Scraping the Rust off Berezovsky’s Demofoonte 

Authors

  • Giulio Minniti Harvard University Author

Keywords:

Maxim Berezovsky, Count Pavel Orlov, Antonio Sacchini, Mentre il cor, Marina Ritzarev, Claudio Sartori, Robert Mooser, Livorno, Florence

Abstract

Maxim Berezovsky’s Demofoonte is regarded as the first opera written by a Russian composer, as it was staged in Livorno, Italy in 1773. The lack of information surrounding its performance(s) is severe and the material that has come down to us is nothing but four arias reported in a Florentine manuscript. Due to this document and a couple others, other scholars have inferred that Berezovsky’s Demofoonte had at least another representation in Florence. Based on unnoticed bibliographical references and a personal evaluation of the manuscript, I argue instead that sources have been misinterpreted, thus confining in Livorno its only representation. I also show that Berezovsky re-worked one of the four arias from a previous setting of the same lyrics by Antonio Sacchini. This unique situation allows to see how Berezovsky, a Russian composer, moulded in an Italianate fashion a previous work written by Sacchini in his highly idiosyncratic, personal style. 

Author Biography

  • Giulio Minniti, Harvard University

    Giulio Minniti is currently a graduate student in Historical Musicology at the Harvard University, US. He obtained degrees with honours in Philosophy at the University of Naples and in Musicology at the University of Milan, plus a Diploma in Gregorian Chant at the Conservatory of Italian Switzerland. He is currently working on the abbreviations of the centonized melodies in Gregorian Chant. 

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Published

2024-04-23

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Section

Articles