Translated libretto of Joseph Haydn’s oratorio The Seasons -an unknown work by Vasily Zhukovsky

Abstract

The article attributes the work as to be created by Vasily Zhukovsky - the fact that was doubted by researchers for many decades. The article publishes an excerpt from a letter from Dmitry Bludov to Zhukovsky, which is the only surviving evidence in Zhukovsky’s epistolary about his translation of Godefridus Bernardus van Swieten’s libretto to Joseph Haydn’s oratorio The Seasons in 1802. The translation was commissioned to Zhukovsky by Ivan Kerzelli, the brandmaster of the Petrovsky Theater, for the premiere in Moscow in February 1803. The article highlights the history of the anonymously published translation of the libretto entitled Four Seasons, later included in the bibliography of Vasily Sopikov with the translator’s surname and an error in the year of publication. The article gives a detailed stylistic analysis of Zhukovsky’s translation. The author is grateful to K.Yu. Lappo-Danilevsky for participating in the discussion of the results of the work on Zhukovsky’s translation considered in the article. The author declares no conflicts of interests.