Report on the theater of the 19th century. Theater life in Russia in the 19th century

Influenced European culture in Russia with late XVIII V. modern theater also appears. At first, it was still developing in the estates of large magnates, but gradually the troupes, gaining independence, became independent on a commercial basis. In 1824, an independent drama troupe of the Maly Theater was formed in Moscow. In St. Petersburg in 1832, the dramatic Alexandria Theater appeared; the patrons of the arts were still large landowners, nobles and the emperor himself, who dictated their repertoire.

Enlightenment sentimentalism takes on leading importance in Russian theater. The attention of playwrights was attracted by the inner world of man, his spiritual conflicts (dramas by P. I. Ilyin, F. F. Ivanov, tragedies by V. A. Ozerov). Along with sentimental tendencies, there was a desire to smooth out life’s contradictions, traits of idealization, and melodrama (works by V. M. Fedorov, S. N. Glinka, etc.).

Gradually, themes characteristic of European classicism are being developed in dramaturgy: an appeal to the heroic past of one’s homeland and Europe, to an ancient plot (“Martha the Posadnitsa, or the Conquest of Novagorod” by F. F. Ivanov, “Velzen, or Liberated Holland” by F. N. Glinka, “Andromache” by P. A. Katenin, “Argives” by V. K. Kuchelbecker, etc.). At the same time, such genres as vaudeville (A. A. Shakhovskoy, P. I. Khmelnitsky, A. I. Pisarev) and family play(M. Ya. Zagoskin).

During the first quarter of the 19th century. In the Russian national theater, the struggle for the creation of a new, nationally original theater is unfolding. This task was accomplished by the creation of a truly national, original comedy by A. Griboedov “Woe from Wit.” A work of innovative significance was historical drama Pushkin's "Boris Godunov", the author of which grew out of the forms of court tragedy of classicism and the romantic drama of Byron. However, the production of these works was held back for some time by censorship. The dramaturgy of M. Yu. Lermontov, imbued with freedom-loving ideas, also remains outside the theater: his drama “Masquerade” in 1835 - 1836. prohibited three times by censorship (excerpts from the play were first staged thanks to the persistence of the actors in 1852, and it was performed in full only in 1864).

The stage of the Russian theater of the 30s and 40s was mainly occupied by vaudeville, pursuing mainly entertainment purposes (plays by P. A. Karatygin, P. I. Grigoriev, P. S. Fedorov, V. A. Sollogub, N. A. Nekrasov , F.A. Koni, etc.) “At this time, the skill of talented Russian actors M.S. Shchepkin and A.E. Martynov grew, who knew how to identify the contradictions of real life behind comic situations, to give created images true drama.

The plays of A. N. Ostrovsky, which appeared in the 50s and raised Russian drama to a very high level, played a huge role in the development of Russian theater.

This is the most "theatrical" era in the history of Russian culture. The theater played perhaps the leading role in it, spreading its influence to other forms of art.

The theater in these years was a public platform where the most pressing issues of our time were raised, and at the same time a creative laboratory that opened the door wide to experimentation and creative quests. Major artists turned to the theater, striving for a synthesis of different types of creativity.

For the Russian theater this is an era of ups and downs, innovative creative searches and experiments. In this sense, theater did not lag behind literature and art.

At the forefront of theatrical art was the Moscow Art Theater, led by Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko, with a wonderful troupe of young actors, which included O. Knipper-Chekhova, M. Lilina, Vs. Meyerhold, V. Kachalov, I. M. Moskvin, A. Vishnevsky and others.

We remember that the surge in theatrical art was associated with the theater’s collaboration with A.P. Chekhov after the triumphant premiere of "The Seagull" in December 1898. In 1900, an event in theatrical life was the production of G. Ibsen's play "Doctor Shtokman". It acquired an acute social resonance on stage. Shtokman, performed by Stanislavsky, became “the hero of a heroless time.”

Drama by Maxim Gorky

A new page in the history of the Moscow Art Theater and in all theatrical art was dramaturgy of M. Gorky, who fell in love with the theater troupe and wrote to Chekhov that it was criminal not to write for such a theater.

The first play, “The Bourgeois,” was written by Gorky in 1902; it was allowed to be staged with abundant censorship notes (everything that was said about the hard lot of the workers, about their peacocks, about the inevitable breakdown of the existing order was crossed out). But at the screening of the play in St. Petersburg, where the theater came on tour, there was a heavy police presence in and around the theater building. And Nemirovich-Danchenko went to the gallery and asked the student youth not to organize any demonstrations so that repression would not fall on Gorky.

Gorky's new hero worker Nile states: “The owner is the one who works... A person must win rights for himself if he does not want to be crushed...” For folk theaters The play was banned, but nevertheless, "The Bourgeois" was performed in many cities: Samara, Saratov, Kyiv, Yaroslavl, Perm, Vyborg, Pinsk, Yelets, Sarapul, etc.

A year later, Gorky gave the theater "At the Lower Depths". In the first season, in 2 months, the play appeared on the Moscow Art Theater posters 50 times, and on tour in St. Petersburg - 12 times. And invariably - in front of a crowded auditorium. The furor after the performances went beyond all usual limits. At the end of the performance there was no end to the challenges of the author, directors, performers (Stanislavsky - Satin, Moskvin - Luka, Kachalov - Baron, Nastya - Knipper, Vaska Pepla - Leonidov...). Man - that sounds proud! - became the password of the people's struggle against tsarism.

The play "At the Lower Depths" also played on most theater stages in Russia, albeit with different interpretations. Sometimes in provincial theaters the slang of the flophouse was relished, the plot was presented as a comedy. But the majority took the play seriously and thoughtfully.

K. S. Stanislavsky admitted that “Gorky was the main initiator and creator of the socio-political life of the theater.” Russian theater became more and more arena of open political struggle. But not all theaters took progressive positions in this struggle. Many stood aloof from this battle, and sometimes allowed plays of a Black Hundred nature on their stage ("The Return" by Donne at the Moscow Korsh Theater), etc.

Vera Komissarzhevskaya Theater

Further contributions to the stage interpretation of Gorky’s dramaturgy are associated with the Vera Fedorovna Komissarzhevskaya Theater. Which left the imperial stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater in 1902, and after touring the provinces, she created her own theater on a share basis, similar to the Moscow Art Theater.

In November 1904, the premiere of Gorky's 3rd play "Summer Residents" took place here about the Russian intelligentsia, which came from the democratic strata, but having reached a certain social position, lost contact with the people, forgetting about their interests and the need to improve their lives. Writer A. N. Serebrov (Tikhonov), who was present at the premiere, called “Dachnikov” “a performance-demonstration, a performance-fight.”

In the fall of 1905, the theater staged "Children of the Sun." After the performance they demanded the author, although everyone knew that Gorky was in exile.

Thus, Gorky's plays became leading in the repertoire of the Komissarzhevskaya Theater, Moscow Art Theater and other theaters. But since 1906, the situation has changed dramatically: “Summer Residents” and “Children of the Sun” disappeared from the posters, “Philistines” and “At the Lower Depths” moved into the background. Gorky's new plays "Enemies" (1906) and "The Last" (1908) were not allowed to be staged at all. And what was staged was distorted. Thus, “Varvarov” was staged as a comedy in 1907 at the St. Petersburg Modern Theater. “Vassa Zheleznova” was staged as a formulaic melodrama at the Moscow Nezlobin Theater in 1910. There were other examples of Gorky’s revision, which doomed the productions to failure, this supported the version about the alleged weakness of A. M. Gorky’s new dramatic works. As a result, the plays “The Zykovs” (1913), “The Counterfeit Coin” (1913), and “The Old Man” (1915) were not staged at all before the revolution.

These were the years of political reaction, and the theater was looking for new forms of existence and self-expression, but for many theater groups these were years of stagnation. A muddy stream of plays of dubious nature poured onto the theater stages ("Girl with a Mouse" by S. Aleksin, "Vera Mirtseva" by L. Urvantsev, as well as "The Comedy of Death" by V. Baryatinsky, etc.). Plays were staged that were openly designed for cheap sensation ("Blind Love" by N. Grushko, where a mother covers up the crime of her son who strangled a girl; "The Scolded" by P. Nevezhin with atrocities, suicides, with a real memorial service for the dead - this was during the war years) . The separation of the repertoire from modernity, common to theatres, partially captured even the Moscow Art Theater for some time. Critics at that time noted that the theater’s performances bore a mark of creative fatigue.

The same picture could be seen at the Moscow Maly Theater. The realism of Ostrovsky's plays was replaced by petty everydayism.

Symbolism in Russian theater

The magazine “Theater and Art” wrote at the beginning of 1917: “Now in art, like squandered revelers, we are rewriting bills. Currency has long no longer corresponded to obligations.” The original Russian theater experienced a wave symbolism. Symbolist poets saw the theater as a platform for their new ideas. With their plays, the Symbolists brought the contemporary stage closer to poetry, found new theatrical imagery, used new scenography, and the associative content of the play ("Earth" by V. Ya. Bryusov, "Tantalus" by V. I. Ivanov, "The King in the Square", "Balaganchik" , “Stranger”, “Rose and Cross” by Blok, etc.).

The symbolism was not homogeneous. Thus, in the dramas of F.K. Sologub, one felt a philosophical rejection of life, in which there is no place for high spirituality, for beauty and truth. A. M. Remizov's folklore plays were full of sinister motives.

Symbolism affected some of L. N. Andreev’s plays, in early work futurist V. Mayakovsky (Tragedy "Vladimir Mayakovsky").

They turned to the dramaturgy of the Symbolists largest theaters. So in 1904, on the advice of A.P. Chekhov, K. Stanislavsky staged Maeterlinck’s trilogy “The Blind,” “Uninvited,” and “There Inside” at the Moscow Art Theater. In 1905 he opened the Studio Theater on Povarskaya, where, together with Meyerhold, he studied the staging possibilities of the new artistic direction. There were many questions: how to reconcile the conventionality of stage design with the everyday characteristics of the actors’ performances, how to elevate the actor’s creativity to the level of high poetic generalization? etc.

Using the techniques of symbolism in his work on the performances “The Drama of Life” by K. Hamsun and “The Life of Man” by Andreev, Stanislavsky became convinced of the need to educate a new actor capable of deeply revealing the “life of the human spirit”, and began his experiments in creating the “system” about which we let's say a little lower. In 1908, he staged Maeterlinck's philosophical play-fairy tale "The Blue Bird" (set by artist V. E. Egorov) - perhaps the best work from the symbolic repertoire. The fairy tale lasted on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater for over 60 years.

New searches were conducted in St. Petersburg at the theater of Vera Fedorovna Komissarzhevskaya. She invited Meyerhold as the main director, who carried out a number of productions in 1906-1908. Successful were Blok's "Showroom" and "Sister Beatrice" by M. Maeterlinck, etc. After the surge of symbolism, some theaters continued to mark time, slipping into the tastes of the bourgeois public, as we have already discussed, others continued to boldly experiment in the vein of avant-gardeism. Such bold experimenters include V. E. Meyerhold. Already in the “Studio on Povarskaya” he proclaimed the ideas of “conventional theater”. This was not what Stanislavsky hoped for; new techniques and principles were implemented by Meyerhold in other theaters.

In 1906, Meyerhold became the chief director of the theater of V.F. Komissarzhevskaya and got the opportunity to fully realize his art program. In his productions, Meyerhold placed at the forefront the creative ideological and artistic concept of the performance put forward by the director. The one-sided emphasis on the creative activity of production art often led to a kind of dictatorship of the director both in relation to the actor and in relation to the author of the play. The actor often turned into a “pawn” in the hands of the director. The emphasis shifted from the psychological expressiveness of the actor’s performance to the picturesque, plastic expressiveness of the drawing of the image he created.

