Riccardo Drigo

Maestro Riccardo Eugenio Drigo. St. Petersburg, 1894

Riccardo Eugenio Drigo (ru. Риккардо Эудженьо Дриго), a.k.a. Richard Drigo (30 June, 1846 – 1 October, 1930) was an Italian composer of ballet music and Italian Opera, a theatrical conductor and virtuoso pianist.

Drigo is most noted for his long career as kapellmeister and Director of Music of the renowned Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg, Russia, for which he composed music for the original works and revivals of the choreographers Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. Drigo also served as Chef d’orchestre for Italian opera performances of the orchestra the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre. During his career in St. Petersburg, Drigo conducted the premieres and regular performances of nearly every ballet and Italian opera performed on the Tsarist stage, and was considered to be one of the finest theatrical conductors in Europe.

Drigo is equally noted for his original compositions for the ballet and his adaptations of already-existing scores. He is also well-known for the myriad of supplemental pas, variations and incidental dances he composed ad hoc for insertion into already-existing ballets. Many of these pieces are still performed regularly today, though the composer is often not properly credited for them in modern theatre programs, films, etc. Among Drigo's original scores for the ballet, he is most noted for Le Talisman (Petipa, 1889); La Flûte magique (Ivanov, 1893); Le Réveil de Flore (Petipa, 1894); and Les Millions d’Arlequin (a.k.a. Harlequinade) (Petipa, 1900). Drigo's score for Les Millions d’Arlequin spawned the popular repertory piece Notturno d’Amour—Serenade, which is perhaps his most famous composition. Drigo's work on Tchaikovsky's score for Swan Lake—prepared for the important revival of Petipa and Ivanov—is certainly his most well-known adaptation of already-existing music.

There are many Pas de deux and divertissements set to the music of Drigo, and are considered cornerstones of the classical ballet repertory. Some of these pieces were created after Drigo's death, and were set to music fashioned from his full-length scores: Le Corsaire Pas de Deux (1915, by Samuil Andrianov); the La Esmeralda Pas de Deux (1899, for Mathilde Kschessinskaya); the La Esmeralda Pas de Six (1886, Petipa), the Diane and Acteon Pas de Deux (1932, Agripppina Vaganova after Petipa); The Talisman Pas de Deux (1955, by Pyotr Gusev); the Harlequinade Pas de Deux (1931, by Fyodor Lopukhov), and the Ocean and the Pearls pas de trois (1912, by Alexander Gorsky, after Petipa), a piece extracted from Drigo's score for Petipa's 1896 ballet La Perle, and later inserted into the ballet The Little Humpbacked Horse by Alexander Gorsky.

Life

Riccardo Eugenio Drigo was born in Padua, Italy on 30 June, 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. Through this performance the young Drigo 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.

At age twenty-two, Drigo presented his first opera at the Garibaldi Theatre. The 2 act Don Pedro di Portogallo (Don Pedro of Portugal) premiered to considerable success on 25 July, 1868, but performances had to be cancelled due to a cholera epidemic which closed all theatres in the vicinity of Padua for some time.

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 kapellmeister.

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. Among the performances were 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. In time he was conducting some of the first performances of Wagner's operas at La Scala.

In 1878 Drigo's life would change drastically. 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.

Russia

Caricature by the brothers Nikolai and Sergei Legat of Riccardo Drigo conducting the orchestra of the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre.

Almost immediately after arriving in St. Petersburg, Drigo was conducting the entire repertory of the Imperial Italian Opera, who at that time performed at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre. 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, Spain 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 his appreciation to Drigo for years to come on the anniversary of the premiere. In 1884 Drigo conducted the inauguration performance at Padua's Teatro Nuovo, which was re-named as the Teatro Verdi and renovated by the architect Achille Sfondrini. For the performance the Mayor fo Padua granted Drigo the Order of the cavaliere di Gran Croce. In 1885 Drigo returned to Milan's Teatro dal Verme to conduct the premiere of Ponchielli's 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 III, and accompanied touring musicians during concert tours at the Imperial Bolshoi 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 6 March [O.S. 22 February] 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.

Composer and conductor

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 St. Petersburg 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 7 October [O.S. 25 September] 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 Imperial purse). 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.

