Riccardo Drigo
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Riccardo Eugenio Drigo (ru. Риккардо Эудженьо Дриго), a.k.a. Richard Drigo (30 June 1846, Padua, Italy — 1 October 1930, Padua, Italy) was an Italian composer of ballet and Italian Opera, and a theatrical conductor and virtuoso pianist.
Drigo is most noted for his long career as kapellmeister to the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, and as Director of Music to the renowned Imperial Ballet, where he composed music for the original works and revivals of the great choreographer Marius Petipa. During his career in St. Petersburg, Drigo conducted the premieres and performances of nearly every ballet and opera performed on the Tsarist stage, and was considered to be among the best European theatrical conductors.
Drigo is equally noted for his original compositions for the ballet, as well as his adaptations of already existing scores, and the substantial number of supplemental dances and variations he composed. Among his original scores for the ballet, he is most noted for The Talisman (Petipa, 1889); The Magic Flute (Lev Ivanov, 1893); The Awakening of Flora (Petipa, 1894); and Harlequinade (Petipa, 1900), from which two extremely popular repertory pieces are often extracted: Notturno d'Amour - Serenade and the Valse Bluette, perhaps Drigo's most well-known compositions. Drigo's most well-known adaptation is his 1895 revision of Tchaikovsky's score for Swan Lake, which was done for the important revival of Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov.
Among the many divertissement pieces which are performed today to Drigo's music, he is noted for the Le Corsaire Pas de Deux (1899); the La Esmeralda Pas de Deux (1899); the La Esmeralda Pas de Six (1886), the Diane and Acteon Pas de Deux (1903); The Talisman Pas de Deux; and the Harlequinade Pas de Deux.
[edit] Life
Riccardo Eugenio Drigo was born in Padua, Italy on June 30, 1846. His father Silvio Drigo was a lawyer and his mother, a noble Lupati, was quite active in politics. Not one member of the young 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 piano protegé. His father eventually agreed to allow Drigo to attend the prestigious Venice Conservatory, where he studied under the distinguished teacher Antonio Buzzolla, a student of the great Gaetano Donizetti. Drigo scored his first compositions in his early teens, which were primarily romances and waltzes. In 1862 he was allowed to perform some of his pieces with the local amateur orchestra in Padua, and it was through this performance that he 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. But due to an over-abundance of conservatory-trained musicians throughout Italy, Drigo had little hope of a conducting career.
At age twenty-two, Drigo presented is first opera at the Garibaldi Theatre. The 2 Act Don Pedro di Portogallo (Don Pedro of Portugal) premiered to considerable success on July 25, 1868, but performances had to be cancelled due to a cholera epidemic which closed all theatres in the vicinity of Padua.
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 he was the rehearsal pianist, and as such knew the score intimately. Drigo's conducting was a great success, and soon he was named second kapelmeister.
Drigo gained experience serving as conductor in provincial theatres throughout Italy and various parts of Europe over the next ten years, and soon was conducting at some of the most celebrated operas in the great theatres of Europe - 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, among many others. In time he was conducting some of the first performances of Wagner's operas at La Scala.
In 1878 Drigo's life would change forever. 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, and soon Kister offered Drigo a six month contract to conduct the St. Petersburg Imperial Italian Opera.
[edit] Russia
Almost immediately after arriving in St. Petersburg, Drigo was conducting the entire repertory of the Imperial Italian Opera. He impressed the management a great deal, conducting such mammoth works as Verdi's Aida and Un ballo in maschera completely 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 were being renewed for seven consecutive one-year terms, allowing him 3 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 Amilcare Ponchielli's I Lituani, which was presented under the title Aldona. That same year Drigo traveled to Milan at the behest of Giacomo Puccini to conduct the premiere of his opera Le Villi at the Teatro dal Verme. The great composer was so pleased with Drigo's conducting that he telegraphed Drigo for years to come on the anniversary of the premiere. In 1885 Drigo returned to Milan's Teatro dal Verme to conduct the premiere of Ponchielli Marion Delorme.