Meyerhold was to be assisted by an artist in implementing the director's concept. The artist had to destroy the illusion of authenticity and create a conventional design in the theater that expresses the director's idea. To this end, Meyerhold tried to destroy the three-dimensional stage space and turn it into two dimensions. The scenery was replaced by a picturesque panel, the stage area was reduced and became its appendage (often moved to the proscenium). The director treated the actor as a colorful spot, because he was interested on stage not so much in the expression of real characters as in revealing the essence of a symbolic play through the director's idea. He sought to replace the illusion of plausibility with convention. This was done in contrast to the Moscow Art Theater, which always revealed the playwright’s intentions and tirelessly emphasized the central importance of the actor’s creativity in the play.

Meyerhold found artists who became his allies (N. N. Sapunov, S. Yu. Sudeikin, N. P. Ulyanov, V. S. Denisov, etc.) At the Komissarzhevskaya Theater, Meyerhold's productions were uneven. Thus, the social, everyday, psychological play “Hedda Gabler” by Ibsen (artists Sudeikin, Sapunov, V.D. Milioti) was staged in a conditionally symbolic manner.

The entire performance was characterized by a deliberate and demonstrative discrepancy with the author's directions. In Milioti's costumes, each character was given a special color: Hedda - golden, her husband - lead gray, etc.

In the production of A. Blok's "Balaganchik" the principles of "conventional theater" turned out to be necessary for the embodiment of a symbolic play (artist Sapunov).

In the lyrical-symbolic drama of A. Blok, the idea of ​​dual life is revealed. Visible, surrounding a person the world is vulgar and false. But all his phenomena are full of a different, allegorical meaning. Therefore, everything is deceptive and contrary to appearances: ordinary people- these are mechanical puppets, and puppet characters(Pierrot, Harlequin) are endowed with truly human feelings; the poetic distance turns out to be drawn on paper, and the ideal beloved turns into Death. The collapse of illusions gives rise to irony, and in the rays of irony, reality takes on the features of the grotesque.

In 1906-1907 Meyerhold staged a number of performances at the Komissarzhevskaya Theater, in each of which he looked for new design techniques. Thus, “The Life of a Man” by L. Andreev is shown in gray cloth, without decorations, personifying the remark of one of the heroes - “everything is like in a dream.” Wedekind's "Spring Awakening" is based on local light, that is, in the episodic illumination of scenes of action in different corners of the stage. Ibsen's "Ghosts" is performed as a performance without a curtain, taking place mainly on the proscenium. In “Sister Beatrice” by Maeterlinck and “The Eternal Tale” by Przybyszewski, the play of actors on the stairs, which occupies a significant part of the stage, plays a large role. In “Sister Beatrice,” in addition, the technique of “living bas-relief” was used, based on the director’s sculptural interpretation of the actor’s figure. The director sought to achieve almost complete statuesqueness in the actor's performance, motivating it either by the “mysteriousness” of the production (for example, “Sisters Beatrice”), or by the idea of ​​reviving the ancient theater. This led to the replacement of a living person with a puppet. And therefore, part of the troupe, led by Komissarzhevskaya herself, very soon rebelled against Meyerhold. And she broke up with Meyerhold, just as Stanislavsky had broken up with him earlier. Using symbolist dramaturgy, he tried to create the principles of a new “conventional theater.”

Vera Komissarzhevskaya, believing that new theater possible only with a new actor, decides to open studio young actor . But her plans were not destined to come true. During a tour in Tashkent, she died of smallpox in 1910.

In 1907, Meyerhold wrote an article “On the history and technology of theatre,” in which he outlined the principles of “conventional theater,” contrasted them with the Moscow Art Theater and accused the latter of naturalism. Striving for the art of great generalizations, he asserted the principle of stylization as one of the methods artistic solution performance. According to Meyerhold, the concept of stylization is “inextricably linked with the idea of ​​convention, generalization, and symbol.”

Meyerhold and the artists who shared his beliefs actively sought and actively protested against the copying of historical styles, against the replacement of creative design with “realistic” things and costumes on stage. This was the beginning of the journey, so there were failures. But be that as it may, we recognize the desire for the art of great generalizations, the affirmation of the active creative role of the director in the interpretation of the work, the fight against superficial salon art, the development of stage technology and the enrichment of design techniques.

"Traditional theater"

In 1908, V. A. Telyakovsky (V. A. Telyakovsky - director of the office of the imperial theaters (1901-1917; he sought to update the work, attract the best forces, enrich the theaters with experience contemporary art) attracted Meyerhold to the imperial theaters after his departure from the Komissarzhevskaya Theater. At this time, Meyerhold actively collaborated with the artist A. Ya. Golovin. Now Meyerhold put forward the principles " traditional theater" - a new variety of "conventional theater." He criticized Ancient theater N. N. Evreinov, but at the same time sought to enrich the modern theater forgotten tricks And forms of theatrical performances of bygone centuries, contrasting them with the theatrical naturalism of modernity.

"Traditional theater" the director accepts it as theater "pure theatricality", where they do not try to instill in the viewer the illusion of verisimilitude. The viewer must remember at all times that he is in the theater. Such a viewer from the outside actively evaluates what is happening with modern positions. At the same time, Meyerhold sought to bring such an “outsider” but appreciating viewer as close to the stage as possible. For this purpose, “exposing the technique” was used - changing the scenery and dressing the actors in front of the audience, interfering with the action of “stage servants”, as well as destroying the ramp, the absence of a curtain, light in the hall, sometimes acting in the hall, moving the action to the proscenium, etc. d.

In his directorial plans, Meyerhold devoted a large place to theater design. An example of successful collaboration between director Meyerhold and artist Golovin can be the play “Don Juan” by Moliere” in Alexandrinsky Theater(1910). The production was conceived as a home performance in the palace Louis XIV. The play was performed without a curtain and without a ramp. The hall was illuminated during the action electric light, and candles were burning on the stage. Changes of scenery took place in front of the audience. The arapchat - servants of the stage, who brought and took away furniture, gave things to the actors, etc., intervened in the action. Lermontov's "Masquerade" staged by them in 1917 lasted on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater until 1939. This performance became a link between pre-revolutionary and Soviet theater. Meyerhold and Golovin tried, not unsuccessfully, to transfer the found design principles to musical theater (the opera “Orpheus” by Gluck, 1911, the ballet “The Aragonese Hunt” by Glinka, 1916, the opera “The Stone Guest” by Dargomyzhsky, 1917 at the Mariinsky Theater, etc.). Meyerhold's mistake was that he tried to make the principles of the "Conditional" ("Traditional Theater") universal.

The idea of ​​a booth theater

At this time, in addition to the principles of “traditional” theater, he put forward the idea of ​​a farce theater, masks, puppets, based on the grotesque as the main method of depicting life. He contrasted the grotesque farce theater with naturalistic and “analytical” (psychological) theater.

Grotesque stylization should generally express the essential contrasts and contradictions of life. He carried out these experiments under the pseudonym "Doctor Dapertutto" in 1910-1911. in a small chamber theater "House of Sideshows". Staging one-act plays by Maeterlinck, Schnitzler, Kuzmin. He was helped by artists Sapunov, Sudeikin and others ("Columbine's Scarf" by A. Schnitzler and others). In productions where people were likened to dolls, the figurative metaphor “life is theater” ultimately acquired a mystical meaning. Despite the theater's desire to avoid reflecting life, philistine faces often appeared in productions.

Meyerhold's use of experience square theaters, commedia dell'arte, booth, circus, his search for new forms of acting art in the studio on Borodinskaya (1913), where actors studied stage movement, pantomime, which were considered here as the basis of theatrical art - all this will find its continuation in the constructivist theater after Oktyabrskaya socialist revolution. In 1913, a theater of futurists emerged - rebels against bourgeois reality. The tragedy "Vladimir Mayakovsky" was staged here, designed by P. N. Filonov and I. S. Shkolnik. The prologue was set against the backdrop of a black square with random colorful spots, and the rest of the paintings were set against a backdrop of scenery depicting a city in an expressionist-cubist style, with a chaotic pile of buildings falling on top of each other.

In 1914, in Moscow, under the leadership of A. Ya. Tairov, he began to work Chamber theater, whose team boldly experimented and was also keen on “playing theatre”.

The activities of such major artists as N. S. Goncharova, A. V. Lentulov, P. V. Kuznetsov, A. A. Ekster developed in this theater.

Interesting were the experiments of A. Exter, who was brought up in France on the works of the post-impressionists, who designed the theater and its performances in the style of cubo-futurism and constructivism. Thus, during the production of O. Wilde’s “Salome” (1916), the stage was divided diagonally Exter by two stands, between which there was a spiral staircase. Single-colored panels descended and moved in all directions. The costumes were made in a constructivist spirit and resembled uniforms.

The activities of the Stone Theater enriched design principles stage space solutions.

For two seasons (1907/08 and 1911/12) the Ancient Theater of N. N. Evreinov and N. V. Drizen gave its performances in St. Petersburg. This theater aimed to revive medieval miracles, pastorals and liturgical dramas on stage. Artists from the “World of Art” Benois, Roerich, Dobuzhinsky, Bilibin, Lanceray, Sudeikin and others took part in the design of his performances. The medieval repertoire was presented to the audience as it was staged in their time. The character of the stage and the auditorium was recreated. Actors in disguise portrayed medieval spectators watching a performance. For example, the pastoral "Robin and Marion" (art. Dobuzhinsky) was given as a performance during a feast in a knight's castle, surrounded by gathered guests; the liturgical drama “The Adoration of the Magi” (art. Roerich) was depicted as a performance on the porch of the cathedral surrounded by a crowd of worshipers; "The Sheep Spring" by Lope de Vega (art. Roerich) was staged as a play traveling troupe surrounded by common people, etc. Museum-like in spirit, the Ancient Theater could not find a response among a wide audience and therefore turned out to be short-lived.

Folk theaters

At this time they continue to act folk theaters. This is the Mobile Theater of P. P. Gaideburov. Until 1917, he promoted realistic drama among the broadest sections of the population. In 1910, the Russian Theater Society organized the “Section for promoting the establishment of village and factory theaters at the Moscow Society of People’s Universities.” This section creates its own folk theater. And V.D. Polenov becomes the chairman of the section and at the same time the director and artist of this theater.

After the ruin of S.I. Mamontov, Polenov moved away from his former opera and now headed the workers' and peasants' amateur theaters. During 1911-1917. The master designed many performances in the folk theater, based on the principles of the Wanderers. Polenov created simple and inexpensive standard sets for folk theaters. His sketches were distinguished by the soulful Polenov imagery that distinguished the author of “Moscow Courtyard”. Let's return again to the Moscow Art Theater.

The Moscow Art Theater, turning to the fashionable dramaturgy of the Symbolists, did not forget about the classics:

• "A Month in the Village" by I. S. Turgenev (art. Dobuzhinsky),
• “Simplicity is enough for every wise man” by A. N. Ostrovsky (art. Kustodiev),
• "The Imaginary Invalid" by J. B. Moliere,
• “The Landlady of the Hotel” by C. Goldoni (Stanislavsky and Benois agreed on criticism of “conventional theater”),
• "The Brothers Karamazov" by F. M. Dostoevsky (art. Dobuzhinsky), etc.

Stanislavsky system

For practical work using a new technique, which will later be called Stanislavsky system, in 1913 the 1st, and in 1916 - the 2nd Studio of the Moscow Art Theater opened.

Let's say a few words about the world-famous Stanislavsky system.

Stanislavsky system represents a scientifically based theory of stage art, methods of acting technique. Stanislavsky's system opened the way to the creation of a performance as a single artistic whole, to the education of a true artist - actor and director. However, this was the philosophy of the theater, which determined its high goals and objectives during the years of stagnation (70s - 1st half of the 80s). In creating the system, Stanislavsky relied on the experience of Russian theater and his own practice as an actor and director. He summarized the experience of great Russian actors such as

• M. S. Shchepkin,
• G. N. Fedotova,
• M. N. Ermolova and others.