In 1886 the Imperial Theatre's official composer of ballet music, the Czech Ludwig Minkus, retired from his post. In 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 music supplied for new works. Minkus was the second composer to occupy the position of Ballet Composer of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, a position originally created in 1850 for the prolific Italian composer Cesare Pugni. Both composers were known as "specialists" — being highly skilled in creation of the musique dansante then in vogue for the ballet. They were required by contract not only to 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 of kapellmeister and Director of Music, a position which would require Drigo to fulfill all of the duties of the staff composer with regard to adapting and correcting scores at the behest of the Ballet Master.

Riccardo Drigo (wearing white, front row, right) and the musicians of the orchestra of the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre on the occasion of the last Imperial Costume Ball of the Emperor's court. St. Petersburg, 24 February [O.S. 11 February] 1903

In 1886 the Imperial Theatre's renowned Premier Maître de Ballet, the frenchman Marius Petipa, revived Jules Perrot's 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 new Pas de six designed to showcase the dramatic gifts of Zucchi; a Grand adage that consisted of a virtuoso violin solo for the great Leopold Auer (principal violinist of the Imperial Theatre's orchestra); and a Danse bohème (Bohemian Dance). The revival premiered to great success on 29 December [O.S. 17 December] 1886. In attendance for the premiere was the Emperor and Empress, both of whom considered La Esmeralda to be among their favorite works. After the performance the Emperor met with Drigo on stage to congratulate him on his additional material as well as his conducting. Placing his hand 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 La Forêt enchantée (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 Maître de Ballet Lev Ivanov. La Forêt enchantée was staged especially for the graduation performance of the Imperial Ballet School, with the top graduates in the leading roles. The work premiered on 12 April [O.S. 6 April] 1887 on the stage of the school's theatre, and was subsequently transferred to the stage of the Mariinsky Theatre, where it premiered on 1 June [O.S. 15 May] 1887 with the great Italian ballerina Emma Bessone in the lead role of Ilka. Although Ivanov's choreography was not 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 La Forêt enchantée. In 1888 the Ballet Master was preparing his next work, La Vestale, a colossal grand ballet set in the ancient Roman Empire. The score was written by the music critic Mikhail Ivanov, who counted Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky among his instructors. Ivanov provided what was at that time considered to be a highly symphonic score for the ballet, and the visiting ballerina for which the work was produced, the Italian Elena Cornalba, appealed to Petipa for additional, more "dansante" music for her dances. Having just witnessed a performance of La Forêt enchantée, she requested that Drigo should be the composer responsible for supplemental dances she required. This Drigo did, composing an additional variation for Cornalba known as L’echo, a Valse mignonne, and even an extra variation for the ballerina Maria Gorshenkova, who performed as one of the ballet's secondary characters.

Le Talisman

Vaslav Nijinsky costumed as the God Vayou in Nikolai Legat's revival of the Drigo/Petipa Le Talisman. St. Petersburg, 1909

Both Cornalba and Petipa were thoroughly impressed with Drigo's music. When plans were made for the next ballet starring the ballerina, she requested that Drigo should be the composer responsible for the entire score. This was Le Talisman, a work which told the story of a Hindu Goddess who descends to earth in order to find her lost amulet. The ballet premiered on 12 February [O.S. 6 February] 1889 on the occasion of Cornalba's benefit performance. Although the production of the ballet was a mediocre success, Drigo's score was much celebrated. The artist Alexander Benois told in his memoirs 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 me (to Petipa's Le Talisman). In fact (I) had been so delighted with it at the premiere that I could not stop applauding and even felt compelled to exclaim "Mais puisque, excellence, c’est un chef-d’œuvre!"

Following the successes of his additional music for La Esmeralda and La Vestale and his score for Le Talisman, Drigo repeatedly received commissions from both Marius Petripa and Lev Ivanov to compose supplemental variations, pas, and incidental dances for insertion into older ballets. By the time Drigo left Russia in 1919, nearly every ballet in the repertory of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres contained additional pieces by Drigo, and it even became a symbol of one's status as a dancer for Drigo to supply new music for a variation choreographed by Petipa. Drigo later commented in his memoirs that he composed about 80 such pieces. More often than not Drigo received no extra payment for such compositions. During this time Petipa began to mount revivals of older ballets with increasing frequency, and the Ballet Master called upon Drigo to revise the scores accordingly.

