The performance was a long time ago. Theater playbill - reviews of the performance A performance a long time ago in the Russian theater

Alexander Gladkov

A long time ago

Characters

Azarov- retired major.

Shura- his niece.

Rzhevsky Dmitry- hussar lieutenant.

Ivan- valet, former batman of the major.

Nurin- count.

Vasiliev Davyd- hussar colonel.

Pelymov

Voronets

Velyaminov

Gorich

Ershov

Stankevich

Rtishchev

Khilkov- hussars, lancers, dragoons, Cossacks - officers of the partisan detachment of Davyd Vasiliev.

Cheremisov

Neplyuev- corps headquarters officers.

Kutuzov- Field Marshal.

Balmashov- Adjutant General.

Governor

Zizi

Nadine

Natalie

Pauline

Mimi- cousins of Shura Azarova

Germont Louise- French actress.

Salgari Vincento- Lieutenant.

Dusiere- general.

Lepeletye

Armagnac- officers of the headquarters of the Dusières brigade.

Guests at the ball, servants in the house of Major Azarov, partisans, officers of the corps headquarters, officers of Kutuzov's retinue.

The action takes place in 1812.

Living room in the house of retired Major Azarov. The furnishings are old-fashioned for 1812. On the walls there are large portraits of Catherine II and Suvorov. Several windows and three doors. In the evening there is to be a ball in the house in honor of the birthday of Major Shura’s niece and pupil. The day before, numerous Shurochka cousins came here. Now they are trying on fancy dress costumes for the ball. Cheerful animation. Ribbons, shawls, and mantillas flash in the air. Mimi and Natalie are spinning around the mirror. Polina is strumming the harpsichord. Nadine and Zizi are in the middle of the room doing intricate steps. The day is nearing sunset. There are cheerful spots of sun in the room.

Zizi

I am the shepherdess!

Nadine

I am Columbine!

But this dress is too long for me...

Mimi

Me with this white crinoline

Quite a marquise on a panel.

Pauline

Look, Zizi, I'm Pierrette.

Zizi

This will be terrible for you...

Natalie

And I’ll dress up in a kokoshnik...

Like this...

Mimi

Venus a la Russe!..

Nadine

It seems like I haven’t danced for ages!

Zizi

Oh, let this ball come soon!..

I'm really tired of even waiting...

Mimi

The governor himself promised

Come.

Pauline

That's right, with an adjutant!

Zizi

I suggest after forfeits

Start a game!

Natalie

Se tre bien!

Zizi, tell me, will tren suit me?

Zizi

Where is Shura?

Natalie

After tea

I haven't seen her.

Zizi

She makes it in secret

It's an extraordinary costume.

Nadine

No, I saw how she

I went for a walk...

Mimi

Nadine

Yes. That's right, I galloped into the field

On horseback. In the Cossack checkman...

Mimi

Childishness!

Natalie

Frankly, I

I don't like all this about her...

Pauline

Think - almost a bride!

Natalie

Sewing and handicrafts instead

She has a rapier and a saddle...

Pauline

In my opinion, that’s where all the evil comes from,

That she's an orphan...

Natalie

Well then,

This reason is not reasonable

For extravagance!

Nadine

Here's the ringing bell

Raised from the empty too!..

I think she's cute.

Nadine

Oh, how gloriously we sang together

(Sings)

Do, re, sol, mi, la!..

Natalie

But still - alone, on horseback...

Mimi

At least I don't consider it a sin

Love for walks, but, for example,

I'll say - it's time to have some measure

In children's fun...

Natalie

Se tro bat!

She is now seventeen years old.

Mimi

No, she doesn’t know decency!..

Natalie

Have you seen what it's like today?

Did her uncle give her a necklace?

Tea, a few thousand rubles

It's worth it!

Mimi

Yes, from grandma

It remained as a legacy to her.

They are poor, but this thing

More expensive than all our rags...

Nadine

Yes, sir! She calls rags

Natalie

Girlish worries

He doesn’t recognize it!.. Isn’t it true, you fool?

Pauline

Oh no, our child Shura!..

Nadine

Child - yes, sir!.. Polina, letters

These are like this?.. I’ll tell you all,

What is our Shura in the morning

Playing with dolls in the mezzanine.