The first section of the system is devoted to the problem of an actor working on himself. This is daily hard training, training for a dancer, singer, violinist. By doing this, the artist improves his technique and artistic skills.

The second section discusses the principles of an actor’s work on a role, based on the art of experience. This is a complex psychological process in the artist’s soul. The actor should not represent the image, but “become the image”, make his experiences, feelings, thoughts his own, live the character’s life as his own. To achieve this goal, the actor and director must work a lot and persistently, penetrate deeply into the essence of the play, determine and study the smallest details of the role, the characteristics of the character and behavior of the character. When performing a performance, the artist does not mechanically repeat what he found in the process of working on the performance, but, as it were, recreates a living one before the eyes of the viewer. creative process birth of the image.

A special place in Stanislavsky’s system occupies the section on ethics of the actor-artist. After all, understanding a role depends on the personality of the actor, his breadth of horizons, life principles, civic position and beliefs. Therefore, the tasks of comprehending art are inseparable from the high moral and ethical problems of forming the artist’s personality.

According to Stanislavsky, the director must help the artist transform into the character. When creating a performance, the actor and director must be guided by the idea of ​​the playwright, the idea of ​​the play, which is why all work on the performance is called “through action.” End-to-end action it must embody the ideological content of the work extremely accurately, deeply and convincingly on stage - this is the ultimate task of the performance, all the efforts of the director and actors on stage are subordinated to it.

Stanislavsky's system contains sharp criticism of handicrafts, amateurism, cliches, routine, and everything that hindered the development of stage art.

Stanislavsky's system provided big influence on modern theatrical life, for the development of world theater. His theoretical works have been translated into many languages ​​of the world.

Cabaret theaters

Modernists, in their search for a new theater, turned to folk art.

Many booths and booths were located at fairs in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Chisinau, etc. They played a variety of actions from folk drama to circus tricks with spectators participating in the action. This was studied and used by modernists in professional theaters in major cities, creating many experimental theaters that financed major industrialists such as Savva Mamontov (musical theater in Abramtsevo), Princess Maria Tenisheva (musical theater in Talashkino), etc. Talented peasants who studied theatrical skills at the theaters often played in these theaters.

An interesting phenomenon in the theatrical life of the capitals were cabaret theaters, which were close to the folk booth.

So, in February 1908, the Moscow Art Theater actor Nikita Baliev together with some employees opened a tiny theater "Bat". The idea of ​​such a theater originated from the famous skit-makers at the Art Theater. "The Bat" became the night refuge of the Moscow Art Theater actors and was the center of the Moscow nightlife until closing in 1919

Baliev invited major writers and directors to work with him:

• Leonida Andreeva,
• Andrey Bely,
• Valeria Bryusova,
• Sergei Gorodetsky,
• Vasily Luzhsky,
• Vsevolod Meyerhold,
• Alexei Tolstoy,
• Moskvina,
• Tatyana Shchenkina-Kupernik,
• Boris Sadovsky.

IN early years Chaliapin, Sobinov, Stanislavsky performed in it. The dramatic repertoire consisted of short sketches, parodies of famous works(for example, on "The Inspector General"), popular print scenes. Lubok - simplified adaptations of fairy tales and epics of an anecdotal nature. Baliev loved hyperbole, sharp transitions from the comic to the tragic, and constant verbal skirmish with the audience. One day he asked everyone to sing, "Ah, ah, uh, em!" to imitate the sound of a sneeze.

In 1920, Baliev revived Die Fledermaus in Paris, with which he toured around the world. "Die Fledermaus" spawned many imitators both at home and abroad, but most were ephemeral and short-lived. Among them we can remember "Blue Bird". It was founded by actor Yasha Yuzhny in Moscow just before the revolution, and in 1920 it moved to Berlin.

"Bat", "Blue Bird" remained high professional level, but neither in their repertoire nor in their design were they radical theaters. Basically, despite the talent of the troupes, they attracted bourgeois spectators to their performances without high intellectual demands. In St. Petersburg cabarets they attracted eminent representatives of the intelligentsia, where more attention was paid to lectures and poetry readings than to musical numbers and “living pictures”. So "Stray Dog", headed by Boris Pronin, for its not long life(1911-1915) held many important events and promoted discussion on a wide range of issues, including theosophy, Alexandrian Christianity, the revival of French magic, Russian Orthodoxy, Neoplatonism, monks of Athos, etc.

Some of the most avant-garde artists Malevich and Tatlin took part in the design of the performances, which did not prevent “Stray Dog” from being at the head of Russian intellectual life. Its members were Evgeny Lansa, Alexey Adakov and many others. "Stray Dog" covered a wide range of literary and artistic interests, inviting, for example, Gorodetsky to talk about "Symbolism and Acmeism", Marinetti to read his poems, young musicians to perform their works, etc. Main artist cabaret Sudeikin created panels, programs and even fancy dress costumes for such meetings. Futurist poet Benedict Livshits left the following description of the atmosphere and programs of “Stray Dog”: “On the so-called extraordinary Saturdays and Wednesdays, guests were invited to put paper caps on their heads, which were handed to them on the threshold of the basement, and famous lawyers or members of the State Duma known throughout Russia , taken by surprise, meekly obeyed this demand...

The program was very diverse, starting with lectures “On a New World Outlook” or “On the Theater of Words and Theater of Movement” and ending with “Musical Mondays,” Karsavina’s dances or a banquet in honor of the Moscow Art Theater.”

The life of such cabaret theaters was short-lived, but they brought a special mood to the theatrical life of that time.

conclusions

Theatrical life of the "Silver Age" was unusually rich and varied. At this time, many artistic achievements were achieved, which allowed the Russian theater to occupy a leading position in the world. This period was characterized by active collaboration with the theater of major artists of various groups and movements, ranging from the “World of Art” to avant-garde artists Mikhail Larionov and Natalia Goncharova, Alexandra Ekster and Kazimir Malevich, etc., who collaborated with both musical theaters and drama theaters . So the theater wanted to strengthen its means of expression, and artists express themselves.

The buffoons entertained the people with songs and dances, and also acted out funny scenes. At fairs, stallholders invited people. And in the squares, traveling artists sang, danced and recited, entertaining the public.

Two branches of art

Theater in Russia in the 18th century developed in two directions. Folk art continued the traditions of buffoons. Performances were held in the open air or in a special room - a booth.

Performances of the court theater were first documented during the reign of Mikhail Romanov, the founder of this dynasty on the Russian throne. The initiator of the new entertainment was the boyar Artamon Matveev. This man did a lot for Russian statehood. He was the head of the Ambassadorial Prikaz - the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of that time. Artamon Matveev often traveled abroad. He was deeply passionate about the culture of many countries and tried to instill in Russia some European traditions. Artamon Matveev is considered the first Westerner.

Founder of dramaturgy and directing

Theater in Russia in the 18th century would not have existed without this multifaceted man. On his behalf, a professional troupe was organized. And the first play shown in Russia was the biblical story of Artaxerxes. A separate room was built for the royal entertainment. The Emperor liked the performance, and its author was generously rewarded. So who was the first Russian playwright and director? History has preserved his name. This is a German, Johann Gregory, who lived in Moscow.

The new entertainment caught on very quickly. In many rich houses of that time, both free people and serfs worked.

Great era

Theater in Russia in the 18th century is associated with the name of Peter the Great. During his reign, art flourished. Peter often invited foreign touring troupes to Russia. They not only showed new performances, but also carried progressive ideas, inspiring Russian authors. Peter built a theater on Red Square. It was later destroyed.

Theater in Russia in the 18th century developed not only in Moscow, but also in St. Petersburg. An establishment with Russian actors opened at the court of Anna Ioannovna. The famous playwright Alexander Sumarokov wrote plays for him.

Further development

Under Elizabeth Petrovna, the so-called imperial theaters appeared. These government agencies existed at the expense of the treasury. The director of the imperial island was Sumarokov.

The 18th century theater in Russia continued its development during the reign of Catherine II. Several professional troupes worked at her court. Italians occupied a special position opera singers. A Russian drama troupe also worked. During this period, the theater ceased to be a purely palace entertainment. Public entertainment establishments opened in the city, in which both Russian and foreign artists worked.

Works of Ivan Dmitrevsky

The theater of the 18th century in Russia knows the names of famous entrepreneurs: Titov, Belmonti, Medox. At this time, landowner troupes continue to exist in the provinces, where serf artists perform. Ivan Dmitrevsky was a wonderful actor. He has had a distinguished career. In Volkov's first professional Russian troupe, young Dmitrevsky played female roles. Later he became the main actor of the Imperial Theater at Vasilyevsky Island. To improve his skills, Catherine the Second sent Dmitrevsky abroad. In Paris, he studied the play of the famous tragedian Lequesne, and in London he watched performances with the participation of the great Garrick. Returning to St. Petersburg, Dmitrevsky opened drama school. He later became the chief inspector of imperial entertainment establishments.

Main development trends

Theater in the 18th century in Russia can be briefly described as classicist. This direction dominated in Europe in the 17th century. In the subsequent period, classicism was replaced by the more democratic creativity of the Enlightenment. Russian art of the 18th century gravitated towards rationality, genre hierarchy and strict canons. Theater plays were strictly divided into tragedies and comedies. Mixing them was not allowed.

Theater and music of the 18th century in Russia were inextricably linked. Opera has become perhaps the most popular form of entertainment. appeared at the court of Anna Ioannovna. The first libretto in Russian was written by Alexander Sumarokov. Classicist opera, like drama, gravitated towards a strict division of genres. Tragic works were composed in Italian traditions and were distinguished by sublime music. Comedies, considered a minor genre, were associated with the Russian traditions of fairground booths. Distinctive features such funny operas - spoken dialogues and song musical numbers. Composers Sokolovsky, Pashkevich, Bortnyansky wrote works for the theater. The operas were performed in French and Russian.

New trends

Theater of the 18th-19th centuries in Russia developed along the lines of In 1782, Denis Fonvizin’s comedy “The Minor” saw the stage. Satire on the modern Russian society for the first time was shown so talentedly by the author. Fonvizin described the types of the upper class of that time with amazing accuracy. The evil Prostakova, her stupid husband and son Mitrofanushka brought fame to the author during his lifetime. Starodum’s wise reasoning about honor and dignity still excites viewers today. Despite the conventionality of the characters, there is sincerity and expressiveness in them. read Pushkin, Gogol and other writers. She is admired by many generations of viewers. “Nedorosl” still occupies place of honor in the repertoire of the country's leading theaters. This work is inscribed in golden letters in

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COURSE WORK

Performed:

student

Zakirova A.F.

Checked:

teacher

_________________

Ufa – 2005

Introduction 4

Theater in the 18th century in Russia 5

Literature of the 18th century 9

19th century - the dawn of Russian theater and literature 11

Conclusion 27

References 28

Introduction

Speaking about Russian literature and Russian theater of the second quarter of the 19th century. We must not forget that the majority of the country's population at that time still remained illiterate and only a very limited circle of people had access to reading books and magazines. Development of Russian musical theater went the hard way.

Theater in the 18th century in Russia

Not all plays performed in Russia at the turn of the 18th century have reached us, but still the available material allows us to draw certain conclusions. Already at the very beginning of the organization of the court theater, the need for musicians arose. The composition of the musicians was repeatedly replenished and updated both at the expense of foreign and, apparently, Russian performers. In the first quarter of the 18th century in Russia there was a wide spread

They receive small instrumental chapels serving assemblies and court holidays. Along with plays of religious content, in the era of Peter the Great, “panegyric” dramas were created, glorifying the victories of Russian weapons. New for the Russian theater was the desire of the author and director to achieve emotional unity between experiences characters and music. It would be wrong to limit the connection between theater and literature of this era only to the issue of dramatization of novels and stories. The adventurous and love “knightly” genre experiences a certain influence from the theater, and, what is noteworthy, from musical theater. This is how the interaction between literature and theater arises. The gallant story in theatrical performances is as rich in musical elements as the original source.

