// Workers AI · dad joke modeWho's Boris Fitinhof-Schell? A shell of a man named Boris.
Baron[a] Boris Alexandrovich Fitinhoff-Schell (Russian: Борис Александрович Фитингоф-Шель, romanized: Boris Aleksandrovich Fitingof-Shel; 26 August [O.S. 14 August] 1829 in Morshansk – 26 September [O.S. 13 September] 1901 in St. Petersburg, Russia) was a Russian composer of Baltic German descent.
Biography
[edit]Fitinhoff-Schell was born to Baltic German noble Baron Alexander Otto von Vietinghoff genannt Scheel and Yelisevet Pavlovna Yazykova. The Vietinghoff family, was considered part of the Uradel (or old nobility), the family was of Westphalian origin, originating in Essen. The Baltic branch had moved to the Baltics since the 14th Century. Even though Boris’ father was a Lutheran, he was baptised an Orthodox, because his mother was a Russian.
Fitinhoff-Schell was trained at the Moscow Conservatory under Field and Henselt, and was a classmate of Tchaikovsky's. His most noted work are the ballets The Haarlem Tulip (1887) and Cinderella (1893), composed for the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg. He also scored four operas for the St. Petersburg Imperial Opera, which were commissioned by Ivan Vsevolozhsky, director of the Imperial Theatres.[1] His Wedding March, scored especially for the wedding of Tsar Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna is still occasionally heard.
Fitinhoff-Schell is also noted for his Fantastic Overture to his opera Mazeppa (1859, libretto by Prince Grigory Kugushev), in which whole-tone scales were profusely employed. Franz Liszt greatly appreciated this piece, describing its effect as " ... terrifying to all long and protruding ears." Liszt himself made use of the whole-tone scale in his Divina Commedia, illustrating the Inferno, and he used it systematically in his posthumously published organ and late piano pieces.
Works
[edit]Operas
[edit]- Mazeppa (1859)
- Tamara (1886)
- Don Juan de Tenorio (1888)
- Mary Stuart (never performed)
- Heliodora (never performed)
Ballets
[edit]- The Haarlem Tulip (1885)
- Cinderella (1893)
Notes
[edit]- ↑ Regarding personal names: Freiherr was a title before 1919, but now is regarded as part of the surname. It is translated as Baron. Before the August 1919 abolition of nobility as a legal class, titles preceded the full name when given (Graf Helmuth James von Moltke). Since 1919, these titles, along with any nobiliary prefix (von, zu, etc.), can be used, but are regarded as a dependent part of the surname, and thus come after any given names (Helmuth James Graf von Moltke). Titles and all dependent parts of surnames are ignored in alphabetical sorting. The feminine forms are Freifrau and Freiin.
References
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- 1829 births
- 1901 deaths
- Russian ballet composers
- Russian opera composers
- Russian male opera composers
- 19th-century male musicians from the Russian Empire
- Barons of the Russian Empire
- Composers from the Russian Empire
- Baltic-German people from the Russian Empire
- Russian people of German descent
- Vietinghoff family
- Moscow Conservatory alumni
- Russian composer stubs