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 3 January [O.S. 15 January] 1890. Drigo eventually conducted nearly 300 performances of The Sleeping Beauty at the Mariinsky Theatre. Two years later Drigo conducted the premiere of Tchaikovsky's next work, The Nutcracker, on 12 December [O.S. 6 December] 1892.

La Flûte magique and Le Réveil de Flore

In 1893 Drigo composed another score for the graduation ceremonies of the Imperial Ballet school. This was the one-act ballet La Flûte magique (The Magic Flute), which told the story of an enchanted instrument that compelled all within earshot to dance when it was played. The ballet was staged by Lev Ivanov, and premiered on 22 March [O.S. 10 March] 1893 to great success on the stage of the ballet school's theatre, with a cast that included the young Mikhail Fokine in the lead role of Luc. Due to the success of the student performance, La Flûte magique was transferred to the Mariinsky Theatre, where it was presented in an expanded staging on 31 March [O.S. 12 April] 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 work Le Réveil de Flore (The Awakening of Flora), an anacreontic ballet in one-act that was produced especially 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 6 August [O.S. 25 July] 1894 was a grand occasion, with an audience composed of the whole of the Imperial court. For his score for Le Réveil de Flore, Emperor Alexander III granted Drigo the Order of St. Anna.

Illustrated libretto for Riccardo Drigo's ballet La Perle, taken from the program for the celebrations held at the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow in honor of the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna. 29 May [O.S. 17 May] 1896

As with La Flûte magique Le Réveil de Flore was transferred to the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, where it was given for the first time on 20 January [O.S. 8 January] 1894. The ballet soon became a favorite of the ballerinas of the era, among them Mathilde Kschessinskaya (who created the principal role of Flora), Tamara Karsavina and particularly Anna Pavlova, who included an abriged version of the work on her legendary world tours.

Swan Lake

In 1894 Drigo prepared an important revision to Tcahikovsky's score for Swan Lake, originally produced at the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow in 1877. Following the success of The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, Ivan Vsevolozhsky—director of the St. Petersburg Theatres—expressed interest in reviving the ballet. Drigo later recalled

...I knew of (Tchaikovsky's) dissatisfaction with the instrumentation of (Swan Lake), and that he intended to take up the matter, but he never managed to do this.

Tchaikovsky died on 6 November [O.S. 25 October] 1893 just as plans to revive Swan Lake were beginning to come to fruition. A revival opf the complete work was then planned for the Imperial Ballet's 1894-1895 season, in a staging by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. Tchaikovsky's brother Modeste approved that Drigo should be entrusted with the task of revising the score, which the composer did in accordance with Petipa's instructions. In his memoirs Drigo touched on his revision to the score:

...it was my lot, like a surgeon, to perform an operation on Swan Lake, and I feared that I might not grasp the individuality of the great Russian master.

The revival premiered on 27 January [O.S. 15 January] 1895 at the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre with the great Prima ballerina assoluta Pierina Legnani in the dual role of Odette/Odile. Drigo's version of Tchaikovsky's score has remained the definitive performance edition of Swan Lake, and is used to one degree or another by ballet companies throughout the world. Nevertheless, Drigo is rarely given credit when his revisions are performed.

La Perle

Drigo's next score for the ballet was the grand piece d’occassion La Perle, produced especially for the gala held at the Imperial Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow in honor of the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna. The program was based almost entirely on the ballet-tableau La Pérégrina from Verdi's opera Don Carlos, and was produced lavishly by Marius Petipa. Le Perle premiered on 29 May [O.S. 17 May] 1896 after a performance of Glinka's A Life for the Tsar, with the Imperial ballet companies of both Moscow and St. Petersburg participating in the performance. Set in an under-water kingdom, Le Perle featured elaborate stage transformations and an apotheosis befitting the royal occasion for which it was produced. The performance included six first-class danseuses of both the St. Petersburg and Moscow troupes—Pierina Legnani, Adelaide Giuri, Lyubov Roslavleva, Mathilde Kschessinskaya, Claudia Kulichevskaya and Anna Johanssen. Drigo later commented in his memoirs of how difficult it was to compose effective variations for the ballerinas while still maintaing variety. The score—which boasted offstage choruses and fantastical orchestral effects—impressed the new Emperor so much that he granted Drigo the Order of Saint Stanislaus.