Drigo's abilities as a pianist were much celebrated in his day. At La Scala he often accompanied the great violinist Antonio Bazzini during concerts. Drigo was often called upon to perform for the Imperial Russian Court by Tsar Alexander II, and accompanied touring musicians during concert tours at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny 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 February 22, 1884, 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.
[edit] Ballet Composer
In 1884 Emperor Alexander III 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. Drigo was immediately offered the post of principal conductor to the Imperial Russian Opera (with a repertory consisting almost entirely of Russian and German works), which he accepted.
In 1886 the 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 September 25, 1886 with a performance of the old Grand Ballet The Pharaoh's Daughter, set to the score of Cesare Pugni. In attendance for the performance was the Emperor and his wife, the Empress Maria Fyodorovna, both of whom were fanatic balletomanes (the Russian ballet of that time was maintained lavishly at the expense of the crown). 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.
Also in 1886 the Imperial Theatre's official composer of ballet music, the Czech Ludwig Minkus, retired from his post. In the light of this the director of the St. Peterbsurg Imperial Theatres, Ivan Vsevolozhsky, abolished the position of a staff ballet composer in an effort to diversify the style of music supplied for new works. Minkus was the second composer to occupy the position of First Ballet Composer to the Court of His Imperial Majesty, a position originally created in 1850 for the prolific Italian ballet composer Cesare Pugni. Both composers were known as "speialists" — being highly skilled in creating the light, melodious, musique dansante then in vogue for all of the new ballets staged by the Imperial Theatres. They were required by contract to not only 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 already existing scores for the numerous revivals put on by the company.
Since Drigo was well known as a capable composer, the director Vsevolozhsky employed him in the dual capacity as not only kapellmeister but also as Director of Music, a position which would require Drigo to fulfil 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 Première maître de ballet en chef (first Ballet Master and choreographer/artistic director), Marius Petipa, revived the 1841 ballet 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, though he had no desire to look outside the theatre for a composer to score the dances he required. In light of this Petipa approached Drigo, who happily composed four additional numbers — a Danse pour quatre danseuses and a new Grand coda to be added to the ballet's famous Pas de six of Act II-scene 2; a Grand adage for Act II-scene 1 that consisted of a virtuoso violin solo for Leopold Auer (lead violinist to the orchestra of the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre); and a Danse bohème (Bohemian Dance) for Act I-scene 1.
The revival premiered on December 17, 1886 to great success. La Esmeralda was among the favorite works of Emperor Alexander III, who was in attended for the performance. After the performance the Emperor met with Drigo on stage to congratulate him on his additional material as well as his conducting. Placing his hadn on Drigo's shoulder, he commented that " ... the music was magnificent: under your direction the orchestra has made much progress." Drigo's additional numbers from 1886 remain part of the performance score for La Esmeralda to the present day, and are also included in various repertory excerpts such as the La Esmeralda Pas de Six and the La Esmeralda Pas de Deux.
With the success of his work on the score of La Esmeralda, the director Vsevolozhsky gave Drigo his first commission to compose an original score for the ballet. This was The Enchanted Forest, which was not only Drigo's first full-length ballet score but also the first original work choreographed by the Imperial Theatre's newly appointed second Ballet Master, Lev Ivanov. The Enchanted Forest was staged for the graduation ceremonies of the Imperial Ballet School, with the top graduates in the leading roles. The work premiered on April 6, 1887 on the stage of the school's theatre, and was then transplanted to the stage of the Mariinsky Theatre, where it premiered on May 15, 1887 with the great Italian Ballerina Emma Bessone in the lead role of Ilka. Although Ivanov's choreography was not unanimously well-received, Drigo garnered 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 and 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 The Enchanted Forest. In 1888 Petipa requested of the director Vsevolozhsky that Drigo compose the music for his next Grand Ballet, The Talisman, which told the story of a Hindu Goddess who decsends to earth in order to find her lost amulet. The ballet premiered on February 6, 1889 with the Italian Ballerina Elena Cornalba in the role of the Goddess Niriti. Although the production of the ballet was not a success, Drigo's score caused a sensation among the St. Petersburg balletomanes, leading the old Maestro Petipa to exclaim "I should have had the orchestra play on stage and the dancers perform in the pit!" Even the great Tchaikovsky praised Drigo for his music, to which he commented " ... your skill as a melodist and orchestrator is extraordinary."