Speaking about opera, he means only seria or lyrical tragedy: “Opera is a living depiction of some important action: it only differs from comedy in that in comedy the characters simply speak, but in opera they speak by singing.” Explaining the meaning of the term “theatrical machine,” Kantemir again turns to opera: “In operas, machines mean those with which sudden and extraordinary changes in the theater are carried out, such as, for example, the convergence of clouds with people on them, etc.” In undoubted connection with the performances of the Italian opera buffa, and subsequently the opera seria, there are works about the theater that appeared in the Russian press throughout

30s. An anonymous discussion “about shameful games or comedies and tragedies” was published in “Notes on Vedomosti” (1733). The basis of theatrical art, the author writes, is a visual depiction of noble heroes and actions, true to noble nature, “in disgraces there is always some memorable and connected adventure so naturally represented by something that the caretakers completely understand, and the whole state of the thing can be clearly seen.”

Evaluating the acting, democratic spectators often showed good taste, admiring those performers who knew how to truthfully reveal the spiritual world of their heroes. A special mission in subordinating theaters to the ideological tasks of the government was assigned to the caesura. In 1826, a new censorship statute was introduced, which received the apt definition of “cast iron” from the writers. Censorship categorically forbade bringing the clergy on stage or subjecting the military, high-ranking officials, or police to any criticism. Information about the first opera performances in Russia are very scarce, so the data not included in the scientific survey reported by the priest of the Danish embassy in St. Petersburg, Peder Van Haven, who arrived in the capital in 1736, is of a certain value. He points out in his notes: “The Empress maintains an Italian troupe consisting of approximately 70 opera singers.”

18th century literature

19th century - the dawn of Russian theater and literature

With the advent of plays by A.N. Ostrovsky, I.S. Turgenev, prose by F.M. Dostoevsky, Nekrasov’s poetry, realism came to Russian culture. The art of acting changed along with dramaturgy, breaking old ideas about what truth is on stage. November 16, 1859 was the day of the premiere of Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm” at the Maly Theater. A storm erupted around the performance. The first performer of the role of Katerina was the wonderful actress L.P. Nikulina - Kositskaya. With Ostrovsky's plays, the elements of Russian life, a new, rich and modern language, burst onto the stage. Maly's actors shone in Ostrovsky's plays throughout the subsequent decades. G.N. Fedotova,

M.N. Ermolova is a wonderful actress of the small tiara. Russian artists of the first half of the 19th century century M.S. Shchepkin, P.S. Mochalov, V.A. Karatygin remained in the memory of descendants as figures from legend. Shchepkin played almost 600 roles in Shakespeare's plays,

Moliere, Gogol, Ostrovsky and Turgenev. He was one of the first to assert realism in the Russian theater; he created truth on the Russian stage.

On a cloudy, frosty morning on March 11, 1853, for an unknown reason, a fire started in the theater. The flames instantly engulfed the entire building, but the fire raged with greatest force on the stage and in the auditorium. “It was scary to look at this giant engulfed in fire,” an eyewitness described the fire. “When it was burning, it seemed to us that a person dear to us, who endowed us with the most beautiful thoughts and feelings, was dying before our eyes...” 7 .

For two days Muscovites fought the flames, and for the third day the theater building resembled the ruins of the Roman Colosseum. The remains of the building smoldered for about a week. Theatrical costumes collected since the end of the 18th century, excellent scenery for performances, the troupe's archives, part of the music library, and rare musical instruments were irretrievably lost in the fire.

“There are events in Russia that astonish contemporaries with their speed and greatness and are presented as miracles to distant posterity,” wrote Moskovskie Vedomosti on January 17, 1825. “Such a thought naturally arises in the soul of a Russian with every incident that brings our fatherland closer to the European powers, such a thought arises in the soul when looking at the Bolshoi Petrovsky Theater, like a phoenix from the ruins raising its walls in new splendor and splendor.”

The design of the theater building, drawn up by Professor A. Mikhailov, was approved by Emperor Alexander I in 1821, and its construction was entrusted to the architect Osip Bova.

One of the largest theaters in Europe, it was built on the site of a burnt theater building, but the façade was facing Teatralnaya Square...

A memorable performance in the annals of the theater was the first performance on December 16, 1888 of I. Mussorgsky's folk drama "Boris Godunov". The first of N. Rimsky-Korsakov's operas to see the light of the Bolshoi Theater stage was "The Snow Maiden" (1893), and then "The Night Before Christmas" (1898). In the same year, 1898, the theater first showed the audience A. Borodin's opera "Prince Igor", and two years later, lovers of choreographic art became acquainted with A. Glazunov's ballet "Raymonda" 8.

The size of the group has become one and a half meters higher than before and reaches 6.5 meters in height. It is moved forward and placed on a pedestal along the ridge of the portico roof.

Four horses, arranged in one row, gallop at a gallop, dragging behind them a quadriga - an antique chariot on two wheels. They are ruled by God A Pollon, his head is crowned with a wreath, in his left hand is a lyre.

When reconstructing the auditorium, Kavos changed the shape of the hall, narrowing it towards the stage, and deepened the orchestra pit. Behind the stalls, where there used to be a gallery, he built an amphitheater. Dimensions auditorium steel: almost equal depth and width - about 30 meters, height - about 20 meters. The auditorium began to accommodate over 2000 spectators.

IN In this form, the Bolshoi Theater has survived to this day, with the exception of minor internal and external reconstructions.

Kavos himself wrote about the architecture of the auditorium of the Bolshoi Theater: “I tried to decorate the auditorium as magnificently and at the same time as lightly as possible, in the taste of the Renaissance mixed with the Byzantine style. White color, bright crimson draperies strewn with gold, various on each floor, plaster arabesques and the main effect of the auditorium - a large chandelier of three rows of lamps and candelabra decorated with crystal - all this earned universal approval."

“Karamzin began a new era of Russian literature,” Belinsky asserted. This era was primarily characterized by the fact that literature acquired influence on society; it became a “textbook of life” for readers, that is, what the glory of Russian literature of the 19th century is based on. The significance of Karamzin’s activities for Russian literature is great. Karamzin’s word echoes Pushkin and Lermontov. Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza” 9 had the greatest influence on subsequent literature.

Loving her parents dearly, she cannot forget about her father, but hides her sadness and tears so as not to disturb her mother. She took tender care of her mother, got her medicine, worked day and night (“weaved canvas, knitted stockings, picked flowers in the spring, and in the summer she took berries and sold them in Moscow”) The author is sure that such activities fully provide for the life of the old woman and her daughters. According to his plan, Lisa is completely unfamiliar with the book, but after meeting Erast, she dreams of how good it would be if her beloved “was born a simple peasant shepherd...” - these words are completely in the spirit of Lisa. Liza not only speaks like a book, but also thinks. However, the psychology of Lisa, who fell in love with a girl for the first time, is revealed in detail and in a natural sequence. The following moments are psychological and interesting: the desire to see Erast the next day after meeting and “some kind of sadness” when this desire did not come true, joyful fear and excitement at the unexpected appearance of Erast under the window of her hut, the author depicts this same feeling with the help of details in at the beginning of the story, wonder how she could live before without knowing Erast; anxiety at the thought that Erast the master cannot be the husband of a simple peasant woman; the fear of losing a loved one and the hope of his return, finally, hopeless despair after Erast sent her out of the office.

A.S. Pushkin was the next writer whose sphere of creative attention began to include the whole of vast Russia, its open spaces, the life of villages; St. Petersburg and Moscow opened up not only from the luxurious entrance, but also through the narrow doors of poor houses. Evidence of this was provided by his “Belkin's Tales”, in the center of which is provincial Russia. Here is the “martyr of the fourteenth class,” the collegiate registrar, the caretaker of one of the thousands of small postal stations, the poor official Samson Vyrin, and the retired hussar officer Silvio, and rich nobles, and small ones, many others 10.

Reading Gogol's stories, we remember more than once how an unlucky official in a cap of an indeterminate shape and a blue cotton overcoat with an old collar stopped in front of a shop window to look through the solid windows of shops sparkling with wonderful lights and magnificent gilding. For a long time, with envy, the official gazed at various objects and, having come to his senses, continued on his way with deep melancholy and steadfast firmness. Gogol reveals to the reader the world of “little people”, the world of officials, bureaucratic chicanery in his “Petersburg Tales” 11.

Conclusion

Romanticism in Russia, which developed as a literary movement in the early 19th century, was associated with the rise of national consciousness and the beginning of the revolutionary movement of the Decembrists. Two trends clearly emerged in Russian Romanticism.

The revolutionary direction was manifested in the work of the Decembrists - K. F. Ryleev (1795 - 1826), A. I. Odoevsky (1802 - 39), V. K. Kuchelbecker (1797 - 1846) and others, in the early work of A. S. Pushkin (1799 – 1837). The works of the Decembrist poets, like the “southern” poems of Pushkin, are imbued with the spirit of protest against the existing social system, the spirit of affirming individual freedom. The growth of national self-awareness after the Patriotic War of 1812 and the deepening of the revolutionary movement during the years of preparation for the uprising of 1825 gave rise to the motives of the struggle for national and political freedom.

Bibliography

Musical culture of Russia in the XVIII-XIX centuries. St. Petersburg, 1996.

Essays on Russian writers A. Gorelov P. O. Publishing house “Soviet Writer”. 1984.

E. A. Polotskaya “The paths of Chekhov’s heroes.” Moscow “Enlightenment” 1992.

1 Zezina M.R. Koshman L.V. Shulgin V.S. History of Russian culture. - M., 1990

2 Zezina M. R. Koshman L. V. Shulgin V. S. History of Russian culture. - M., 1990

3 Milyukov P. N. Essays on the history of Russian culture. - M., 1993

4 Essays on Russian writers A. Gorelov P. O. Publishing house "Soviet Writer." 1984

5 History of Russian literature of the 19th century volume 1 (edited by Petrov.) Enlightenment 1970

7 Musical culture Russia in the XVIII-XIX centuries. St. Petersburg, 1996

8 Musical culture of Russia in the XVIII-XIX centuries. St. Petersburg, 1996

9 History of Russian literature of the 19th century volume 1 (edited by Petrov.) Enlightenment 1970

10 Miliukov P. N. Essays on the history of Russian culture. - M., 1993

11 Miliukov P. N. Essays on the history of Russian culture. - M., 1993

EASTERN INSTITUTE OF ECONOMICS, HUMANITIES, MANAGEMENT AND LAW

EASTERN INSTITUTE OF ECONOMICS, HUMANITIES, MANAGEMENT AND LAW

COURSE WORK

Discipline: “history of socio-cultural activities”

On the topic: “Theater and literature of the 18th-19th centuries.”

Performed:

student

Zakirova A.F.

Checked:

teacher

_________________

Ufa – 2005

Introduction 4

The secular character of 18th century theater in Russia 5

Literature of the 18th century 9

19th century - the dawn of Russian theater 13

Literature of the 19th century 19

Conclusion 29

References 30

Introduction

Theme: "Theater and Literature of the 18th-19th Centuries" quite relevant in the context of the history of socio-cultural activities, because We are all carriers of the culture of our people. If we do not know the history of our ancestors, then we will cease to exist as a nation.

The purpose of my work is to examine theater and literature of the 18th and 19th centuries. in the leisure sector.

To achieve the goal, it is necessary to solve the following tasks: consider the theater of the 18-19 centuries. in the context of socio-cultural activities, as well as literature of this period.

The beginning of this period in the history of Russian theater is associated with dramatic events in public life countries that shook it to its core and left an imprint on all spheres of life of the Russian theater and society in subsequent years.

