Elizabeth Semyonovna Sandunova, also known as Uranova (; 1772/76 – 3 December 1826), was a Russian stage actress and operatic

mezzo-soprano A mezzo-soprano (, ), or mezzo ( ), is a type of classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A bel ...

and the wife of Sila Sandunov.

Life

She was born Elizaveta Semyonovna Fyodorova. She was an opera student of

Giovanni Paisiello Giovanni Paisiello (or Paesiello; 9 May 1740 – 5 June 1816) was an Italian composer of the Classical era, and was the most popular opera composer of the late 1700s. His operatic style influenced Mozart and Rossini. Life Paisiello was born i ...

and Vicente Martín-i-Soler, and an actor student of

Ivan Dmitrevsky Ivan Afanasyevich Dmitrevsky () (February 28, 1734 in Yaroslavl – October 27, 1821 in Saint Petersburg) is generally regarded as the most influential actor of Russian Neoclassicism and "Russia's first great tragedian". Together with his fr ...

at the theatre school of

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. She debuted in 1790. She was considered not only to have a wonderful operatic voice, but also to be a talented dramatic actress. She was ordered to take the stage name "Uranova" by Catherine, in honor of the newly discovered planet

Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It is a gaseous cyan-coloured ice giant. Most of the planet is made of water, ammonia, and methane in a Supercritical fluid, supercritical phase of matter, which astronomy calls "ice" or Volatile ( ...

. In 1791, she was married at the royal chapel in the presence of the empress

Catherine the Great Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter I ...

. In 1794–1812, she was active in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, where she made a huge success in a patriotic opera during the war of 1812. She returned to Saint Petersburg in 1813.

References

* А. Шадрин. Шутка, или Наказанное вельможество/ Судьба таланта. Театр в дореволюционной России. Сост., вступ. ст. и коммент. Л. В. Маньковой.— М.: Правда, 1990, с.с. 19–64.

Notes

1770s births 1826 deaths Women singers from the Russian Empire 18th-century actresses from the Russian Empire 19th-century actresses from the Russian Empire Russian stage actresses 18th-century women opera singers from the Russian Empire 19th-century women opera singers from the Russian Empire {{Russia-actor-stub