Les Millions d’Arlequin

Alexander Shiryaev costumed as Harlequin in the Drigo/Petipa Les Millions d’Arlequin. St. Petersburg, circa 1905

In 1899 Petipa began work on the scenario for a ballet based on episodes from the Italian commedia dell’arte, which he called Les Millions d’Arlequin (The Millions of Harlequin). At the same time he also produced a libretto for an allegorical ballet titled Les Saisons (The Seasons), which expressed the four seasons through Petipa's classical formula of various pas, variations and elaborate Grand pas. Originally Petipa intended to commission the score of Les Millions d’Arlequin to Drigo's close friend and colleague, the great composer and pedagogue Alexander Glazunov. In turn Drigo was originally intended to compose the score for Petipa's Les Saisons, but both composers developed an affinity for the other's assigned ballet, and Glazunov adamantly expressed that the subject of Les Millions d’Arlequin was perfect in every respect for the Italian composer's talents. In the end Glazunov was commissioned to compose the score for Les Saisons, and Drigo that of Les Millions d’Arlequin.

While working on the score for Les Millions d’Arlequin, Drigo took daily walks through the St. Petersburg Summer Garden and along the banks of the Neva River, all the while thinking of his native Italy. During one such daily walk, Drigo composed the ballet's famous Serenade called Notturno d’amour, which the composer set to the accompaniment of a solo mandolin. The ballet premiered at the Imperial Theatre of the Hermitage on 23 February [O.S. 10 February] 1900 with the great Prima ballerina assoluta Mathilde Kschessinskaya in role of Columbine and the Premier danseur Gyorgy Kyaksht in the role of Harlequin. The audience included the Emperor and Empress as well as the whole of the Imperial court.

Within moments of the final curtain the typically subdued courtly audience erupted into thunderous applause. The composer received a tumultuous reception as he went before the courtain and was mobbed my several princes and Grand Dukes who tripped over one another in their enthusiasm to congradulate him. Due to her delight in Drigo's score, the Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna commanded two additional court performances of Les Millions d’Arlequin at the Mariinsky Theatre, the first given on 26 February [O.S. 13 February] 1900. When plans were underway to publish Drigo's score in piano reduction by the publishing company Zimmermann, many of Drigo's colleagues urged the composer to dedicate his score to the Empress. Drigo's request was then submitted to the Minister of the Imperial Court, which brought about a lengthy correspondence by a commission set up to investigate whether or not Drigo's character, background, and music were worthy of his offering a dedication to a Russian Empress. The response was favorable and the dedication was graciously accepted.

Later years in Russia

In the spring of 1902, Drigo and a group of dancers from the Imperial Ballet were invited by Raoul Gunsbourg, director of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, to produce a ballet in Monaco. Drigo composed the music for the ballet-divertissement titled La Côte d’Azur, set to a libretto by Prince Albert I. The ballet premiered at the Salle Garnier on 30 March, 1902, and featured the great Prima ballerina Olga Preobrajesnkaya.

Drigo's last original ballet score was also Marius Petipa's final work — La Romance de la rose et le papillon (The Romance of the Rose and the Butterfly). The ballet was to have had its premiere at the Imperial Theatre of the Hermitage on 5 February [O.S. 23 January] 1904 but was abruptly canceled, the official reason given being the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War. It was the belief of the newly appointed director of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theatres, Vladimir Telyakovsky, that the Imperial Ballet had become stagnat under Petipa's leadership. In light of the fact that Petipa still legally held the position of Premier Maître de Ballet of the company, Telyakovsky began to make efforts to drive the eighty-five year old Ballet Master from the theatre; the cancellation of the premiere of La Romance de la rose et le papillon was one such attempt that finally led to Petipa's retirement in 1905.

Drigo also fell victim to the disfavor of Telyakovsky. When the great composer and conductor Gustav Mahler visited a ballet performance conducted by Drigo in 1902, he was invited by the directorate to watch the performance in the Director's lodge. Mahler expressed to Telyakovsky his surprise at the fact that Drigo rarely used his left hand when conducting, and that he had been impressed by his ability to synchronize the music and stage action. Mahler had informed Telyakovsky that he wished to meet Drigo and congratulate him for his abilities as a conductor. Telyakovsky purposefully avoided arranging the meeting, and it was only days later that the Secertary of the Italian Embassy—who had been sitting directly behind Mahler—informed Drigo of the exchange.

