12: St. Petersburg under Catherine the Great
View of the Palace Embankment from Vasilyevsky Island. Painting by Johann Georg De Mayr, 1796
Recordings
Example 12.1: "The Powers of Heaven," Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, cond. Paul Hillier; includes Giuseppe Sarti's Now the Powers of Heaven (Nine sili nebesniye); Sarti's motet also available on Youtube
Example 12.2: John Field, Nocturne No. 5 in B flat major; Bart van Oort (on an 1823 Broadwood), Youtube
Cecilia Bartoli's new album of arias from eighteenth-century St. Petersburg (released October 2014): Amazon
See also "Audio and Video Recordings to Accompany Anthology" (click on left)
The serf soprano Prascovia, star of Count Nicholas Sheremetev's opera troupe, in the role of Eliane in Grétry's Les Mariages Samnites
Websites
A site whose primary function is to encourage travel to St. Petersburg, but offers much useful information about its history and geography as well as extensive photo gallery and collection of videos: http://www.saint-petersburg.com/
Saint Petersburg (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Reading
Anisimov, Evgenii V. Five Empresses: Court Life in Eighteenth-Century Russia (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004) Worldcat
Brover-Lubovsky, Bella. "The 'Greek Project' of Catherine the Great and Giuseppe Sarti, Journal of Musicological Research 32 (2013), 28–61
A Siberian shaman dances to the sound of a tambourine. Imperial Porcelain Manufactory, St. Petersburg (ca. 1780–1800).
Figes, Orlando. Natasha’s Dance: A Cultural History of Russia (New York: Holt, 2002) Worldcat
Heartz, Daniel. Music in European Capitals: The Galant Style, 1720–1780 (New York: Norton, 2003), 929–64 Worldcat
Keenan, Paul. St. Petersburg and the Russian Court, 1703–1761 (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)
Massie, Robert K. Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman (New York: Random House, 2011) Worldcat
Munro, George E. The Most Intentional City: St. Petersburg in the Reign of Catherine the Great (Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, 2008) Worldcat
Naroditskaya, Inna. Bewitching Russia Opera: Tsarinas from State to Stage (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) Worldcat
Piggott, Patrick. The Life and Music of John Field (1782–1837), Creator of the Nocturne (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973) Worldcat
A Russian horn ensemble performs in the gardens of Peterhof, Peter the Great's palace outside St. Petersburg
Tsarskoe Selo, Catherine the Great's palace outside of St. Petersburg
Roosevelt, Priscilla. Life on the Russian Country Estate: A Social and Cultural History (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995) Worldcat
Seaman, Gerald R. "Catherine the Great and Musical Enlightenment," New Zealand Slavonic Journal 2003, 129–36 JSTOR
Smith, Douglas. The Pearl: A Tale of Forbidden Love in Catherine the Great’s Russia (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2008) Worldcat
Map of St. Petersburg by Johann Baptist Homann, ca. 1720. Parts of this map, such as the grid pattern on Vasilyevsky Island (on the left), constitute plans for future development, which were only partially realized. Czar Peter laid his city out on a grand scale; this map covers an area about 7.5 miles (12 km) across.
Study Guide
Names, titles, and terms introduced in chapter 12
Czar Peter the Great
Bartolomeo Rastrelli
Empress Catherine the Great
Baldassare Galuppi
Tommaso Traetta
Ifigenia in Tauride
Antigona
Piangi, o Tebe
Non piangete i casi miei
Giovanni Paisiello
I filosofi immaginari
Il barbiere di Siviglia
Giusto ciel
Già riede primavera
finale
Count Nicholas Sheremetev
Prascovia Ivanovna Kovalyova
Giuseppe Sarti
Nïne silï nebesnïya
Dmitry Bortniansky
Jan Antonin Mareš
John Field
nocturne