Speaking about Russian literature and Russian theater of the 18-19 centuries. We must not forget that the majority of the country's population at that time still remained illiterate and only a very limited circle of people had access to reading books and magazines. The development of Russian musical theater took a difficult path.

Its prehistory goes back to dramatic performances (late 18th - early 19th centuries), in which music (arias, songs, choruses, instrumental episodes, dances) occupied a significant place, to school theater interludes and panegyric dramas for the repertoire of the Moscow Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy.

If musical theater in Russia had not relied on long-standing national traditions, the flourishing of Russian national opera in the second half of the 18th century would have been impossible.

The secular nature of 18th century theater in Russia

The eighteenth century became one of the turning points in the history of Russia. The culture that served the spiritual needs of this period began to quickly acquire a secular character, which was greatly facilitated by the rapprochement of art with science.

One of the life-giving sources of Russian theater was folklore. Elements of theatricality, i.e. figurative, effective reproduction of reality are always present in folk art, be it a round dance song, dance, or ritual game. A unique expression of the people’s need for theater is “folk drama” 1.

There is no doubt that there was an internal connection between the popular and professional theater. The bearers of folk theater traditions were buffoons. Echoes of these “plays” can also be found in the performances of amateur troupes of the 18th century, in which the role of the buffoon passes to the guy. Along with troupes that performed before court audiences, throughout the 18th century, especially in the second third, amateur associations emerged, often democratic in their composition of participants and repertoire.

By the middle of the 18th century, the theater had already firmly entered the life of Russian society, and not only of its aristocratic or church elite, but also of the social lower classes. It can be argued that folk and literary theater were in a certain interaction. The comic characters of the sideshows are not so far from the jesters and “merry people” of the public theater performances of the early 18th century. From the very first steps, Russian theater uses music. She participates almost equally with the word in school theater performances. In drams on religious themes Naturally, liturgical chants were used. However, along with church chants, the performance also organically includes secular music, illustrating scenes of an “everyday” nature.

Not all plays performed in Russia at the turn of the 18th century have reached us, but still the available material allows us to draw certain conclusions. Already at the very beginning of the organization of the court theater, the need for musicians arose. The composition of the musicians was repeatedly replenished and updated both at the expense of foreign and, apparently, Russian performers. In the first quarter of the 18th century in Russia, small instrumental chapels serving assemblies and court holidays became widespread. Along with plays of religious content, in the era of Peter the Great, “panegyric” dramas were created, glorifying the victories of Russian weapons. What was new for the Russian theater was the desire of the author and director to achieve emotional unity between the experiences of the characters and the music.

It would be wrong to limit the connection between theater and literature of this era only to the issue of dramatization of novels and stories. The adventurous and love “knightly” genre experiences a certain influence from the theater, and, what is noteworthy, from musical theater. This is how the interaction between literature and theater arises. The gallant story in theatrical performances is as rich in musical elements as the original source.

Allegorical and mythological images most clearly expressed the main theme of the performance. Even before foreigners opera companies began to systematically give their performances at court, references to this “overseas invention” appeared in Russian literature. In 1726, A. Cantemir translated “A certain Italian letter containing a comforting critical description of Paris and the French, written from a certain Socilian to a friend,” in which there are lines about Parisian theaters, including the Italian comic opera.

“There are many theaters here, which are always open for the amusement of those who love such a spectacle; operas are sent in one, and comedies and tragedies in the other...” Kantemir also made an attempt to interpret theatrical terminology in the notes to the translation of “Conversations on the Many Worlds of Fontenelle” 2.

Speaking about opera, he means only seria or lyrical tragedy: “Opera is a living depiction of some important action: it only differs from comedy in that in comedy the characters simply speak, but in opera they speak by singing.” Explaining the meaning of the term “theatrical machine,” Kantemir again turns to opera: “In operas, machines mean those with which sudden and extraordinary changes in the theater are carried out, such as, for example, the convergence of clouds with people on them, etc.” In undoubted connection with the performances of the Italian opera buffa, and subsequently opera seria, there are works on the theater that appeared in the Russian press throughout the 30s. An anonymous discussion “about shameful games or comedies and tragedies” was published in “Notes on Vedomosti” (1733).

The basis of theatrical art, the author writes, is a visual depiction of noble heroes and actions, true to noble nature, “in disgraces there is always some memorable and connected adventure so naturally represented by something that the caretakers completely understand, and the whole state of the thing can be clearly seen.”

When assessing acting, democratic spectators often showed good taste, admiring those performers who knew how to truthfully reveal the spiritual world of their heroes. A special mission in subordinating theaters to the ideological tasks of the government was assigned to the caesura. In 1826, a new censorship statute was introduced, which received the apt definition of “cast iron” from the writers.

Censorship categorically forbade bringing the clergy on stage or subjecting the military, high-ranking officials, or police to any criticism. Information about the first opera performances in Russia is very scarce, so the data not included in the scientific survey reported by the priest of the Danish embassy in St. Petersburg, Peder Van Haven, who arrived in the capital in 1736, is of a certain value. He points out in his notes: “The Empress maintains an Italian troupe consisting of approximately 70 opera singers.”

The Russian theater, which became public and accessible to a wide range of spectators under Peter the Great, did not cease to exist in the subsequent era. Russian amateur performances are staged not only at court and in the houses of nobles, but also among the common rank and bourgeoisie” 3 .

The repertoire of amateurs was quite varied - from interludes to secular plays on the themes of gallant stories and dramas on religious subjects, inherited from the previous era. The participation of singers in amateur court performances became a tradition that was continued in the 50s and 60s, when singers performed together with Italian artists in the operatic repertoire. No less significant is the role of the cadets of the Gentry Corps as the main performers of ballets and participants in dramatic and opera performances.

Dance classes in the building, and later in the Moscow Academic Gymnasium, were the first theater school that trained artists for the future Russian professional theater. The need for Russian dancers and singers was discovered in the early 40s, when the activities of the courtier resumed opera house. Foreign singers and dancers could not provide performances of large and complex works, not to mention the fact that the need for Russian performances for the prestige of the monarchy was also created at court. Despite the fact that by the middle of the 18th century Russian performances had become firmly established in life, Italian opera continued to be the main form of court theater. The 40-50s are a new stage in its triumph. Never before have so many performances been given at court: opera seria and opera buffo.

Along with the Italians, the French, later the Germans, and the British performed. At the same time, the 50-60s were not only a time of dominance by foreigners, but also a period of intense struggle for the creation of a Russian national theater, the promotion of talented Russian composers, playwrights, actors, and singers. Russian composers not only successfully compete with foreign guest performers, but also perform abroad themselves - such as the famous Russian dancer Timofey Bublikov.

The opera seria, which reappeared in Russia in the early 40s, was significantly different in content from the previous one, and was transformed in accordance with the requirements of the Russian autocracy and its increased strength. The performance of the singers in the choir gave the performance the necessary solemnity and festivity and opened the way to the opera stage for Russian artists. The rise of Russian science and culture, national literature came into sharp conflict with the dominance of foreigners in all areas of life. The mid-50s of the 18th century was a period of changing styles of musical theater in Russia. The period of dominance of opera seria, which exalted the Russian autocracy, an art purely of the court, has ended. These words correctly capture the essence of French comic opera 50s of the 18th century: appeal to common folk themes, freedom from pretentiousness and autocratic virtuosity, simplicity, use of folk song intonations. Theater became a factor in national culture. Russian performers and composers mastered the experience of world opera and established their own, brightly original national art.

18th century literature

The literature of the 18th century was prepared by the entire previous history of Russian literature, the course of development of society and Russian culture. It is connected with the best traditions of ancient Russian literature (the idea of ​​the important role of literature in the life of society, its patriotic orientation). The reform activities of Peter I, the renewal and Europeanization of Russia, extensive state building, the transformation of the country into a strong world power despite the cruelty of the serfdom system - all this was reflected in the literature of that time. Classicism became the leading literary movement of the 18th century.

Classicism is a pan-European phenomenon. But in different countries it had its own characteristics and a certain degree of development. Classicism reached its heyday in France in the second half of the 17th century. The works of classic writers reflected the ideas of a strong independent state with the absolute power of the monarch. Therefore, the main conflict in the works of classicism is the conflict between duty and feeling. At the center of these works is a person who has subordinated the personal to the public. For him, above all else is the duty of a citizen, serving the interests of the homeland and the state. Such a citizen must first of all be the monarch. The classicists considered reason to be the highest criterion of the true and beautiful.

In Russian literature, classicism appeared later than in Western European literature, but was caused by similar historical conditions - the emergence of a strong autocratic state. He was closely associated with the ideas of the European Enlightenment, such as: the establishment of firm and fair laws, enlightenment and education of the nation, the desire to penetrate the secrets of the universe, and the affirmation of the natural equality of people of all classes.

Since the 60s In the 18th century, a new literary trend emerged in Russian literature - sentimentalism. Like the classicists, sentimentalist writers relied on the Enlightenment ideas that a person’s value depended not on his membership in the upper classes, but on his personal merits.

The classicists subordinated everything to reason, the sentimentalists - to feelings, experiences and all kinds of shades of mood.

Examples of works of sentimentalism in the West: “Clarissa” by S. Richardson, “Suffering young Werther"I.V. Goethe. The head of Russian sentimentalism is considered to be N.M. Karamzin. In the story “Poor Liza” Karamzin first discovered the world of human feelings, the depth and power of love of a simple peasant woman. By revealing the world of feelings, the literature of sentimentalism cultivated dignity and respect in a person to their strengths, abilities, experiences, regardless of their position in society.

Lomonosov is the first Russian cultural figure to gain world fame, one of the outstanding educators and the most enlightened person of his time, one of the greatest scientists of the 18th century, a wonderful poet. “Ode for the Day...” is written in “high calm” and glorifies the daughter of Peter 1. Having paid tribute to the virtues of the empress, her “meek voice”, “kind and beautiful face”, the desire to “expand science”, the poet starts talking about her father, who calls him “a man who has been unheard of since ages.” Peter 1 is the ideal of an enlightened monarch, cat. He gives all his strength to his people and state. Lomonosov's ode gives an image of Russia with its vast expanses and enormous riches. This is how the theme of the Motherland and serving it arises - the leading one in Lomonosov’s work. The theme of science and knowledge of nature is closely related to this topic. It ends with a hymn to science, a call to young men to dare for the glory of the Russian land. Thus, the poet’s educational ideals found expression in the “Ode of 1747.”

Fonvizin. The comedy "The Minor" is rightly considered the pinnacle of Fonvizin's creativity and all Russian drama of the 17th century. While maintaining connections with the worldview of classicism, comedy became a deeply innovative technique. How did the comedy "The Minor" correspond to the provisions of Russian classicism? First of all, the author retains all the signs of the “low” genre 4.

The play ridicules vices (rudeness, cruelty, stupidity, lack of education, greed), which, according to the author, require immediate correction. The problem of education is central to the ideas of the Enlightenment and is also the main one in Fonvizin’s comedy, which is emphasized by its name. (A minor is a young nobleman, a teenager who received a home education.) The specificity of the depicted reality corresponds to the language of the work (one of the rules of classicism). For example, Prostakova’s speech: rude in addressing the servants (“fraudster,” “cattle,” “thief’s mug” - tailor Trishka; “beast,” “runaway” - nanny Eremeevna), caring and affectionate in conversation with her son Mitrofanushka (“century live and learn, my dear friend", "darling"). The “correct” bookish language forms the basis of the speech of the positive characters: it is spoken by Starodum, Pravdin, Milon and Sophia. Thus, the speech of the heroes seems to divide the characters into negative and positive (one of the rules of classicism).