In 1909 Drigo prepared a new version of his score for Le Talisman for a revival of the ballet staged by Nikolai Legat. The revival premiered to a resounding success on December 12 [O.S. November 29] 1909 at the Mariinsky Theatre, with an audience consisting of the Dowager Empress Marie. The cast featured Olga Preobrajenskaya as the Goddess Niriti and Vaslav Nijinsky as the Wind God Vayou. Drigo was then invited by Giulio Gatti-Casazza to assist in mounting Le Talisman at La Scala. The ballet was given as Le Porte-bonheur (The Bracelet) in a staging by the Ballet Master Luigi Tornelli, which premiered on 18 July, 1908.

Drigo had been vacationing in his native Italy upon the outbreak of World War I in 1914, which prevented him from returning to Russia until 1916. Soon after his arrival in Petrograd he was evicted from his home at the Grand Hotel, which was converted to offices for the newly established Soviet government. For a time Drigo was forced to live in a camp with a group of his fellow Italian émigrés. From then on Drigo lived in considerable poverty. He later recalled in his memoirs of the many cold evenings he spent with his friend and colleague Alexander Glazunov waiting for hours in bread lines and subsequently carrying their rations through the snow on a sled. Upon his first enagagment as conducter after his return to the former Imperial Mariinsky Theatre, Drigo received a standing ovation from the audience which lasted fifteen minutes.

Drigo returns to Italy

In 1919 Drigo was finally repatriated to his native Italy, and for his farewell gala the Ballet Master Fyodor Lopukhov staged Petipa's final work, La Romance de la rose et le papillon as The Tale of the Rosebud, and the great bass Feodor Chaliapin read an emotional farewell speech in both Italian and Russian. Allowed to take only 60 kilograms with him on his return to Italy, Drigo left all of his possessions in Russia with the exception of his manuscript score for La Romance de la rose et le papillon, which he used as a pillow during his two month journey through Odessa and Constantinople to his native Padua.

In 1920 Drigo accepted the post of kapellmeister to the Garibaldi Theatre in Padua, where he had began his career many years before. In 1926 he composed the comic opera Flaffy Raffles for the Opera company of the Garibaldi Theatre, and in 1929 his last work was given, the opera Il garofano bianco ('The White Carnation'). He spent the remainder of his life conducting and composing various songs (including a vocal version of the famous serenade from Les millions d' Harlequin, which Beniamino Gigli made a world-wide hit with) and masses. He died on 1 October, 1930 in his native Padua at the age of seventy-four.

Works

Ballets

• La Forêt enchantée. Choreography by Lev Ivanov. 12 April [O.S. 6 April] 1887, Imperial Ballet School. 15 May [O.S. 3 May] 1887, Imperial Mariinsky Theatre.

• Le Talisman. Choreography by Marius Petipa. 12 February [O.S. 6 February] 1889, Imperial Mariinsky Theatre.

• La Flûte magique. Choreography by Lev Ivanov. 22 March [O.S. 10 March] 1889, Imperial Ballet School. 23 April [O.S. 11 April] 1889, Imperial Mariinsky Theatre.

• Le Réveil de Flore. Choreography by Marius Petipa. 8 August [O.S. 28 July] 1894, Imperial Theatre of Peterhof. 9 August [O.S. 28 July] 1894. 20 January [O.S. 8 January] 1894, Imperial Mariinsky Theatre.

• La Perle. Choreography by Marius Petipa. 29 May [O.S. 17 May] 1896, Imperial Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow. 5 February [O.S. 23 January] 1900, Imperial Mariinsky Theatre.

• Les Dryades prétendues (based on airs from Cesare Pugni's score for the ballet Éoline, ou La Dryade). Choreography by Pavel Gerdt. 23 April [O.S. 11 April] 1899, Imperial Theatre of the Russian Museum of His Majesty Emperor Alexander III.

• Les Millions d’Arlequin (a.k.a. Harlequinade). Choreography by Marius Petipa. 23 February [O.S. 10 February] 1900, Imperial Theatre of the Hermitage. 26 February [O.S. 13 February] 1900, Imperial Mariinsky Theatre.

