La adaptación literaria y musical de las óperas "Una Cosa Rara" y "L’Arbone di Diana" de Vicente Martín y Soler para los escenarios rusos

Resum

The Spanish composer Vicente Martín y Soler (1754-1806) has been the subject of several studies carried out over the last decades, thanks to which his artistic trajectory and the relevance of his work within the European scenic context of late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, has been more valued. The profusion of works created by the composer and his multiple living locations with Europe have caused a considerable shortage of study of much of his compositions, as well as others with several inaccuracies . One of these aspects to which there was not enough attention given. is the staging in Imperial Russia of two of his most famous operas composed in Vienna and based on librettos by Lorenzo Da Ponte. Una cosa rara (1786) and L'arbore di Diana (1787). This process, whose purpose was to ensure the acceptance by the Russian public, required a complex process. Besides a translation of the text of the librettos, their structure was changed, numbers were added and discarded, the character of some characters altered, etc. These changes not only required a series of musical arrangements but also the composition of new music, which were carried out by Martín and Soler himself by reworking his operas in accordance to "Russified" librettos by the playwright and translator Ivan Dmitrevsky. While previous studies on this matter were almost exclusively concerned with the reformed character of the libretto translations, the musical aspects were neglected, with consequent inaccuracies regarding the work carried out by Martin and Soler on these scores. To shed light on this subject, we contribute with new data which can allow us a better understanding of the goals and vicissitudes of these famous operas in Russia, as well as practical consequences in their “scenic fate”.