I saw you today, getting up early...

My beloved's name is Svetlana,

And he sings with her sensitively,

He sighs tenderly, sheds tears...

General laughter.

Zizi

She dreams of becoming Joan of Arc again.

Mimi

And somehow I saw a mouse, -

I only managed to scream

And faint...

Pauline

Well, if there is a cow,

I understand...

Natalie

No matter!

It's strange to say the least

Jeanne was hardly afraid of mice.

General laughter.

Zizi

Not everyone can be brave...

Natalie

I say - she's a girl!

Pauline

But still, at least the Amazon

I would put it on, otherwise I’ll get a check!

Zizi

Shh!.. Here she is!

Shura runs in.

Shura

Oh, what a day!

Aren't you stuffy here?

Open the windows!..

(Opens the windows.)

Right, it's boring

Go through rags all day.

Mimi

Not everyone can jump through the fields!

Shura

There are enough horses for everyone in the stable!

Otherwise you sit as if in cotton wool...

Let's go to the garden!

Natalie

Mon ange, wait!

Well, sit down one minute!..

Shura

I picked a forget-me-not in the forest.

Who loves this simple flower?

Zizi

Give me...

Shura

Take it... I'm tanned

Tell me, Zizi?

Zizi

It suits you.

Shura

In spring it was whiter than chalk...

Mimi

You're more likely to prance on horseback,

So you will be blacker than a blackamoor.

Pauline

How can you travel without a hat?

Natalie

There's no point in being childish anymore...

You are now seventeen years old.

Shura

But still not one hundred and seventeen!..

Enough of your uncle's notations, -

They made my head swell...

(Sits down at the harpsichord.)

Let's dance better!

Some girls begin to dance.

Characters

Azarov- retired major.

Shura- his niece.

Rzhevsky Dmitry- hussar lieutenant.

Ivan- valet, former batman of the major.

Nurin- count.

Vasiliev Davyd- hussar colonel.

Pelymov

Voronets

Velyaminov

Gorich

Ershov

Stankevich

Rtishchev

Khilkov- hussars, lancers, dragoons, Cossacks - officers of the partisan detachment of Davyd Vasiliev.

Cheremisov

Neplyuev- corps headquarters officers.

Kutuzov- Field Marshal.

Balmashov- Adjutant General.

Governor

Zizi

Nadine

Natalie

Pauline

Mimi- cousins of Shura Azarova

Germont Louise- French actress.

Salgari Vincento- Lieutenant.

Dusiere- general.

Lepeletye

Armagnac- officers of the headquarters of the Dusières brigade.

Guests at the ball, servants in the house of Major Azarov, partisans, officers of the corps headquarters, officers of Kutuzov's retinue.

The action takes place in 1812.

Zizi

I am the shepherdess!

Nadine

I am Columbine!

But this dress is too long for me...

Mimi

Me with this white crinoline

Quite a marquise on a panel.

Pauline

Look, Zizi, I'm Pierrette.

Zizi

This will be terrible for you...

Natalie

And I’ll dress up in a kokoshnik...

Like this...

Mimi

Venus a la Russe!..

Nadine

It seems like I haven’t danced for ages!

Zizi

Oh, let this ball come soon!..

I'm really tired of even waiting...

Mimi

The governor himself promised

Come.

Pauline

That's right, with an adjutant!

Zizi

I suggest after forfeits

Start a game!

Natalie

Se tre bien!

Zizi, tell me, will tren suit me?

Zizi

Where is Shura?

Natalie

After tea

I haven't seen her.

Zizi

She makes it in secret

It's an extraordinary costume.

Nadine

No, I saw how she

I went for a walk...

Mimi

Nadine

Yes. That's right, I galloped into the field

On horseback. In the Cossack checkman...

Mimi

Childishness!

Natalie

Frankly, I

I don't like all this about her...

Pauline

Think - almost a bride!

Natalie

Sewing and handicrafts instead

She has a rapier and a saddle...

Pauline

In my opinion, that’s where all the evil comes from,

That she's an orphan...

Natalie

Well then,

This reason is not reasonable

For extravagance!

Nadine

Here's the ringing bell

Raised from the empty too!..

I think she's cute.

Nadine

Oh, how gloriously we sang together

(Sings)

Do, re, sol, mi, la!..

