Catterino Cavos

His father, Alberto Giovanni Cavos, was the Primo Ballerino Assoluto (lead male ballet dancer) and director of the La Fenice theatre in Venice.

[6] The company was soon disbanded, but Cavos had fallen in love with St. Petersburg, and entered the service of the Imperial Theatres, at first as composer for a French opera troupe with the responsibility to write music for the opera-vaudevilles.

[6][7] In 1803, Emperor Alexander I appointed Cavos as Kapellmeister of Italian and Russian opera, placing him in charge of the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre.

However, in Russian musical literature, the analysis of this opera are devoted to only two articles (up to the present time) - of Abram Gozenpud and of Viktor Korshikov.

Real Ivan Susanin died from enemies, and the opera was a happy end (author of libretto is Alexander Shakhovskoy, ru: Александр Александрович Шаховской).

Susanin of Shakhovskoy himself explains his feat along the way to fellow villagers : „I will walk with the guests, and you call Russian soldiers, they will come, will kill all enemies and they'll take me at home".

Of course, such a naive interpretation of images and heroes and enemies could not satisfy the sense of Patriotic consciousness, it did not reach the expected tragic pathos.

In this snippet, introduced principles of folk supporting voices, bass, which before were considered ornament for choir, led the main melody.

Mikhail Glinka took his creation A Life for the Tsar in the Petersburg Imperial theatre, in which the Department of opera was headed by Cavos.

Cavos acquainted the Russian public with the operas of Luigi Cherubini, Étienne Méhul, Carl Maria von Weber, and others.

[4][19] Cavos' daughter, Stefanida, taught music at the Smolny Institute from 1822 to 1837, before marrying an Italian named Corrinini, and settling in Venice.