• La Côte d’Azur. Choreography by Alexander Shiryaev. 30 March 1902, Salle Garnier, Monte-Carlo.

• La Romance de la rose et le papillon. Choreography by Marius Petipa. 5 February [O.S. 23 January] 1904, Imperial Theatre of the Hermitage (never premiered).

• Le Porte-bonheur (revival of Le Talisman). Choreography by Luigi Tornelli. 18 July 1908, La Scala, Milan.

• Le Conte du bouton (revival of La Romance de la rose et le papillon). Choreography by Fyodor Lopukhov. 16 April 1919, Mariinsky Theatre.

Operas

• Don Pedro di Portogallo. 25 July 1868, Teatro nuovo du Padova, Padua.

• La Moglie Rapita. 6 March [O.S. 22 February] 1884, Imperial Mariinsky Theatre.

• Flaffy Raffles. ? 1926, Teatro Verdi, Padua.

• Ill Garafano Bianco. ? 1929. Garibaldi Theatre, Padua.

Revisions to already existing scores

• La Esmeralda, 1886. Original score by Cesare Pugni, 1844.

• Catarina, ou La Fille du bandit, 1888. Original score by Cesare Pugni, 1846.

• La Sylphide, 1892. Original score by Jean-madeleine Schneithoeffer, 1832.

• Le Roi Candaule, 1891. Original score by Cesare Pugni, 1868.

• Swan Lake, 1895. Original score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, 1877.

• Les Caprices du Papillon, 1895. Original score by Nikoli Krotkov, 1889.

• The Little Humpbacked Horse, 1895. Original score by Cesare Pugni, 1864.

• Satanella, 1897. Original score by Napoléon Henri Reber and François Benoist, 1840.

• Les Élèves de Dupré, 1897 (one act version of Marius Petipa's L'Ordre du Roi). Original score by Albert Vinzentini (from the airs of Johann Strauss II, Léo Delibes, Daniel Auber, Jules Massenet, and Anton Rubinstein), 1886.

Supplemental pieces for various ballets

• La Vestale. Original score by Mikhail Ivanov, 1888.
  • Variation for Elena Cornalba known as L'echo (1888)
  • Valse Mignonne (1888)
  • Variation for Maria Gorshenkova (1888)

• The Pharaoh's Daughter. Original score by Cesare Pugni, 1862.
  • Variation orientale for Virginia Zucchi (1885)
  • Three additional variations for the Grand pas d'action of act II (1898)
  • Variation for Mathilde Kschessinskaya (1898)
  • Pas de sabre (1886)
  • Variation for Sergei Legat

• La Esmeralda
  • Pas de six for Virginia Zucchi (1886)
  • Danse bohèmienne (1886)
  • Adagio for Virgina Zucchi (1886)
  • Three additional variations in the Grand pas des fleurs (1899)
  • Polacca for Mathilde Kschessinskaya (1899)
  • Pizzicato for Fleur-de-Lys (1899)
  • Variation for Nikolai Legat (1901)

• Pygmalion, ou La Statue de Chypre. Original score by Prince Nikita Trubestkoi, 1883.
  • Variation for Pierina Legnani (1895)
  • Variation for Gyorgy Kyaksht (1895)
  • Polka brilliante (1895)

• Le Roi Candaule
  • Variation for Carlotta Briaza in the Pas de Vénus (1891)
  • Danse d'Amour for the Pas de Vénus (1891)
  • Variation for Carlotta Brianza in the Grand pas Lydien (1891)
  • Adapation of La Naissance du papillon (1891)
  • Adagio for the Pas de Diane (1903)
  • Danse pour coryphées for the Pas de Diane (1903)
  • Variations for the three graces (1903)
  • Adagio for Julia Sedova (1903)
  • Variation for Julia Sedova (1903)
  • Pizzicato (1903)

• The Little Humpbacked Horse
  • Variation for Pierina Legnani in the Grand pas des Nereids (1895)
  • Music for a new prologue (1895)
  • Five variations for the so-called Under-water scene (1895)

• Le Miroir magique. Original score by Arsenii Koreshchenko (1903)
  • Variation for Mathilde Kschessinskaya (1903)
  • Variation for Sergei Legat (1903)