A.N. Radishchev - even in his youth, Radishchev identified the main goal of his life as serving for the good of the Fatherland. In the epigraph to “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” - “The monster is loud, mischievous, huge, yawning and barking” - Radishchev defines the main enemy, the main misfortune of Russia and the Russian people - autocracy and the serfdom associated with it. Most of the chapters of this work are devoted to exposing the essence of this “monster”, its cruelty and inhumanity, corrupting the souls of people, ruining the country. The writer paints pictures of lawlessness and incredible exploitation, cat. peasants are exposed. Radishchev reveals the “true face” of autocracy in a satirical “dream” (chapter “Spasskaya Polest”), showing the illegality and anti-nationality of any monarchy.

N.M. Karamzin. Karamzin’s word echoes Pushkin and Lermontov. The greatest influence on subsequent literature was made by Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza. “The author laid the foundation for a huge series of works.

It was he who opened the way for such writers of the future as Gogol, Dostoevsky and others. A.S. Pushkin was the next writer whose sphere of creative attention began to include the whole of vast Russia, its open spaces, the life of villages, St. Petersburg and Moscow opened up not only from a luxurious entrance, but also through the narrow doors of poor houses.

19th century - the dawn of Russian theater

In 1828, the “Partnership for the Establishment of a Public Theater” arose in Moscow. Among its founders were manufacturer S. T. Morozov, theater workers K. S. Stanislavsky and V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko. IN Carriage Row The Hermitage Theater was rented - a dilapidated and cold hall. On October 14, 1829, the first performance of the Moscow Art Theater took place here.

The creators of the Moscow Art Theater set themselves three main goals. Firstly, to attract spectators to the hall from ordinary people who could not afford tickets to the imperial theaters. Secondly, to refresh the repertoire, banishing from it boulevard melodrama and empty comedy. Thirdly, reform the theater business.

The new theater had a hard time at first. Income from performances did not cover expenses. Savva Morozov came to the rescue, investing half a million rubles in the theater over five years. Thanks to his energy, a new building was built on Kamergersky Lane. The first performance there took place in October 1831. For several years, the most difficult in the history of the theater, the post of chairman of the board was held by S. T. Morozov. V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko decided on repertoire issues. The main director was K. S. Stanislavsky.

In a short period of time, an ensemble of wonderful actors was formed at the Art Theater (V. I. Kachalov, I. M. Moskvin, A. R. Artem, O. L. Knipper-Chekhova, etc.). Konstantin Sergeevich determined the task and place in the play for everyone, subordinating the efforts of all the actors involved in it to a single director’s plan. This was a new phenomenon in Russian theater, where previously the role of the director was small. The Art Theater became the first truly director's theatre.

This allowed the young theater to brilliantly cope with such a complex play as Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” which was not successful at the Alexandrinsky Theater. And Chekhov took his “Uncle Vanya” from the small theater and transferred it to the Khudozhestvenny.

The theater of Stanislavsky, Nemirovich-Danchenko and Morozov was multi-talented. The plays of A.P. Chekhov, constructed as dramas of everyday life, coexisted in his repertoire with the plays of A.M. Gorky, which were distinguished by their romantic and openly rebellious pathos. And the audience applauded both with equal rapture, realizing that this was the same truth in life, seen differently.

IN early XIX century, a network of Russian Imperial theaters was formed, which were managed by the “ministry of the court of His Imperial Majesty.” Subordinate to the court there were 3 theaters in St. Petersburg - Alexandria, Mariinsky and Mikhailovsky - and 2 in Moscow - Bolshoi and Maly.

With the advent of plays by A.N. Ostrovsky, I.S. Turgenev, prose by F.M. Dostoevsky, Nekrasov’s poetry, realism came to Russian culture. The art of acting changed along with dramaturgy, breaking old ideas about what truth is on stage. November 16, 1859 was the day of the premiere of Ostrovsky’s play “The Thunderstorm” at the Maly Theater. A storm erupted around the performance. The first performer of the role of Katerina was the wonderful actress L.P. Nikulina - Kositskaya. With Ostrovsky's plays, the elements of Russian life, a new, rich and modern language, burst onto the stage. Maly's actors shone in Ostrovsky's plays throughout the subsequent decades. G.N. Fedotova, M.N. Ermolova is a wonderful actress of the small tiara. Russian artists of the first half of the 19th century M.S. Shchepkin, P.S. Mochalov, V.A. Karatygin remained in the memory of descendants as figures from legend. Shchepkin played almost 600 roles in plays by Shakespeare, Moliere, Gogol, Ostrovsky and Turgenev. He was one of the first to assert realism in the Russian theater; he created truth on the Russian stage.

Mochalov is the direct opposite of Shchepkin. He played leading roles in plays of Russian and Western drama - Shakespeare's Hamlet, Karl Moor in Schiller's drama The Robbers, Chatsky in Woe from Wit. In productions of plays, Russian actors created images that went down in the history of theatrical art. The public admired Ekaterina Semyonova and Alexei Yakovlev. These actors completely transformed into the person they represented. Gradually, the Maly Theater began to specialize in dramatic productions, and the Bolshoi in opera and ballet 5 .

The opening of the Bolshoi Petrovsky Theater on January 6, 1825 was very solemn. The spectators who visited the new theater that evening were shocked by the nobility of the architectural design and its implementation, the unprecedented scale of the building, and the beauty of the decoration of its auditorium.

Writer Sergei Aksakov recalled: “The Bolshoi Petrovsky Theater, which emerged from old, charred ruins... amazed and delighted me... The magnificent huge building, exclusively dedicated to my favorite art, by its very appearance brought me into joyful excitement...” 6

Before the start of the performance, the audience called the theater builder Osip Bove onto the stage and awarded him applause.

On the opening day of the theater, the prologue “The Triumph of the Muses” by A. Alyabyev and A. Verstovsky was shown, allegorically depicting how the Genius of Russia, with the help of the muses, created a new one from the ruins of a burnt theater beautiful temple art - Bolshoi Petrovsky Theater. The prologue featured the best actors of the troupe: the Genius of Russia was performed by the famous tragedian Pavel Mochalov, the god of arts Apollo was performed by singer Nikolai Lavrov, and the muses of Terpsichore were performed by the leading dancer Felicata Virginie Gyullen-Sor.

After the intermission, Ferdinand Sor's ballet "Cendrillon" was shown. “The brilliance of the costumes, the beauty of the scenery, in a word, all the theatrical splendor is combined here, as well as in the prologue,” wrote musical critic V. Odoevsky. In order to give “equal pleasure to all residents of Moscow,” the theater management decided to repeat this performance the next day.

On August 20, 1856, the Bolshoi Theater, restored by A. Kavos, was opened in the presence of the royal family and representatives of all states with V. Bellini’s opera “The Puritans” performed by an Italian troupe. The Moscow ballet of this period owes its successes to the talent of the Frenchman Marius Petipa, who settled in St. Petersburg. The choreographer came to Moscow several times to stage performances. The most significant of his Moscow works was “Don Quixote” by L. Minkus, first shown in 1869. Petipa subsequently transferred the Moscow edition of this ballet to the St. Petersburg stage.

The work of P. Tchaikovsky was of great importance for the development of performing culture. The composer's debuts in opera music - "The Voevoda" (1869) and ballet music - "Swan Lake" (1877) took place on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater. Here the opera “Eugene Onegin” (1881) received its real birth, the first attempt on the big stage after the Conservatory production of 1879; The opera "Mazeppa" (1884), one of the peaks of the composer's operatic creativity, was first released; the final version of the opera "Blacksmith Vakula", which received the new name "Cherevichki" in the 1887 performance. By the way, the premiere of “Cherevichki” at the Bolshoi Theater on January 19, 1887 was also Tchaikovsky’s debut as an opera conductor.

A memorable performance in the annals of the theater was the first performance on December 16, 1888 of I. Mussorgsky's folk drama "Boris Godunov". The first of N. Rimsky-Korsakov's operas to see the light of the Bolshoi Theater stage was "The Snow Maiden" (1893), and then "The Night Before Christmas" (1898). In the same year, 1898, the theater first showed the audience A. Borodin's opera "Prince Igor", and two years later, lovers of choreographic art became acquainted with A. Glazunov's ballet "Raymonda" 7 .

With the expansion of the Russian repertoire, the best works of foreign composers were also staged. To the previously staged operas were added "Rigoletto", "Aida", "La Traviata" by G. Verdi, "Faust" and "Romeo and Juliet" by C. Gounod, "Carmen" by J. Bizet, "Tannhäuser", "Valkyrie", "Lohengrin" " R. Wagner et al.

The theater's opera troupe of the late 19th and early 20th centuries includes many outstanding singers. Among the glorious names of past years are Eulalia Kadmina, Anton Bartsal, Pavel Khokhlov, Nadezhda Salina, Ivan Gryzunov, Margarita Gunova, Vasily Petrov, etc. Singers appeared on the theater stage in these years, whose names soon became widely known not only in Russia, but and abroad - Leonid Sobinov, Fyodor Chaliapin, Antonina Nezhdanova.

The activity in the theater of Sergei Rachmaninov, who also declared himself a brilliant musician at the conductor's stand, was fruitful. Rachmaninov improved the sound quality of Russian opera classics in the theater. By the way, the name of Rachmaninov is associated with the transfer of the conductor's console to the place where it is now; before, the conductor stood behind the orchestra, facing the stage.

In 1899, The Sleeping Beauty was staged for the first time at the Bolshoi Theater. The production of this ballet, which established the partnership of music and dance in the Russian ballet theater, was the beginning of a long and happy work in Moscow for the choreographer, librettist and teacher Alexander Gorsky. I worked with him large group talented artists - Ekaterina Geltser, Vera Caralli, Sofya Fedorova, Alexandra Balashova, Vasily Tikhomirov, Mikhail Mordkin, conductor and composer Andrei Arende, etc. To design a new production of the ballet “Don Quixote” (1900), Gorsky for the first time invited young artists Konstantin Korovin and Alexander Golovin, future great masters of theatrical painting. The apogee of Gorsky's creativity was the ballet "Salambo" by A. Arends (1910). Here the choreographer achieved a harmonious fusion of dance music, design and literary basis of the performance.

The successful development of the Moscow ballet is becoming so obvious that many St. Petersburg dance masters are seeking the opportunity to participate in Bolshoi Theater performances. Matilda Kshesinskaya, Anna Pavlova, Mikhail Fokin and others often came on tour to Moscow, and in 1911 the Moscow troupe was invited to London to stage a play in honor of the Coronation of George V.

The plan submitted by Albert Kavos won the competition for the restoration of the theater building.

Kavos, while maintaining the layout and volume of the Beauvais building, increased the height, changed the proportions and redesigned the architectural decoration. In particular, slender cast-iron galleries with lamps were built on the sides of the building. Contemporaries noted the appearance of this colonnade, especially beautiful in the evenings, when you look at it from a distance, and a row of burning lamps seems like a diamond thread running along the theater.

The alabaster group of Apollo, which decorated the Beauvais Theater, was destroyed in a fire. To create a new one, Kavos invited the famous Russian sculptor Pyotr Klodt (1805-1867), the author of the famous four equestrian groups on the Anichkov Bridge over the Fontanka River in St. Petersburg.
Klodt created the now world-famous sculptural group with Apollo. It was cast in the factories of the Duke of Lichtenberg from a metal alloy plated with red copper.
The size of the group has become one and a half meters higher than before and reaches 6.5 meters in height. It is moved forward and placed on a pedestal along the ridge of the portico roof. Four horses, arranged in one row, gallop at a gallop, dragging behind them a quadriga - an antique chariot on two wheels. They are ruled by the god Apollo, his head is crowned with a wreath, and he holds a lyre in his left hand. In this form, the Bolshoi Theater has survived to this day, with the exception of minor internal and external reconstructions.