Natalie

But still - alone, on horseback...

Mimi

At least I don't consider it a sin

Love for walks, but, for example,

I'll say - it's time to have some measure

In children's fun...

Natalie

Se tro bat!

She is now seventeen years old.

Mimi

No, she doesn’t know decency!..

Natalie

Have you seen what it's like today?

Did her uncle give her a necklace?

Tea, a few thousand rubles

It's worth it!

Mimi

Yes, from grandma

It remained as a legacy to her.

They are poor, but this thing

More expensive than all our rags...

Nadine

Yes, sir! She calls rags

Natalie

Girlish worries

He doesn’t recognize it!.. Isn’t it true, you fool?

Pauline

Oh no, our child Shura!..

Nadine

Child - yes, sir!.. Polina, letters

These are like this?.. I’ll tell you all,

What is our Shura in the morning

Playing with dolls in the mezzanine.

I saw you today, getting up early...

My beloved's name is Svetlana,

And he sings with her sensitively,

He sighs tenderly, sheds tears...

General laughter.

Zizi

She dreams of becoming Joan of Arc again.

Mimi

And somehow I saw a mouse, -

I only managed to scream

And faint...

Pauline

Well, if there is a cow,

I understand...

Natalie

No matter!

It's strange to say the least

Jeanne was hardly afraid of mice.

General laughter.

Zizi

Not everyone can be brave...

Natalie

I say - she's a girl!

Pauline

But still, at least the Amazon

I would put it on, otherwise I’ll get a check!

Zizi

Shh!.. Here she is!

Shura runs in.

Shura

Oh, what a day!

Aren't you stuffy here?

Open the windows!..

(Opens the windows.)

Right, it's boring

Go through rags all day.

Mimi

Not everyone can jump through the fields!

Shura

There are enough horses for everyone in the stable!

Otherwise you sit as if in cotton wool...

Let's go to the garden!

Natalie

Mon ange, wait!

Well, sit down one minute!..

Shura

I picked a forget-me-not in the forest.

Who loves this simple flower?

Zizi

Give me...

Shura

Take it... I'm tanned

Tell me, Zizi?

Zizi

It suits you.

Shura

In spring it was whiter than chalk...

Mimi

You're more likely to prance on horseback,

So you will be blacker than a blackamoor.

Pauline

How can you travel without a hat?

Natalie

There's no point in being childish anymore...

You are now seventeen years old.

Shura

But still not one hundred and seventeen!..

Enough of your uncle's notations, -

They made my head swell...

(Sits down at the harpsichord.)

Let's dance better!

Some girls begin to dance.

Zizi

But how is Shurochka dressed?

You will?

Nadine

That's right, let's shine

Zizi

Don't keep a secret!

Shura

I don’t know myself... Somehow...

I'm tired of these costumes!..

(Stops playing.)

Oh, if only... Just last summer

Cousin was visiting. Uniform since then

His remained. In the mezzanines,

In the closet... Clean out moths

And dress up!.. However, nonsense!

(Plays again.)

Mimi

It's time to decide.

Shura

I'll have more than enough time.

There won't be a congress soon.

Culture, October 6, 2005

Natalia Kaminskaya

Only old men go into battle

"Once upon a time" at the Russian Army Theater

The appearance of the musical comedy of Alexander Gladkov and Tikhon Khrennikov in the anniversary poster of TsATRA (the theater turns 75 years old) is not only logical, but even significant. The performance, born on this stage in 1942, which has not left the stage for decades, has become a kind of banner for TsATRA, battered in battles and therefore even more familiar. The current chief director of the theater, Boris Morozov, a student of Andrei Popov, the son of Alexei Dmitrievich Popov, who staged this comedy during the harsh war years, acted like a grateful “grandson.” The second date is marked in the program as a dedication to the 60th anniversary of the Victory, and here the theater could not have come up with a better idea. The play is patriotic without any discounts or pretensions. Clean, transparent, well-written vaudeville in this sense reveals much more opportunities to infect and convince than the current strained search for a national idea.

By the way, the “parade” of performances by our drama theaters for the great date is more reminiscent of scattered attacks by partisan detachments. Thank God, we have forgotten how to show off on the occasion of the next government order, but we have also forgotten how to work at the behest of personal internal duty. Again, it’s not easy with the material: it’s not enough to take good military prose, you also need to have your own, today’s attitude to what was written in a different era, under the harsh conditions of a different ideology.

