Katerino Albertovich Cavos |

Catterino Cavos

Born October 30, 1775 in Venice. Russian composer and conductor. Italian by origin. The son of the Venetian choreographer A. Cavos. Studied with F. Bianchi. From 1799 he served at the Directorate of Imperial Theaters in St. Petersburg. From 1806 he was the conductor of the Russian opera, from 1822 he was the inspector of the court orchestras, from 1832 he was the “director of music” of the imperial theaters. Kavos made a great contribution to the development of Russian musical theater, contributed to the formation of the repertoire, the education of artists and musicians.

Cavos owns over 50 works for the theatre, including ballets staged by the choreographer Ch. Didlo: Zephyr and Flora (1808), Cupid and Psyche (1809), Acis and Galatea (1816), Raoul de Créquy , or Return from the Crusades “(together with T. V. Zhuchkovsky, 1819),” Phaedra and Hippolytus “(1821),” Prisoner of the Caucasus, or the Shadow of the Bride “(based on the poem by A. S. Pushkin, 1823). He also collaborated with the choreographer I. I. Valberkh, who staged the divertissement ballets The Militia, or Love for the Fatherland (1812), The Triumph of Russia, or the Russians in Paris (1814) to the music of Cavos.

Author of the opera Ivan Susanin (1815). Under his leadership, the world premiere of Mikhail Glinka’s opera A Life for the Tsar (1836) was carried out.

Katerino Albertovich Kavos died on April 28 (May 10), 1840 in St. Petersburg.