Longevity and Metamorphosis of the Russian Musical Romance from its Origins to Eurovision Song Contest 2009

This essay sets out to trace the evolutionary lines of musical romance, which, beginning in the mid-18th century, found fertile ground for development in Russia by firmly rooting itself in a tradition that had originated a century and a half earlier but whose roots lay in the oral production of ancient Rus'. In spite of this strongly historical-anthropological marking, it is observed that the diachronic development of Russian romance, as a musical genre intended both for an elite audience and for the masses, is corollated by a series of revivals and contaminations, first and foremost from nineteenth-century Europe, Italian mainly, and which, despite its use of stereotypical themes and motifs anchored in the concept of 'nation,' meets with the constant favor of an audience that is, even today, quite broad and heterogeneous. The methodology that will be referred to, will cover culturological, literary and historical studies with the aim of highlighting the relationship between author and audience, both the links of the texts in their mutual connections and in relation to the value system of the culture within which they are produced.