Meanwhile, the army theater, unlike all the others, was charged with the topic of defending the Fatherland as a direct, “core” responsibility, and is still charged with it to this day. Boris Morozov prefers to look for it in events of ancient history, more or less distant in time from changeable ideological moods. He staged "Sevastopol March", a play by Natalya Skorokhod based on "Sevastopol Stories" by Leo Tolstoy. And the anniversary season opens with the heroic musical comedy of Tikhon Khrennikov, whose melodies, thanks to the “Hussar Ballad” that is still on the screen, are not known only by the deaf. The current production of “A Long Time Ago” is, moreover, not just a restoration with new performers of the legendary production, but a new stage version.

Really, it’s hard to spoil what Tikhon Khrennikov composed. The overture has just begun, and the desired light bliss is right there: you want to clap and sing along. And then came the first disappointment: instead of a live orchestra, there was a soundtrack. Glamorous and breathless, it fills the monster hall with the deafening power of decibels, and you are already obviously afraid for the vocal cords of the artists.

Well, that’s right - microphones hidden in the folds of actors’ costumes help only those, frankly speaking, few who have what these microphones are designed to enhance, namely, their voice. Looking ahead, I will say that only young Tatyana Morozova - Shura Azarova, Andrei Egorov - Davyd Vasiliev and Vladimir Mikhailovich Zeldin, who plays Kutuzov, sing “in spite of”. The rest hit the notes. I ask people of the older generation: what about Larisa Golubkina, who sang Shura on this stage in the domicrophone era and accompanied by a live orchestra, was she heard? However, I know the answer in advance.

Phonograms are generally not a joke. Balancing live voices is just one of many challenges. There is also an arrangement (Ruben Zatikyan). Everything seems to be correct, but it feels as if instead of a landscape painted in oil, you were offered a wide-format glossy photograph. Or, if you prefer, you took fresh vegetables, froze them, then popped them in the microwave and quickly threw them into the pan. The taste, as Arkady Raikin used to say, is specific.

Masterpiece arias like Louise Germont's song "I drink, everything is not enough for me..." or the "French" hit "Once upon a time there was Henri the Fourth..." are supported on all sides by auxiliary means. The voices are weak, which means that in the first case, all that remains is to take cutesy poses and sigh languidly, and in the second, the three of them sing, with difficulty merging in the cheerful chorus “Lena-Lena-boom-boom...”.

For the first time you think about the luxurious range of the actress-singer Tikhon Khrennikov was counting on when composing the famous lullaby “Moonlight Glades...”. Tatyana Morozova takes over briefly, without a cantilena. In general, she does worse lyrical scenes in a female form. But she plays the cornet infectiously, temperamentally, sometimes even over the edge. Alas, neither Lieutenant Rzhevsky - Vyacheslav Razbegaev, nor most of the hussar brothers radiate the main vaudeville quality - charm.

One would like to complain about the unfortunate gigantic dimensions of the big stage of TsATRA, where the audience’s eyes, ears, and even more so hearts can be reached only with an appropriate forced attack. However, witnesses to the previous edition of the comedy, which, by the way, took place on the same vast stage, note transparency and easy breathing. Moreover, as soon as Zeldin appears on stage, playing Kutuzov not at all on the Borodino field, but on the contrary, in his apartment, where the elderly field marshal unsuccessfully tries to rest, vaudeville lightness, confidential intonation, and watercolor irony appear.

What's the point of repeating for the hundredth time: vaudeville is more difficult to play than a psychological drama, and even more so an epic canvas. What is the difference between the average idea of how one should “present” in a sitcom and the actual mastery of this airy, elegant technique - more than the parameters of the stage of the Russian Army Theater.

And things are tense with the hussars these days. They, dear to the Russian heart, are not only mentiks, shakos and aiguillettes, very colorfully played out in the scenery of Vladimir Arefiev and the costumes of Alena Sidorina. And not a mustache with sideburns. And, damn it, the personal charm of their bearers.

