Rinaldi A. (?-after 1758), dancer

Categories / Art/Music, Theatre/Personalia
RINALDI Antonio (aka Fusano, Italian "fidget") (? - after 1758), Italian performer, choreographer, pedagogue. In 1735-38, he performed in St. Petersburg with an Italian troupe under the guidance of F. Araya. Staged and performed in many ballet intermezzos for the first performance in Russia of the opera-series The Power of Fate and Hatred by Araya (1736). In 1742-58 he was soloist and ballet master for the Court Italian Troupe. Choreographed several ballets, including A Great Man is One Who Generously Forgives, not One Who Seeks Revenge, The Marriage of Cupid and Psyche, Flowers' Ballet (1745), A Fable about Galatea, Polyphemus and Acis, and The Capture of the Golden Fleece (1751). Rinaldi's productions often accompanied larger Italian opera, either developing the plot or acting as the opera's divertissements. Composer of mainly comic and burlesque ballets, Rinaldi extended the frontiers of his genre in St. Petersburg, enriching it with lyrics and tragedy. Italian performers such as T. Le Brun, A. Rinaldi-Konstantini, C. Marconi, K. A. Tordo, M. Fabiani and G. Fabiani; and early Russian dancers such as A. Sergeeva, A. Taulato-Timofeeva, and A. Toporkov all danced in Rinaldi's ballets.

References: Штелин Я. Музыка и балет в России XVIII века. Л., 1935; Музыкальный Петербург: Энцикл. слов. Т. 1: XVIII в.: В 5 кн. СПб., 1999. Кн. 3. С. 15-19.

G. N. Dobrovolskaya. Araya Francesco
Fabiani G.
Fabiani Mavra
Le Brun (Lebrin) Thomas
Marconi C.
Rinaldi Antonio (aka Fusano)
Sergeeva A.S.
Taulato-Timofeeva A. (Strelnikova Avdotia Timofeevna)
Toporkov Afanasy Yakovlevich
Tordo К.А.
Штелин Я. Музыка и балет в России XVIII века. Л., 1935
Музыкальный Петербург: Энцикл. слов.: Т.1: XVIII в.: В 5 кн. СПб., 1999 Italian Opera