CUI, CESAR ANTONOVITCH Russian composer, was born in Vilna on Jan. 18, 1835, the son of a French officer, who had been left behind in the retreat from Moscow in 1812, and was educated at Vilna and at the School of Military Engineering, St. Petersburg (Leningrad). He became a distinguished military engineer, and lectured at the Artillery School and the Staff College. He had little formal training in music, but in 1857 he met Balakirev, who gave him some guidance and criticism on his compositions. In 1858 he married the pianist, Mademoiselle Hamberg and next year produced privately his first operetta. From 1869 onward he produced a number of operatic works, most of them for French texts and all of them in the romantic style. The most important of these are The Cap tive in the Caucasus (18J9), the libretto of which is based on Pushkin; William Ratcliffe (St. Petersburg, 1861), the libretto of which is drawn from Heine; Angelo (St. Petersburg, 1876) with the libretto drawn from Victor Hugo; and The Captain's Daughter (St. Petersburg, 1911). In addition Cui wrote a long series of songs, choral and orchestral works, chamber music and pianoforte pieces.
See Comtesse de Cesar Cui (1888) .