The audience gave four standing ovations at the premiere. Two went to Vladimir Zeldin - at the first exit and at the end, when the artist’s 60-year stay on the TsATRA stage was announced. Two - to Tikhon Khrennikov, who was sitting in the stalls: before the curtain went up and after it closed.

By and large, the “only news” of the new “Once Upon a Time” remained the talents of the composer and artist. The audience hummed Khrennikov's tunes for a long time, spreading across Victory Square towards the trolleybuses and metro.

Kommersant, October 14, 2005

Hussar gruel

"Once upon a time" at the Russian Army Theater

The Russian Army Theater has returned to its repertoire the musical comedy by Alexander Gladkov set to music by Tikhon Khrennikov “A Long Time Ago”, better known to viewers from Eldar Ryazanov’s film “The Hussar Ballad”. MARINA SHIMADINA was immersed in a historical excursion.

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Victory and the 75th anniversary of the Russian Army Theater, the director resumed the legendary play “A Long Time Ago” on its stage. The musical comedy by Alexander Gladkov and Tikhon Khrennikov was staged at the then Red Army Theater in 1942. And this light, mischievous little thing, almost a vaudeville, dedicated to the events of the War of 1812, during the Great Patriotic War looked like an incredibly patriotic, uplifting and acutely relevant thing. One can imagine how in 1942 the words of Shurochka Azarova, who dreamed of giving her life for her homeland, were responded to in the hall, or how the appearance of Kutuzov, confident in the victory of the Russian army, was perceived. Today, the story of a girl cornet is unlikely to unite the audience in a patriotic outburst. And this is most likely not what the director was aiming for when restoring the old comedy. His “Once upon a time” is not so much about military battles and the glory of Russian weapons, although this is precisely what the Russian Army Theater is supposed to care about according to its status, but about the old, naive and ingenuous Soviet theater.

As soon as the red velvet curtain opens, which in itself is a wild theatrical rudiment in these days, the audience gasps. Such a magnificently naive scenography as that of Vladimir Arefiev, with guns and sabers crossed above the stage, huge symbolic shakos, aiguillettes and front doors from scratch, you will probably not find in any Moscow theater. As well as such a crystal old-fashioned production. The director did not introduce into this 60-year-old comedy a single modern word or any joke, not a single today's color that would somehow indicate the distance between the time the play was created and our days. No, Boris Morozov is not trying to find some new perspective in looking at the play; he seems to trust the past more than the present, and stages the play with the symbolic name “A long time ago” the way it could theoretically be staged in those legendary time.

Of course, today few people remember exactly what that famous production by Alexei Popov looked like, which lasted in the theater’s repertoire for several decades. But everyone has seen the film “The Hussar Ballad” with Larisa Golubkina and Yuri Yakovlev, based on the same play. And no matter how much they sing Svetlana’s lullaby and couplets about King Henri the Fourth from the screen, this light, funny and unpretentious film never gets boring. The performance of the Russian Army Theater, unfortunately, lacks the charm of the film. Even those who have never seen the original will easily understand that this is not a careful restoration, but a rather crude stylization. And it’s not that the director didn’t try, it’s just that modern actors, by their nature, are not able to repeat the drawing of a role sixty years ago. They try to portray vaudeville lightness and ease, but it turns out to be a rather crude and flat farce. And their sweeping, conventionally upbeat manner of playing with exaggerated, deliberate gestures and feigned emotions is reminiscent of children's Christmas trees. The only one who manages to revive her role and give it volume is Tatyana Morozova, who plays the main character. Although her weak voice fails the actress in Svetlana’s lullaby, the audience is clearly pleased by her instant transformations from a cutesy lady to a dashing cornet and back, amused by her cunning, crafty game with Lieutenant Rzhevsky and touched by her sincere ardor in her conversation with Kutuzov. However, only the field marshal performed by Vladimir Zeldin still gets the ovation from the audience. And although the famous artist in his only scene does not demonstrate any special acting miracles, he simply plays an old, tired, but still fit commander, who dreams of quickly getting rid of the annoying girl and relaxing before the parade, in his person the audience applauds that old theater, which even if it could be returned no one can do it for one evening today.

