateriny II

After decades of absolute supremacy of Italians on Russian stages, the possibility of singing in Russian was successfully tested in the theatres of Moscow and St Petersburg from the 1770s onwards. However, in the last quarter of the century, translations made for stage production drew attention to the inadequacy of foreign productions to satisfy the needs of the Russian audience, which by that time had matured enough knowledge in theatrical matters and developed specific wishes in terms of verisimilitude and pertinence to the local cultural environment. This debate also concerned the field of music theatre, the traditional prestige of Italian opera notwithstanding. This inevitably entailed the discussion of Italian performances at a time when the emerging need for a repertoire responding to national requirements was leading to the earliest attempts at creating a Russian brand-genre in the field of comedy – the opera komicheskaya. The effort to create an adequate Russian repertoire was coeval to the European discussion on opera-seria as a genre that was in need of innovation, notably in reference to the model established by Pietro Metastasio, which was being overtaken by Gluck/Calzabigi’s ‘opera riformata.’ In the Russian context similar issues were commented on in the journal Utra, edited by the actor and playwright Petr Alekseevich Plavil’shchikov (1760 – 1812) in 1782. This paper aims at discussing Plavil’shchikov’s criticism of Italian opera-seria and other theatrical experiences in terms of dramatic coherence and verisimilitude and of its capability of satisfying contemporary Russian audiences.