Fomin, Evstignei

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Fomin, Evstignei

Fomin, Evstignei, Russian composer; b. St. Petersburg, Aug. 16, 1761; d. there, April 27, 1800. He was sent to Bologna to study with Padre Martini. Returning to St. Petersburg in 1785, he became a singing teacher and operatic coach at the theatrical school there. He com-posed about 10 operas, including Novgorod Hero Vassily Boyeslavich (St. Petersburg, Dec. 8, 1786), Yamshchiki (Coachmen; St. Petersburg, Jan. 13, 1787), Orpheus and Eurydice (St. Petersburg, Jan. 13, 1792), and The Americans (St. Petersburg, Feb. 19, 1800; the title refers to the Russians in Alaska; vocal score publ. in 1893; the opera was revived in a perf. at Moscow, Jan. 17, 1947). A number of other operas were erroneously attributed to Fomin, among them the popular Miller, Wizard, Cheat, and Marriage-Broker, produced in Moscow on Jan. 31, 1779, the music of which was actually written by an obscure violinist named Sokolovsky.

Bibliography

B. Dobrokhotov, £. F. (Moscow, 1949; 2nd ed., 1968).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire