Editing César Cui (section)

==Biography==
===Upbringing and career===
[[File:Cesar Cui by Makovsky (cropped).jpg|thumb|Portrait of César Cui by [[Konstantin Makovsky]] (detail), {{circa|1880s}}]]

Cesarius-Benjaminus Cui was born in Wilno, [[Vilna Governorate]] of the Russian Empire (now [[Vilnius]], [[Lithuania]]) into a [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] family of [[France|French]] and [[Polish people|Polish]]–[[Lithuanian people|Lithuanian]] descent, the youngest of five children.<ref>As Cui wrote to Felipe Pedrell in 1897:  "Bien que russe, je suis d’origine mi-française, mi-lithuanienne." See {{harvnb|Norris|Neff|n.d.}}</ref> The original French spelling of his surname was "Queuille."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://opera.stanford.edu/iu/russmus/cui/cuibio.html|title = Cui Bio}}</ref> His French father, Antoine (Anton Leonardovich) Cui, entered Russia with [[French invasion of Russia|Napoleon's army]]; in 1812, he was injured during the battle near [[Smolensk]] and (following the defeat) would settle in Vilnius. He married local [[szlachta|noblewoman]] Julia Gucewicz;<ref>Назаров, p. 7-8.</ref> some sources indicate that her father was the Lithuanian architect [[Laurynas Gucevičius]].<ref>Eduardas Budreika. [http://eia.libis.lt:8080/archyvas/viesas/20110110060412/http://www.culture.lt/satenai/?leid_id=692&kas=straipsnis&st_id=2498 Antoine Cui and his Lithuanian family] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160611044626/http://eia.libis.lt:8080/archyvas/viesas/20110110060412/http://www.culture.lt/satenai/?leid_id=692&kas=straipsnis&st_id=2498 |date=11 June 2016 }} article from [[:lt:Šiaurės Atėnai|Šiaurės Atėnai]], 13 March 2004 (in Lithuanian)</ref>

The young César grew up learning [[French language|French]], [[Polish language|Polish]], [[Russian language|Russian]] and [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]].<ref>Назаров, p. 14-15.</ref> As a secondary school ([[gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]]) student in Wilno, he took music lessons with [[Stanisław Moniuszko]] in 1850. Later that year, before completing his gymnasium education, Cui was sent to [[Saint Petersburg]] to prepare to enter the [[Military Engineering-Technical University|Chief Engineering School]], which he did the following year at age 16.<ref>Назаров, p. 15-16.</ref> In 1855, he graduated from the academy; following advanced studies at the Nikolaevsky Engineering Academy (now [[Military Engineering-Technical University]]), he began his military career in 1857 as an instructor in fortifications.<ref>Назаров, p. 22, 35.</ref> His students over the decades included several members of the [[House of Romanov|Imperial family]], most notably [[Nicholas II]].<ref>Ильинский, А.А.; Пахулский, Г. ''Биографии композиторов с IV-XX век с портретами'' (Москва: Изд. К.А. Дурново, 1904), p. 518.</ref> Cui eventually ended up teaching at three of the military academies in Saint Petersburg.{{sfn|Neef|1992|p=136}} Cui's study of fortifications gained from a frontline assignment during the [[Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878]] proved important to his career. As an expert on military fortifications, Cui eventually attained the academic rank of professor in 1880 and the military rank of [[general]] in 1906.<ref>Назаров, p. 106-110, 194.</ref> His writings on fortifications included textbooks that were widely used, in several successive editions (see bibliography below).

===A vocational life in music===
Despite his achievements as a professional military academic, Cui is best known in the West for his 'other' life in music.  As a boy in Vilnius, he received [[piano]] lessons, studied [[Frédéric Chopin|Chopin]]'s works, and began composing little pieces at fourteen years of age.  In the few months before he was sent to Petersburg, he managed to have some lessons in [[music theory]] with the Polish composer [[Stanisław Moniuszko]], who was residing in Vilnius at the time.<ref>
Кюи, Ц. А., "Первые композиторские шаги Ц. А. Кюи (письмо к редактору)",
''Избранные статьи'', составитель И. Л. Гусин (Ленинград: Гос. муз. изд-во, 1952), editor's notes, pp. 542–543.</ref><ref>Назаров, pp. 12–14.</ref> Cui's musical direction changed in 1856, when he met [[Mily Balakirev]] and began to be more seriously involved with music.<ref>Назаров, pp. 25–27.</ref>

