Pashkevich, Vasilii

Pashkevich, Vasilii Alekseevich 

Born circa 1742; died Mar. 9 (20), 1797. Russian composer; a founder of the Russian national opera.

From 1763 to 1789, Pashkevich was a violinist in the court orchestra in St. Petersburg. In 1789 he became the orchestra’s conductor. He also taught violin. Pashkevich’s works acquired traits characteristic of 18th-century Russian opera: the influence of folk music, realistic depiction of Russian life, and democratism. His comic operas based on la. B. Kniazhnin’s An Accident With a Carriage (1779) and The Miser (c. 1782) are notable for their critical attitude toward serfdom. Pashkevich also wrote Fevei (1786), the first Russian fairy-tale opera. His edition of the opera The St. Petersburg Bazaar (1792; libretto by M. A. Matinskii) was entitled As You Live, So Are You Known.

REFERENCES

Rabinovich, A. S. Russkaia opera do Glinki. Moscow, 1948.
Keldysh, Iu. Russkaia muzyka XVIII veka. Moscow, 1965.