At the beginning of the 20th century, Europe is living in peace and prosperity. The “Belle Époque” is an outgrowth of previous important historical events and developments. The networks that are created and which evolve funnel both people and their products, tangible and intangible. It is within this multi-layered world that sound recording and sound reproduction is invented. Early record labels send mobile crews literally all over the world to record local musicians. The range of the repertoire is endless. Cosmopolitanism in large urban centers favors polystylisms and polymorphisms. Colonialism, revolutions, conflicts, refugee flows; the theater, cinema, radio, photography, orchestras’ tours, but also circulations in all kinds of commercial channels in a world that evolves dynamically and anisotropically, form a complex network of “centers” and “peripheries” in alternating roles setting musical idioms in motion, both literally and figuratively. The network in which the Greek-speaking urban popular song participates, constantly conversing with its co-tenants, is magnificent. Discography has already provided important tools in understanding the relationships that developed between “national” repertoires. The result of this ongoing research is “Cosmopolitanism in Greek Historical Discography”.

There was no previous management model in the early period of discography. Each company creates their own networks, something that will allow them to take a dynamic lead in the market. New specialties and professions are created and new conditions emerge, or the need to update older facts, with the most serious being intellectual property. The latter, until then, concerned mostly printed commercial musical scores and the publishers’ rights. Discography is not only embedded in this context, but also plays a key role in its transformation. This time, the network is adjusted in a programmatic manner, under different terms and via new paths. The circulation of musics is already a reality before the 20th century with theatrical and musical performances tours, but also with the networks of music publishing houses. Although popular repertoires play a very important part in the vital issue of the movement of musical tunes from place to place, and in their appropriation, recording and often complete incorporation into the repertoires of other ethno-cultural groups, scholar musical forms also participate in this transportation network: symphonic or soloistic pieces, arias, duets and trios from all kinds of operas, but also songs by composers such as Schubert, are translated and recorded in other languages, often with diversified orchestral ensembles. “Classical” music, originating mainly from the German-speaking, Italian-speaking, French-speaking and Russian-speaking world, through the new diffusion tools offered by discography, seek not only to penetrate international markets as a new medium, but to enter, in fact, into people’s own homes.

The present recording includes the Prilepa - Milovzor (Russian: Миловзора - Прилепы) duet "Moy milenkiy druzhok" (Russian: "Мой миленький дружок", English: "My dear friend") with Greek lyrics from the interlude "Искренность пастушки" ("Iskrennost' pastushki", English: "The Faithful Shepherdess") of the third scene of the second act of the three-act opera "Пиковая дамаτου" (English: "The Queen of Spades", French: "La Dame de Pique", Greek: "Ντάμα Πίκα"), set to music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and libretto by Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the composer's brother.

The libretto is based on the novel of the same name (see here) written by Alexander Pushkin in Boldino in autumn 1883 and first published in the literary magazine Bilioteka dlya chteniya in March 1834.

The opera premiered on December 19, 1890 at the Mariinsky theater in Saint Petersburg.

For more details on the opera, visit the website Tchaikovsky Research.

The text of the entire interlude, including the duet, comes from lyrics by the Russian poet Pyotr Matveyevich Karabanov (Пётр Матвеевич Карабанов) [see here].

The duet, like other excerpts from the opera, has been recorded many times in historical discography, in various regions and languages. Some of the earliest performances are the following:

- М.А. Михайлова - Л. Брагина (M.A. Mikhailova - L.N.Bragina), Saint Petersburg, 1901 (Gramophone 459x - 24066)
- М.А. Михайлова - Ю.Н.Носилова (M.A. Mikhailova - Yuliya Nosilova), Saint Petersburg, 1903 (Gramophone 1327z - 24309)
- Mmes. Michailowa and Tugarinoff, Saint Petersburg, 1905 (Gramophone 2810L - 7-34005 & 24377 & Victor 61136)
- "O viens mon doux berger", Ema Destinnová - Maria Duchêne-Billiard, New York, April 16, 1915 (Victor C-15905 - 88529)

The present recording, the only one from the duet in Greek historical discography, was made by two sisters whose maiden name was Mytaraki and who had a direct connection with the Greek diaspora of the Russian Empire: the soprano Thalia Sabanieva and the mezzo Anna Kriona, wife of the tenor Dimitris Krionas (see here).

Research and text: Leonardos Kounadis and Nikos Ordoulidis