A critic of the St. Petersburg Gazette found hailed the score as a masterwork:
| “ | "Mr. Drigo has found the perfect medium between the musique dansante of the specialist and the sophistication of orchestration of the symphonist with his music for The Talisman. For the dancer, the music is filled with wondrous, sparkling melodies and clear, simple rhythms. For the musician, Drigo provides sumptuous scoring and a great variety of instrumentation. One is pleased when hearing the music by the great care and taste with which Mr. Drigo has composed this masterpeice of ballet music. | ” |
The artist Alexander Benois told in his memoirs (titled Mémoirs) 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:
| “ | "It was Drigo's simple and charming music that had attracted both Valetchka (Walter Nouvelle - member of Mir iskusstva) and me (to Petipa's The Talisman). In fact we had been so delighted with it at the premiere that our noisy approval had attracted the attention, and seemed to shock, the then rather popular St. Petersburg General Governor Grösser ... he turned round (from his permanent seat in the front row stalls), affecting a severe expression, and shook his finger at us. My enthusiasm was so great, however, that I could not stop applauding and even felt compelled to exclaim "Mais puisque, Excellence, c'est un chef d'oeuvre!" - upon which his Excellency deigned to bestow on me a fatherly smile." | ” |
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 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 everafter grateful to Drigo for his exceptional conducting, particularly after the premiere on January 15, 1890. Drigo eventually conducted nearly 300 performances of The Sleeping Beauty at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre. Two years later Drigo conducted the premiere of Tchaikovsky's next work, The Nutcracker, on December 6, 1892.
Earlier in 1892 Drigo performed an important revision on Jean-Madeliene Schnietzhoeffer's score for Filippo Taglioni's original 1832 La Sylphide, which Petipa revived for the Ballerina Vavara Nikitina. Among the additional numbers Drigo composed was a variation orchestrated for solo harp for the Sylph in the first act Grand Pas de trois. In 1904 Petipa arranged the variation for Anna Pavlova's debut in Paquita, which is today included in the famous Paquita Grand Pas Classique as a variation for the lead Ballerina.
In 1893 Drigo composed another score for the graduation ceremonies of the Imperial Ballet school. This was the one-act ballet The Magic Flute, which told the story of an enchanted instrument that compelled all within earshot to dance when played. The ballet was staged by Lev Ivanov, and premiered on March 10, 1893 to great success on the stage of the ballet school's theatre. The cast included a young Mikhail Fokine in the lead role of Luc, and Agrippina Vaganova in the role of the farmer's wife.
Due to the success of the student performance, The Magic Flute was transferred to the Imperial Mariinsky stage, where it was presented in an expanded staging on April 12, 1894. Drigo's score was highly praised by critics:
| “ | " ... Mr. Drigo astounds the listener with his ability to create a near limitless variety of beautiful dansante rhythms and melodies, all the while including rich, almost symphonic orchestration. | ” |
Drigo's next score was written for Petipa's ballet The Awakening of Flora, an anacreontic ballet in one-act specially produced for the celebrations held at Peterhof in honor of the wedding of the Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna to the Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich. The premiere on July 25, 1894 was a grand occasion, with an audience comprised of the whole of the Imperial court. As with The Magic Flute the ballet was transferred to the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, where it was given for the first time on January 8, 1895. The ballet soon became a favorite of the Ballerinas of the era, among them Mathilde Kschessinskaya (who created the role of Flora), Tamara Karsavina, and Anna Pavlova, who included an abriged version of the work on her tours.
