A New Order for Russian Opera House Archives

Western scholars have long had an inkling that there must be a musicological gold mine hidden in the chaotic archives of the St. Petersburg-based Kirov-Mariinsky Opera. But for a Russian opera company struggling to reinvent itself in a new, capitalist society, maintaining a historic music library hasn’t been an immediate priority.

Now, as the Kirov prepares to increase its presence in this country--including a 10-year commitment to perform at the Kennedy Center beginning next year--it has decided to put its musical closet in order.

On March 30, the Library of Congress and the Kirov’s energetic leader, Valery Gergiev, will jointly announce plans to catalog, microfilm and preserve the invaluable collection of musical scores now moldering at the Mariinsky Theater (the pre-Soviet name of the company’s magnificent 19th century opera house).

Librarian of Congress James Billington has offered the Kirov the technical expertise of this country’s national library to help with preservation. In exchange, a microfilmed copy of the Kirov’s holdings will be made available to scholars at the music division of the Library of Congress.

“This was the old czar’s archive, and it has clearly never been fully inventoried,” says Billington. “There’s a card catalog, but the collection isn’t fully preserved. They’re anxious to do it, and we want to help them.”

Billington, a Russian scholar, first discussed the idea last spring with Gergiev, a farsighted and ferociously effective promoter of his company. That meeting led to an initial survey of the collection by Library of Congress scholars and preservationists; although Billington is hesitant to give specifics, it’s clear that a first pass through the archive has turned up an exciting cache of music.

“This is a treasure trove,” says Billington. “One of the long-range benefits will be to fill in our knowledge, particularly of 18th century composers through the time of Rossini. Without having had time to inspect the material in detail, all of this is a matter of uncertainty. There is a large amount of Rossini, a large number of things by Meyerbeer, and there appears to be a fair amount of Johann Strauss and even some Richard Strauss.”

Billington is cautious about announcing discoveries because multiple copies of musical scores frequently exist, creating confusion that can take scholars years to sort out. Even scores that appear to be handwritten originals can be copies or revisions of material already known and performed elsewhere.

Nonetheless, some material by Rossini not heard for more than a century and a half has now been located. Three marches for military band have been unearthed in St. Petersburg, according to University of Chicago Rossini scholar Philip Gossett, who has seen an e-mailed copy of one of the pieces.

*

Although Western researchers have had access to the collection, the Kirov archive hasn’t been an easy place to do research. Gossett says the archive traditionally hasn’t provided copies of material that scholars would like to examine at greater length. Researchers also found they had to know exactly what they were looking for if they were to have any hope of retrieving useful material.

The value of the library reflects the importance of St. Petersburg as a destination for Western European composers during the 18th and 19th centuries. As Russia’s most westward-leaning city, czarist St. Petersburg had a particular passion for importing fashionable opera composers. The imperial court paid Italian and French composers handsomely to provide material for its opera houses. In the 18th century, several composers of central importance to the development of Italian opera resided in St. Petersburg, serving as court conductors and composers. Domenico Cimarosa, whose opera “La Cleopatra” exists in autograph score in the Kirov archives, spent four years in St. Petersburg; Giovanni Paisiello, whose “Barber of Seville” predates Rossini’s, served in the city for eight years.

After the craze for Italian theater came an equally impassioned devotion to French opera and ballet; the possibility of finding important new discoveries of Giacomo Meyerbeer is one of the exciting unknowns of the archiving project.

Billington says there is also a collection of vaudeville scores the library has yet to examine.