From the history of the play's creation

When my brother and I were little, my mother read “Captain Grant’s Children” and “War and Peace” aloud to us over two winters. The luminosity of a child's imagination is such that it often seemed to me later that I remembered the year 1812; not a book, not a novel, but precisely the year 1812 with people, colors, sounds - I remember, I see, I hear, like something that really happened in my life. Therefore, when in the fall of 1940 I decided to write a play about 1812, somehow in my imagination my old impressions of “The Children of Captain Grant” and “War and Peace” came together and I realized that I wanted to write a very funny play.<…>While working, I had my own “working epigraph”. It was on the title page of the play, but when it went to distribution and printing, I took it off. This epigraph is two lines from the poems of Denis Davydov: “Rest in luxury, cheerful crowd, in lively and fraternal self-will!” - as it seemed to me, it surprisingly accurately expressed the spirit of “A Long Time Ago”, its painting, harmony, but the war began and re-emphasized the direction of the play.

At first the play was called “Pets of Glory.”

Play productions

- Tashkent, Revolution Theater (Shurochka Azarova - Maria Babanova);

November 7 - besieged Leningrad (under the title "Pets of Glory"), Nikolai Akimov Theater (Shurochka Azarova - Elena Yunger);

evacuation (Sverdlovsk), Red Army Theater; director - Alexey Popov, composer - Tikhon Khrennikov. Shurochka Azarova - Lyubov Dobzhanskaya;

- Theater of the Soviet Army. Director - Alexey Popov. Composer - Tikhon Khrennikov (starring Larisa Golubkina);

April 3 - Leningrad, Opera and Ballet Theater. Kirov. Ballet "Hussar Ballad". (Choreographers - Oleg Vinogradov and Dmitry Bryantsev);

- Theater of the Soviet Army. Stage director - Boris Morozov. Composer - Tikhon Khrennikov (starring - Tatyana Morozova);

Plot

V. B. Shklovsky, in an article calling on memoirists to be accurate, made a mistake in the very first lines. Comparing my script “The Hussar Ballad,” written based on “A Long Time Ago,” with the memories of the cavalry girl Nadezhda Durova, he expressed preference for the “truth” of these memories over the “fiction” of the script. Meanwhile, there are few books in Russian memoirs as inaccurate and filled with inventions as Durova’s memoirs. This is discussed in detail in the special work of S. A. Vengerov in the fifth volume of the Brockhaus edition of Pushkin, where I send those interested for verification. It’s strange that V.B. didn’t know about this, given how well read he was. Or maybe I just forgot. In any case, Durova’s book cannot be classified as a “documentary genre”, and, most likely, here V.B. fell victim to the tradition of contrasting “literature of fiction” with “literature of fact.”

and adds:

However, Durova's book bears a glimmer of Pushkin's praise. He published it in his Sovremennik and elegantly and enthusiastically wrote about it. It seems to me that Durova is not forgotten not so much thanks to her book, but thanks to these Pushkin lines. After these, the book itself is disappointing. At least that's what happened to me. True, between Pushkin and Durova, I read articles by Vengerov and Veresaev (in the book “Pushkin’s Companions”). They describe how N.A. Durova, who aroused great interest in St. Petersburg on her first visit after the publication of her memoirs, later disappointed everyone - she turned out to be stupid, primitive, annoying, untruthful. They tried to get rid of her, they didn’t invite her anywhere, her new works were disappointing. The end of her life was sad. She lived out her life alone in Yelabuga, wore a man's dress as an old woman, and smoked a pipe; When she went out into the street, boys teased her and threw various rubbish after her. The real Durova was clearly not suitable for the heroine of a dashing, major-key hussar comedy. I had no choice but to take the path of fiction, because even at the beginning of my work I understood that the novelty and originality of the play, if I succeeded, would not be in the correspondence of its plot to the facts, but in the spiritual mood, inner enthusiasm, plot mischief and romantic temperament.<…>
Will anyone believe me if I admit that I did not have the patience to read to the end of “Notes of a Cavalry Maiden” by Nadezhda Durova? Why, just finish reading: I flipped through a few pages and gave up. And after “A Long Time Ago” had been on stage for many years in dozens of theaters across the country, I sometimes suddenly felt remorse and told myself that I still had to read this book. But again I could not find the desire and patience. If you take into account my greed for all sorts of memories, then this alone is the assessment of the book. But maybe this is where the main secret of luck lies: I was not bound in composing the play by anything other than falling in love with the era - with Denis Davydov, Burtsev, Lunin, Figner, Nikolai Rostov... But I borrowed only the general lines of destinies and details of life and customs, but he invented all the characters. That is, he did exactly what Rostand did in Cyrano. How is “Cyrano” stronger than “Eaglet”? Freedom of imagination and boldness of colors. We talked about this with the smart old woman T. L. Shchepkina-Kupernik, who gave me her translations of Rostand with a flattering inscription, where I was called “Russian Rostand.” It was at the beginning of winter 1942, in empty, cold and dark military Moscow...

