'Italiani in Russia: Presenza fisica e influenza virtuale sulla Musica' [ Italians in Russia: Physical Presence and Virtual Influence on Music], in Rinascimento e Antirinascimento, Gabinetto Scientifico Letterario G.P. Vieusseux. Studi, vol. 22, ed. Lucia Tonini. Firenze: Casa Editrice Leo S.Olschki, 2012, 209-218.

The volume offers a reflection on the relationship between Russian and western culture, represented by Florence as the ‘cradle of the Renaissance’. The authors, Italian and Russian, consider under different perspectives the meaning of this confrontation, accentuated between XIX and XX century. The term ‘Anti-Renaissance’ indicates here the coexistence of a sort of ‘demonizing’ interpretation of the Renaissance centrality of mankind for a Russian alternative, and an admired devotion for it.

Italian music was well known in Russia since Catherine the Great. The creation and the development of Russian national opera was largely dependant on Italian influence in general and on physical presence of the composers from Italy. Period of professional operatic music, which started in the late 16th century in Florence in the works by the composers of La Camerata Fiorentina , laid foundation for at least four centuries of European music , including flourishing development of Russian Renaissance in the 19th century.

Russian post-Soviet minimalist composers are still following La Camerata Fiorentina’s ideas related to the roots of meanings in music.