Ballets By Cesare Pugni - La Scala

La Scala

Not long after leaving Milan's Royal Imperial Conservatory of Music, Pugni began playing the violin in the orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala and the Teatro alla Canobbiana.

In 1823 Pugni's composed his first score of ballet music for Gaetano Gioja's Il castello di Kenilworth, based on Walter Scott's novel Kenilworth and first presented at La Scala in 1823. Ballet music at that time was often a musical pastiche, and the printed libretto for this work credits the score as being assembled from themes derived from "various well-known composers".

Pugni was among the first composers of the early-romantic period to create original scores for the ballet, i.e. scores not assembled from the airs of many composers and/or works. One such score was written by Pugni for Louis Henry's 1826 ballet Elerz e Zulmida, a score also noted for being among the first compositions for the ballet to utilize the technique of leitmotif. The success of Elerz e Zulmida brought about three more commissions from Henry, and soon Pugni was sought out by some of the most distinguished choreographers then working in Italy, among them Salvatore Taglioni (uncle of Marie Taglioni), and Giovanni Galzerani.

Pugni's growing popularity as a capable composer of light, melodious music for dancing was attested by the publication of a number of piano reductions of excerpts from his works, among them, the popular Scottish Dance from his 1837 ballet L'assedio di Calais (The Siege of Calais), which, like every one of his works published during his life, sold very well.

Though he demonstrated considerable talent for composing ballet music, Pugni's real ambition at this time was to become a composer of opera. There had been occasions where he had been commissioned to compose an aria "to order" for various performances at La Scala, and such assignments encouraged him to pursue this ambition further. In 1831, his opera Il disertore svizzero, ovvero La nostalgia premiered at La Canobbiana in Milan, with his teacher Alessandro Rolla conducting. The work was praised for its variety and originality, and was revered by the composer's fellow musicians.

It was during this time that Pugni began to compose a substantial number of masses, symphonies, and various other orchestral pieces. One Sinfonia (the Sinfonia per una o due orchestre) was scored for two orchestras, both of which would play the same piece but with one orchestra a few bars behind the other. Pugni was at first reluctant to compose such a piece, but his student at the time, the visiting Mikhail Glinka, encouraged him. The first performance of the Sinfonia per una o due orchestre was a great success. This piece so impressed Giacomo Meyerbeer that he was known to hold up a manuscript of the work in order to show his friends a supreme example of virtuosity in composition.

Such successes appropriately lead to Pugni's appointment as Maestro al Cembalo at La Scala. In addition to fulfilling these duties, Pugni also taught the violin and counterpoint when time allowed. With regard to style and structure, Pugni's symphonies and concert music have been likened to the works typical of composers of the classical period such as Muzio Clementi or Joseph Haydn.

Pugni scored two more operas for the Teatro Canobbiana in 1833 and 1834, both of which were listened to with considerable respect. Pugni also continued composing various orchestral pieces, together earning him great prestige and notoriety.