Even though he was composing music and writing music criticism in his spare time, Cui turned out to be an extremely prolific composer and [[feuilleton]]ist.  His public "debut" as a composer occurred in 1859 with the performance of his orchestral Scherzo, Op. 1, under the baton of [[Anton Rubinstein]] and the auspices of the [[Russian Musical Society]].<ref>Назаров, p. 46.</ref> In 1869, the first public performance of an [[opera]] by Cui took place, ''[[William Ratcliff (Cui)|William Ratcliff]]'' (based on the tragedy by [[Heinrich Heine]]); it did not ultimately have success, partially because of the harshness of his own writings in the music press.<ref>Гозенпуд, А. А., ''Русский оперный театр XIX века, 1857–1872'' [''Russian Operatic Theater of the 19th Century, 1857–1872''] (Ленинград, Музыка, 1971), 228–235.</ref><ref>Назаров, pp. 58–61.</ref> All but one of his operas were composed to Russian texts; the one exception, ''[[Le flibustier (opera)|Le flibustier]]'' (based on a play by [[Jean Richepin]]), premiered in 1894 at the [[Opéra-Comique]] in [[Paris]] (twenty-five years after ''Ratcliff''), but it did not succeed either.<ref>Назаров, pp. 132–135.</ref>  Cui's more successful stage works during his lifetime were the one-act [[comic opera]] ''[[The Mandarin's Son]]'' (premiered publicly in 1878), the three-act ''[[The Prisoner of the Caucasus (opera)|The Prisoner of the Caucasus]]'' (1883) (based on [[Alexander Pushkin|Pushkin]]), and the one-act ''[[Mademoiselle Fifi (Cui)|Mademoiselle Fifi]]'' (1903) (based on [[Guy de Maupassant]]).<ref>Бернандт, Г. Б. ''Словарь опер впервые поставленных или изданных в дореволюционной России и в СССР, 1836–1959.'' [''Dictionary of Operas First Performed or Published in Pre-Revolutionary Russia and in the USSR, 1836–1959'']
 (Москва: Советский композитор, 1962). pp. 125–126, 288, 170.</ref> Besides ''Flibustier'', the only other operas by Cui performed in his lifetime outside of the [[Russian Empire]] were ''The Prisoner of the Caucasus'' (in Liège, 1886; the first time any opera by [[The Five (composers)|The Five]] was performed outside Russia, but this was also its sole performance outside Russia) and the children's opera ''[[Puss in Boots (opera)|Puss in Boots]]'' (in Rome, 1915).<ref>Бернандт, Г. Б. ''Словарь опер'', pp. 125, 148.</ref>
[[Image:CuiBolshoiArtists 1902 CuiIP 273 600.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Cui among artists of the Moscow [[Bolshoi Theatre]], 1902]]
Cui's activities in musical life also included membership on the opera selection committee at the [[Mariinsky Theatre]]; this stint ended in 1883, when both he and [[Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov|Rimsky-Korsakov]] left the committee in protest of its rejection of [[Modest Mussorgsky|Mussorgsky]]'s ''[[Khovanshchina]]''.<ref>Кюи, ''Избранные письма'' [''Selected Letters''], p. 112 (also editor's notes, pp. 571–572).</ref> From 1896 to 1904, he was director of the Petersburg branch of the [[Russian Musical Society]].<ref>Назаров, pp. 147, 184.</ref>

Among the many musicians Cui knew in his life, [[Franz Liszt]] looms large. His book, ''La musique en Russie'', and his ''Suite pour piano'', Op. 21, are dedicated to the elder composer. Cui's ''Tarantelle'' for orchestra, Op. 12, formed the basis for Liszt's last [[Arrangement|piano transcription]]. In addition, Liszt valued the music of Russian composers quite highly; for Cui's opera ''William Ratcliff'', he expressed some of the highest praise.<ref>Кюи, ''Избранные письма'', p. 506.</ref>

Two personalities of direct significance for Cui were women who were specially devoted to his music. In [[Belgium]], the [[Louisa de Mercy-Argenteau|Comtesse de Mercy-Argenteau]] (1837–1890) was most influential in making possible the staging of ''The Prisoner of the Caucasus'' there in 1885.<ref>Назаров, p. 120.</ref> In [[Moscow]], Mariya Kerzina, with her husband Arkadiy Kerzin, formed a performance society in 1896 called the Circle of Russian Music Lovers, which began in 1898 to give special place to works by Cui (among those of other Russian composers) in its concerts.<ref>Назаров, pp. 150–157.</ref>

Throughout his rather long and active musical life, Cui won many accolades. In the late 1880s and early 1890s, several foreign musical societies honored Cui with memberships.  Shortly after the staging of ''Le flibustier'' in Paris, Cui was elected as a correspondent member of the [[Académie Française]] and was awarded the cross of the [[Legion of Honour|Légion d'honneur]]. In 1896, he was made a member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Literature and Art.<ref>Назаров, pp. 35–36.</ref> In 1909 and 1910, events were held in honor of Cui's 50th anniversary as a composer.<ref>Назаров, pp. 201–205.</ref>

===Family===
[[Image:Cui grave.jpg|thumb|right|Grave of Malvina and César Cui, [[Tikhvin Cemetery]], Saint Petersburg|150px]]
Cui married Malvina Rafailovna Bamberg ({{langx|ru|Мальвина Рафаиловна Бамберг}} {{IPA|ru|mɐlʲˈvʲinə rəfɐˈiɫəvnə ˈbam⁽ʲ⁾bʲɪrk|pron}}) in 1858.  He had met her at the home of [[Alexander Dargomyzhsky]], from whom she was taking singing lessons.<ref>Назаров, p. 42.</ref>  Among the musical works Cui dedicated to her is the early Scherzo, Op. 1 (1857), which uses themes based on her maiden name (BAmBErG) and his own initials (C. C.), and the comic opera ''The Mandarin's Son''.  César and Malvina had two children, Lidiya and Aleksandr.  Lidiya, an amateur singer, married and had a son named Yuri Borisovich Amoretti; in the period before the [[October Revolution]], Aleksandr was a member of the Russian Senate.<ref>Кюи, ''Избранные письма'', editor's notes, pp. 635, 395, 703, 715–716.</ref>

===Last years and death===
In 1916, Cui went blind, although he was still able to compose small pieces by means of dictation.<ref>Кюи, ''Избранные письма'', p. 477.</ref> He died on 26 March 1918 from cerebral [[apoplexy]] and was buried next to his wife Mal'vina (who had died in 1899) at the [[Smolensky Lutheran Cemetery]] in Petrograd (now [[Saint Petersburg]]). In 1939, his body was reinterred in [[Tikhvin Cemetery]] at the Alexander Nevsky Monastery, to lie beside the other members of [[The Five (composers)|The Five]].<ref>Назаров, p. 155, 221–222.</ref>