An “Audiotopia”:Operatic Voices in St Petersburg, London, and Paris, 1843–53

The Italian tenors Giovanni Battista Rubini and Giovanni Matteo de Candia (a.k.a Mario) each enjoyed high-profile careers in Paris and London before being invited in the 1840s by the Russian emperor Nicholas I to sing with his new Italian opera company in St Peterburg. Inspired by Josh Kun’s notion of “audiotopia”—a potential utopia for listeners who experience music as part of an imaginative social-sonic world—this article considers the three cities as a single operatic space, taking Rubini and Mario as its guides. It first considers the sonic ideal of the Italian operatic voice shared by these different audiences, and then examines the dynamic relationship between them. The pull between St Peterburg and the Paris/London axis brings to the surface what was at stake for singers, theater directors, and audiences—and for the sound of Italian opera. The singers offer us paths through this social-sonic space, to reimagine its geographies.