19th century literature

“Karamzin began a new era of Russian literature,” Belinsky asserted. This era was primarily characterized by the fact that literature acquired influence on society; it became a “textbook of life” for readers, that is, what the glory of Russian literature of the 19th century is based on. The significance of Karamzin’s activities for Russian literature is great. Karamzin’s word echoes Pushkin and Lermontov. Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza” 8 had the greatest influence on subsequent literature.

“Poor Liza” (1729) - the most popular and best story this writer. Its plot, presented to the reader as a “sad story,” is extremely simple, but full of dramatic tension.

Talking about the love of the poor peasant girl Lisa for the aristocrat Erast, who deceived her into committing suicide, the author does not emphasize the class opposition between the hero and heroine. He clearly sees this contrast, but does not want to admit that it was precisely this that caused the death of “poor Liza.” Throughout the story, the lives of the heroes are portrayed through the secular and the veil of sentimental idealization. The images of the story are embellished. Lisa's deceased father was an exemplary family man, because he loved work, plowed the land well and was quite prosperous, everyone loved him.

Liza’s mother, a “sensitive, kind old woman,” is weakening from incessant tears for her husband, or even peasant women know how to feel. She touchingly loves her daughter and admires nature with religious tenderness. Neither Lisa’s mother nor the heroine herself resembles genuine peasant women. The heroine of the story is the most idealized - “ beautiful body and the soul of a settler”, “tender and sensitive Lisa”.

Loving her parents dearly, she cannot forget about her father, but hides her sadness and tears so as not to disturb her mother. She took tender care of her mother, got her medicine, worked day and night (“weaved canvas, knitted stockings, picked flowers in the spring, and in the summer she took berries and sold them in Moscow”) The author is sure that such activities fully provide for the life of the old woman and her daughters. According to his plan, Lisa is completely unfamiliar with the book, but after meeting Erast, she dreams of how good it would be if her beloved “was born a simple peasant shepherd...” - these words are completely in the spirit of Lisa. Liza not only speaks like a book, but also thinks.

However, the psychology of Lisa, who fell in love with a girl for the first time, is revealed in detail and in a natural sequence. The following moments are psychological and interesting: the desire to see Erast the next day after meeting and “some kind of sadness” when this desire did not come true, joyful fear and excitement at the unexpected appearance of Erast under the window of her hut, the author depicts this same feeling with the help of details in at the beginning of the story, wonder how she could live before without knowing Erast; anxiety at the thought that Erast the master cannot be the husband of a simple peasant woman; the fear of losing a loved one and the hope of his return, finally, hopeless despair after Erast sent her out of the office.

Before throwing herself into the pond, Lisa remembered her mother, she took care of the old woman as best she could, left her money, but this time the thought of her was no longer able to keep Lisa from taking a decisive step. As a result, the character of the heroine is idealized, but internally integral.

Erast, his character is much different from Lisa’s character. Erast is depicted in greater accordance with the social environment that raised him than Lisa. This is a “rather rich nobleman” who led an absent-minded life, thought only about his own pleasure, looked for it in secular amusements, but often did not find it, was bored and complained about his fate,” endowed with “a fair mind and a kind heart, kind by nature, but weak and flighty”, “he read novels. In the image of Erast, the type of disappointed Russian aristocrat is outlined for the first time.

Lisa is a child of nature, her soul and character are close to the people. Erast recklessly falls in love with Lisa, breaking the rule that she is not a girl of his circle. Lisa is naive and she does not understand that at the time in which she lives, she is considered a small person and is not given the right to love. Having learned that Erast loves her, Lisa surrenders to her love selflessly without thinking about anything. At first, Erast acts in the same way, but then a turning point comes, the hero does not withstand the test of love, low feelings win. Wednesday prevents the hero's soul from resurrecting and forces him to lie to Lisa. Only circumstances allow the heroine to discover the deception. In a minute, Lisa begins to see clearly; fate acts as a punishment for sin. Lisa is punished for her love. Erast is punished for not keeping his oath.

The author's position in the story is that of a humanist. Before us is Karamzin - an artist and Karamzin - a philosopher. He sang the beauty of love, described love as a feeling that can transform a person. The writer teaches that a moment of love is beautiful, but only reason gives long life and strength.

Karamzin laid the foundation for a huge cycle of literature about “little people” and took the first step into this previously unknown topic. It was he who opened the way for such classics of the future as Gogol, Dostoevsky and others.

A.S. Pushkin was the next writer whose sphere of creative attention began to include the whole of vast Russia, its open spaces, the life of villages; St. Petersburg and Moscow opened up not only from the luxurious entrance, but also through the narrow doors of poor houses. Evidence of this was provided by his “Belkin's Tales”, in the center of which is provincial Russia. Here is the “martyr of the fourteenth class,” the collegiate registrar, the caretaker of one of the thousands of small postal stations, the poor official Samson Vyrin, and the retired hussar officer Silvio, and rich nobles, and small ones, many others 9 .

The revelation of the social and artistic significance of “The Station Agent” was initiated by Dostoevsky in the story “Poor People.” Through the mouth of Makar Devushkin, Dostoevsky expressed judgments about the realism of Pushkin’s story, about its educational significance. He pointed out the typical character of the poor official Vyrin, the simplicity and clarity of the language of the story, and noted the depth of the depiction of human grief in it. The tragic fate of the “fourteenth grade martyr” Vyrin after Dostoevsky more than once attracted the attention of critics who noted Pushkin’s humanism and democracy and assessed “The Station Agent” as one of the first, since the 18th century, realistic stories about a poor official.

Pushkin's choice of the hero - the stationmaster - was not accidental. In the 20s of the 19th century. In Russian literature, as is known, many morally descriptive essays and stories appear, the heroes of which are people of the “lower class”. In addition, the genre of travel is being revived. In the mid-20s, poems, poems, and essays began to appear more and more often in magazines, in which attention was paid not only to descriptions of the region, but also to meetings and conversations with station guards.

In the story, the narrator's three visits, separated from each other by several years, organize the course of the narrative, and in all three parts, as in the introduction, the narration is narrated by the narrator. But in the second, central part of the story we hear Vyrin himself. In the words of the narrator: “Let us delve into all this thoroughly, and instead of indignation our hearts will be filled with sincere sympathy,” a generalization is given, it is said about the hard labor life and the position of the stationmaster of not just one highway, but all of them, at every time of the year, day and night. Excited lines with rhetorical questions (“who has not cursed...”, “who in a moment of anger?”, etc.), interrupted by the demand to be fair, to enter into the position of “a real martyr of the fourteenth class” make us understand that Pushkin speaks sympathetically of the hard work of these people.

The first meeting in 1816 is described by the narrator with obvious sympathy for the father, for his daughter, the beautiful Duna, and for their well-established life. Vyrin is the image of a “fresh, kind man of about fifty, in a long green frock coat with three medals on faded ribbons,” an old soldier who walked faithfully for 30 years during military campaigns, he buried his wife in 1812, and only a few years later he had to to live with his beloved daughter, and a new misfortune befell him. Station guard Samson Vyrin lived poorly, his desires are elementary - through labor, full of insults and humiliations, he earns his livelihood, does not complain about anything and is satisfied with his fate. The trouble that bursts into this private world later is a young hussar who secretly takes his daughter Dunya to St. Petersburg. Grief shook him, but did not break him yet. A story about Vyrin's fruitless attempts. The fight against Minsky, after he begged for leave and went on foot to St. Petersburg, is given as sparingly as the story about Mount Vyrin, but by different means. Four small, but full of life-truth pictures of Vyrin’s parish depict a typical situation in conditions of social and class inequality - the position of the powerless, the weak and the “right” of the strong, those in power. First picture: An old soldier in the role of a supplicant in front of an indifferent, important one.

Pushkin aggravates the situation to the limit, bringing Vyrin face to face with his offender “The Heart of an Old Man.” It seemed that a decisive moment had come in a person’s life, when all the accumulated past grievances would raise him to revolt in the name of holy justice. But “...tears welled up in his eyes, and in a trembling voice he said only: “Your Honor!...Do such a divine favor!” Instead of protest, a plea came out, a pitiful request.

Third picture: (two days later). Again in front of the important footman, who pushed him out of the hall with his chest and slammed the door in his face.

Fourth scene: Again in front of Minsky: “Get out!” “- and, grabbing the old man by the collar with a strong hand, he pushed him onto the stairs.

And finally, after another two days, we returned from St. Petersburg to our station, obviously also on foot. And Samson Vyrin resigned himself.

The second visit of the narrator - he sees that “grief has turned a kind man into a frail old man.” And the appearance of the room that did not escape the narrator’s attention (dilapidation and negligence), and Vyrin’s changed appearance (gray hair, deep wrinkles of a long-unshaven face, hunched back), and the surprised exclamation: “It was definitely Samson Vyrin, but how he has aged!” ” - all this indicates that the narrator sympathizes with the old caretaker. In the narration of the narrator himself, we hear echoes of the feelings and thoughts of Vyrin, a pleading father (“he shook Dunyushkin’s hand; “I saw his poor Dunya”) and Vyrin, a trusting, helpful and powerless man (“It was a pity for him to part with his kind guest,” “not understood how blindness came over him”, “decided to appear to him”, “reported to his honor” that “an old soldier”; “thought... returned, but he was no longer there”, “The caretaker did not chase him”, “ thought, waved his hand and decided to retreat”).

For the first time, Russian literature so poignantly and clearly showed the distortion of personality by an environment hostile to it. In the first, it was possible not only to dramatically depict the contradictory behavior of a person, but also to condemn the evil and inhuman forces of society. Samson Vyrin judged this society. Pushkin's artistic attitude was directed towards the future - it paved the way into the still unknown.

In the story, written on a popular topic in the 20s about a stationmaster, it is perfectly explained who a collegiate registrar is, and compassion for him is a decisive element of the author’s attitude towards his hero. The story expresses a broad generalization of reality, revealed in the individual case of the tragic story of an ordinary person, the “martyr of the fourteenth class” Samson Vyrin.

The fate of the stationmaster is a typical fate of a simple person, whose well-being can be destroyed at any moment by the rude interference of the “powers of this world,” the ruling class. Pushkin prefaced his story with Gogol, Dostoevsky, Chekhov and their heroes, saying his word about the people of his time.

Lermontov explored this topic even more deeply than Pushkin. In his works we see how little Maksim Maksimych needs to make him happy: share a modest dinner with him and tell him a little about himself. Maxim Maksimych is almost completely devoid of personal self-awareness, a critical attitude towards reality, he accepts it as it is. Maxim Maksimych is a person closer to the people and, as Belinsky said, “understands everything human.” Lermontov, in the image of a charming simpleton officer, saw not a loyal subject, but a man of the people, a man capable of a great awakening. With his honest spirit and pure, undemanding soul, the Russian soldier Maxim Maksimych is close to Russia.

The theme of social inequality, the theme of poverty, the theme of insulted human dignity, the burning and noblest theme of Russian literature appeared with irresistible force in Lermontov’s unfinished novel “Princess Ligovskaya”. Here the image of the beggar official Krasinsky and the image of Pechorin are contrasted. Lermontov sought to contrast Pechorin's passive perception of the world with a hero alien to idle vanity secular society, a man of an angry soul, of rebellious denial. But his poor official dreams of that same happiness; from which Pechorin is running. The novel “Princess Ligovskaya” begins with an appeal to the reader with a request to notice the day and hour - December 21st day 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when something happened that entailed a chain of various events. The bay trotter of the guards officer knocked down the unwary poor official. Only a glimpse of the white plume and the fluttering collar of his overcoat caught a glimpse, leaving in the official’s soul a hatred of bay trotters and white plumes for the rest of his life.