• La Source. Original score by Léo Delibes and Ludwig Minkus (1866)
  • Pas de deux for Olga Preobrajenskaya (1903)
  • Variation for Olga Preobrakenskaya (1903)
  • Variation for Nikolai Legat (1903)
  • Pizzicato
  • Variation d'Éros

• La Fille mal gardée. Original score by Peter-Ludwig Hertel (1864)
  • Variation for Hedwige Hantenberg (1894)
  • Variation for Alexander Gorsky (1897)
  • Variation for Mathilde Kschessinskaya (1903)

• Coppélia. Original score by Léo Delibes (1870)
  • Variation for Pavel Gerdt (1894)
  • Variation for Pierina Legani (1894)
  • Variation for Nikolai Legat (1901)

• Le Corsaire. Original score by Adolphe Adam (1856)
  • Grand pas de deux for Emma Bessone and Enrico Cecchetti (1887)
  • Pas d'action (a.k.a. Le Corsaire pas de deux) adagio set to Drigo's nocturne Dreams of Spring and a coda (1915)

• La Bayadère. Original score by Ludwig Minkus (1877)
  • Variation for Mathilde Kschessinskaya (1900)

• La Naïade et le pêcheur (a.k.a. Ondine, ou La Naïade). Original score by Cesare Pugni (1843 and 1858)
  • Two variations for Anna Pavlova (1903)
  • Variation for Sergei Legat (1903)
  • Variation for Vavara Rykhliakova (1903)
  • Variation for Vera Trefilova (1903)
  • Two variations for the Grand pas des Naïades (1903)
  • Grand ballabile (1903)

• Mlada. Original score by Ludwig Minkus (1879)
  • Variation for Mathilde Kschessinskaya (1896)
  • Danse bohèmienne (1896)
  • Danse des slaves (1896)

• La Camargo. Original score by Ludwig Minkus (1872)
  • Grand pas de deux for Pierina Legnani and Sergei Legat (1901)
  • Cracoviak (1901)

• Don Quixote. Original score by Ludwig Minkus (1869)
  • Variation for Mathilde Kschessinskaya known as Variation de Dulcinée for the Grand pas des Dryades (1902)
  • Variation for Mathilde Kschessinskaya known as L'Éventail for the Grand pas de deux

• La Sylphide. Original score by Jean-Medeleine Schneithoeffer (1832)
  • Pas des Sylphes (1892)
  • Danse écossaise (1892)
  • Variation for Vavara Nikitina (1892)
  • Adagio for Vavara Nikitina and Pavel Gerdt (1892)

• Paquita. Original score by Edouard Deldevez (1846)
  • Variation for Anna Pavlova (1904)

• La Tulipe de Haarlem. Original score by Baron Boris Vietinghoff-Scheel (1887)
  • Variation for Vera Trefilova (1903)
  • Danse des Gobelins (1903)

• The Fairy Doll. Original score by Josef Bayer (1888)
  • Pas de trois for Mathilde Kschessinskaya, Sergei Legat and Nikolai (1903)

References

• Leshkov, Denis Ivanovich. The Personal Reminiscenes of R. E. Drigo. Muzykal'naya Zhizn (Musical Life). No. 23, 1973.

• Petipa, Marius. The Diaries of Marius Petipa. Trans. and Ed. Lynn Garafola. Published in Studies in Dance History - 3.1 (Spring 1992).

• Petipa, Marius. Memuary Mariusa Petipa solista ego imperatorskogo velichestva i baletmeistera imperatorskikh teatrov (The Memoirs of Marius Petipa, Soloist of His Imperial Majesty and Ballet Master of the Imperial Theatres).

• Scherer, Barrymore Laurence. Riccardo Drigo: Toast of the Czars. Published in Ballet News - January, 1982, pp. 26-28.

• Schueneman, Bruce R. Minor Ballet Composers: Biographical Sketches of Sixty-six Underappreciated Yet Significant Contributors to the Body of Western ballet Music.

• Travaglia, Silvio. Riccardo Drigo: l'uomo e l'artista.

• Wiley, Roland John. The Life and Ballets of Lev Ivanov.

• Wiley, Roland John. Memoirs of R. E. Drigo, Part I. Published in The Dancing Times - May, 1982, pp. 577-578

• Wiley, Roland John. Memoirs of R. E. Drigo, Part II. Published in The Dancing Times - June, 1982, pp. 661-662.