This is how the fates of Pechorin and the official Krasinsky collided for the first time. In a theater restaurant, having accidentally heard Pechorin’s story about how his trotter recently killed a passing official, Krasinsky turns to his offender with an indignant monologue: “Dear sir!” ...You almost ran over me today, yes, me - who is in front of you... and you brag about it, you’re having fun!” Here the poet's democratic sympathies break through with frankness. Lermontov, having pitted Pechorin, who was close to him, against a democratic hero, endowed the latter not only with moral attractiveness, but also, unlike Pechorin, with excellent appearance.

Both the portrait of a St. Petersburg official and the remarkable description of the courtyard and stairs of a huge house near Obukhov Bridge, Lermontov sketched in the manner of the emerging “ natural school" In the same city, at the same time and under the same gloomy sky, Gogol’s short man with a bald spot on his forehead, in an overcoat of a reddish-cloudy color, wandered with his penetrating words: “I am your brother.”

And to give the next example, the former lowest official in the form of a ghost flashes for the last time at the same Obukhov Bridge, and disappears in the night silence and darkness. Lermontov pitted two heroes against each other and showed that not a single “little man” could survive in an environment opposite to them. There is so much naive disgust in Princess Ligovskaya’s address to Krasin, who accidentally ended up in her living room: “Tell me: I think you are terribly tormented by business.”

And what a meaningful answer from a person familiar with need: “Your lot is fun, luxury - and ours is work and worries; it should be so, if it were not for us, who would begin to work.” The sympathies of the young Lermontov were on the side of the democratic hero. He endowed the poor official not only with beauty, but also with the energy of indignation, a sense of self-esteem, and gave him a noble goal, the ability to elevate a person.

But in the hero’s pitiful room there is only an absurd guide on how to become rich and happy. Lost in the crowd, with what envy Krasinsky looks at the carriages rolling up to the proudly illuminated entrance of the baroness: “Why am I worse than them? - he thought - these faces...Oh, I will be rich...” Seeing Prince Ligovsky with the princess, Krasinsky hastened to lean out from the crowd of onlookers and bow.

He was not noticed, but the poor official attributed this to pride and deliberate neglect: “Okay,” he thought as he walked away, “there will be a holiday on our street.” The image of Krasinsky in “Princess Ligovskaya” is one of the early attempts to go beyond Pechorin’s fruitless rejection of the world, the search for protest among the socially disadvantaged. But the theme of a beggar official to money to the very environment that oppresses Pechorin, Lermontov and Lermontov’s heroes is the source of an insurmountable contradiction, that vicious circle that Lermontov restored in his work. Lermontov’s “little people” heroes are different from all the previous ones.

Reading Gogol's stories, we remember more than once how an unlucky official in a cap of an indeterminate shape and a blue cotton overcoat with an old collar stopped in front of a shop window to look through the solid windows of shops sparkling with wonderful lights and magnificent gilding. For a long time, with envy, the official gazed at various objects and, having come to his senses, continued on his way with deep melancholy and steadfast firmness. Gogol reveals to the reader the world of “little people”, the world of officials, bureaucratic chicanery in his “Petersburg Tales” 10.

The central story in this cycle is “The Overcoat”, “Petersburg Tales”. They differ in character from Gogol’s previous works. Before us is bureaucratic Petersburg, Petersburg - the capital - the main and high society, a huge city - business, commercial and labor, and the “universal communication” of Petersburg - the brilliant Nevsky Prospekt, on the sidewalk of which everything that lives in Petersburg leaves its traces: “places on there is the power of strength or the power of weakness.” And a motley mixture of clothes and faces flashes before the reader, as in a kaleidoscope, and an eerie picture of the restless, intense life of the capital appears in his imagination. The bureaucracy of the time helped paint this accurate portrait of the capital.

Conclusion

Based on the work done, we can conclude that the socialization of theater and literature in the 18th and 19th centuries. had a serious continuation in the form of a rethinking of the way of life of ordinary Russian people.

Romanticism in Russia, which developed as a cultural movement in the early 19th century, was associated with the rise of national consciousness and the beginning of the revolutionary movement of the Decembrists. Two trends clearly emerged in Russian Romanticism.

The work of V. A. Zhukovsky (1783 - 1852) revealed the skill of conveying the inner world of a person, his immediate feelings, poeticization of folk antiquity and folklore; the musicality of the verse is inherent in it. However, the conservative nature of Zhukovsky’s romanticism was reflected in the one-sidedness of his poetry, limited to the world of personal experiences, in the idealization of the past, in contemplative, religious-melancholic moods.

The revolutionary direction was manifested in the work of the Decembrists - K. F. Ryleev (1795 - 1826), A. I. Odoevsky (1802 - 39), V. K. Kuchelbecker (1797 - 1846) and others, in the early work of A. S. Pushkin (1799 – 1837). The works of the Decembrist poets, like the “southern” poems of Pushkin, are imbued with the spirit of protest against the existing social system, the spirit of affirming individual freedom.

Representative of revolutionary romantic poetry in the 30s. M. Yu. Lermontov (1814 - 41) spoke, for whom the embodiment of the romantic theme was associated with the affirmation of a freedom-loving rebellious personality opposed to society. In the aesthetics of progressive Romanticism, in the works of the Decembrists, Pushkin and Lermontov, a transition to realism was gradually made.

Bibliography

Zezina M. R. Koshman L. V. Shulgin V. S. History of Russian culture. – M., 1990.

Ionov I.N. Russian civilization, IX - early XX centuries: Textbook. M., 1995.

History of Russian literature of the 19th century volume 1 (edited by Petrov.) Enlightenment 1970.

History of Russian literature. (1800 - 1830s) M. Enlightenment 1989

Kornilov A.A. Music and art Russia XIX century. M., 1993.

Culture of Russia 1861-1938 / Ed. O.A. Vaskovsky, A.T. Tertyshny. Ekaterinburg, 1995.

Miliukov P. N. Essays on the history of Russian culture. – M., 1993.

And drama... two more stones Abstract >> History

Theater Ballet at Brighton (English ... York. According to a long-standing tradition Theater Brighton Ballet welcomes the season... all students' creativity, management Theater Ballet in Brighton and Schools... 02.07 RUSSIAN BALLET SCHOOL AND THEATER BRIGHTON BALLET. WORKDAYS AND HOLIDAYS. ...

1. Theater as a synthetic art form

   Abstract >> Culture and art

   Type of art. Theater contains a variety of many forms...

The Russian theater in the nineteenth century was distinguished by a certain two-facedness - on the one hand, it continued to react just as sharply to various social and political changes in the state structure, and on the other, it improved under the influence of literary innovations.

The Birth of Great Masters

At the beginning of the 19th century in Russian performing arts Romanticism and classicism are replaced by realism, which brings a lot fresh ideas to the theatre. During this period, many changes occur, a new stage repertoire is formed, which is popular and in demand in modern drama. The nineteenth century becomes a good platform for the emergence and development of many talented playwrights, who with their creativity make a huge contribution to the development of theatrical art. The most prominent person in dramaturgy of the first half of the century is N.V. Gogol. In fact, he was not a playwright in the classical sense of the word, but, despite this, he managed to create masterpieces that instantly gained worldwide fame and popularity. Such works can be called “The Inspector General” and “Marriage”. These plays very clearly depict the complete picture of social life in Russia. Moreover, Gogol did not glorify it, but, on the contrary, sharply criticized it.

"The Inspector" N.V. Gogol

At this stage of development and full formation, the Russian theater can no longer remain satisfied with the previous repertoire. Therefore, the old will soon be replaced by a new one. Its concept is to depict a modern person with a keen and clear sense of time. A.N. is considered to be the founder of modern Russian drama. Ostrovsky. In his creations, he very truthfully and realistically described the merchant environment and their customs. This awareness is due to a long period of living in such an environment. Ostrovsky, being a lawyer by training, served in court and saw everything from the inside. With his works, the talented playwright created a psychological theater that sought to look into and reveal as much as possible the inner state of a person.

"Thunderstorm" A.N. Ostrovsky

In addition to A.N Ostrovsky, the theater art XIX centuries, other outstanding masters of the pen and stage have also made a great contribution, whose works and skills are the standard and indicator of the pinnacle of skill. One of these individuals is M. Shchepkin. This talented artist performed great amount roles, mostly comedic. Shchepkin contributed to the emergence of acting beyond the boundaries of existing patterns at that time. Each of his characters had their own individual character traits and appearance. Each hero was a personality.

In the nineteenth century, Russian theater continues, on the one hand, to react sharply to political and social change in the country, and on the other hand, to correspond to literary changes.

Almost the entire century in Russian literature passes under the sign of realism, which replaces both outdated classicism and romanticism. The nineteenth century gives the domestic theater the names of playwrights who, in fact, clean slate will create theatrical repertoire, still in demand today.

In the first half of the century, N.V. became such a person. Gogol. Not being a playwright himself, he managed to create real masterpieces of world drama - the plays “The Inspector General” and “Marriage”, which presented the viewer with a large-scale picture of the life of the then Russian society and sharply criticized it.

It was at the premiere of “The Inspector General” that Emperor Nicholas the First uttered the legendary phrase “Everyone got it, but I got it more than anyone!”, realizing who was depicted under the mask of the Governor.

At this time, the theater can no longer be satisfied with the old repertoire; it strives to show a modern person, keenly aware of the times. The playwright who created literary basis modern Russian theater, and became A.N. Ostrovsky.

A lawyer by training who served in court, Ostrovsky gained an excellent understanding of the environment that he would later describe in his immortal plays. Describing in detail and realistically the customs of the merchant environment, he creates, first of all, a psychological theater that tries to look inside a person.

Ostrovsky subtly senses the coming social changes and depicts the collapse of established merchant traditions, the impoverishment and moral decline of the nobility, the increasing role of money in human relations. He vividly and accurately describes the new heroes of life, enterprising, quite cynical and dexterous: Glumov (“Simplicity is enough for every wise man”), Lipochka (“Bankrupt”), Paratov (“Dowry”).

Almost all of Ostrovsky's works were successfully staged at the Moscow Maly Theater, which in this century became the best theater empires.

The nineteenth century gave the Russian theater a whole galaxy of outstanding stage masters, whose names forever became legends. One of the founders of the Russian acting school is M. Shchepkin.

The history of M. Shchepkin’s creative path is the history of the Russian theater of the first half of the nineteenth century. Being a serf and starting his career with the consent of his master, Count Wolkenstein, Shchepkin becomes an actor at the Maly Theater and plays a huge comic repertoire.

His success in comedies was largely determined by the actor’s external characteristics (a tendency to be overweight and short in stature). But at the same time, Shchepkin also had an amazing talent, which allowed him to cope well with a variety of roles.

It was Shchepkin who sought to bring acting out of the framework of stereotypes; each character in his performance had many striking details of behavior and appearance. In addition, Mikhail Semyonovich carefully developed the character’s line of behavior, basing the role on a sharp change in the character’s behavior.

Without a doubt, the heyday of Shchepkin’s career coincided with the appearance immortal works Russian drama. Shchepkin understood the imperfection of the plays of the early 19th century and enthusiastically accepted the emerging dramatic works of A. Griboyedov, N. Gogol, A. Sukhovo-Kobylin, A. Ostrovsky, that is, the material that every actor dreams of playing today. Thus, M. Shchepkin played Famusov in “Woe from Wit”, Mayor in “The Inspector General”, Kochkarev in “Marriage”.

The history of Russian theater of the second half of the 19th century is inextricably linked with the name of M. Ermolova. During her career, this outstanding actress created an entire gallery on the stage of the Maly Theater female images classical drama. Ermolova’s repertoire included high tragedy (“The Maid of Orleans” by Schiller, “Macbeth” by Shakespeare, “The Sheep Spring” by Lope de Vega) and everyday drama (plays by V. Alexandrov and V. Dyachenko).

P. Sadovsky contributed to the emergence of realism on the Russian stage. His best works are roles in plays by A. N. Ostrovsky and N. V. Gogol. Sadovsky became famous as a versatile, character actor, whose mere appearance attracted the attention of the audience.

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