The problem of authorship

Already during the first production of the play in 1942, it was noticed that A.K. Gladkov evaded all requests to make even the most insignificant alterations to the text of the play. “In our theater, then in Sverdlovsk, in 1942, during rehearsals, everyone had the opinion that Gladkov did not write the play.” Subsequently, Gladkov did not publish a single poem, which was strange for the author of such a talented play and strengthened suspicions.

When adapting the play (), E. A. Ryazanov asked Gladkov to add several small episodes, he promised to do this and disappeared for several months. Long persuasion led to nothing but new promises, and Ryazanov had to write the poems for the script himself. In his book, Ryazanov suggests that “Gladkov received this play in prison from a man who was never released.” However, this version has no direct confirmation.

Literature

Ryazanov E. A. Unsummarized results. M.: Vagrius, 2005. 640 p. ISBN 5-7027-0509-2.

Notes

Categories:

Literary works in alphabetical order
Plays of the 20th century
Plays of the USSR
Plays of 1940
Plays in Russian
Patriotic War of 1812

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See what “A long time ago (play)” is in other dictionaries:

- (film almanac), Georgian SSR, 1971. A long time ago (play) play by Alexander Gladkov (1940), on which E. Ryazanov’s film “The Hussar Ballad” (1962) was based ... Wikipedia

The cunning lover La discreta enamorada Genre: comedy

Genre comedy musical film ... Wikipedia

Years in the literature of the 20th century. 1940 in literature. 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 ← XIX century 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 ... Wikipedia

Hussar ballad Genre comedy musical film Director Eldar Ryazanov Scriptwriter Alexander Gladkov Eldar Ryazanov ... Wikipedia

This term has other meanings, see Epiphora. Epiphora (from other Greek ἐπιφορά bringing, addition) is a rhetorical figure consisting of repeating the same words at the end of adjacent segments of speech. Often epiphora... ... Wikipedia

The huge five-pointed star - the building of the Red Army Theater - is a monument not only to theatrical architecture. This is a monument to an era of difficult trials and great enthusiasm. It was built from 1934 to 1940. The best muralists took part in the design of the theater: the frescoes of the acoustic ceiling were painted by Lev Bruni, the reinforced concrete curtain-portal was made according to the sketches of the remarkable graphic artist Vladimir Favorsky by his sons Nikita and Ivan. The lampshades above the buffets in the amphitheater were created by Alexander Deineka and Ilya Feinberg. Picturesque panels by Pavel Sokolov-Skal and Alexander Gerasimov decorated the grand marble staircases. Furniture, lampshades and chandeliers were made to special orders.

The stage mechanics, designed by engineer Ivan Maltsin, still operate today practically without repair - two huge circles rotate, and twelve lifting platforms can turn the stage plank from a stadium into a mountain landscape, helping theater artists implement all imaginable and inconceivable ideas for the scenographic design of performances.

On September 14, 1940, the new theater building opened with the play “Commander Suvorov” by I. Bakhterev and A. Razumovsky in the Great Hall. Two weeks later, on the Small Stage, the audience saw Maxim Gorky’s “The Bourgeois.” Since then, these stages have presented audiences with more than three hundred premieres and about forty-five thousand performances.

Directing the Army Theater from 1935 to 1958, Alexey Dmitrievich Popov built it as an artistic and original organism, defining a creative credo and program. His passion for harmony, for creating the artistic integrity of the performance, his ability to place in a space that amazed the imagination, folk scenes where human destinies flashed, his simplicity, intelligence, deep human decency, all this determined the level of the Central Academic Theater of the Russian Army for many years. The performances he staged - “Commander Suvorov”, “A Long Time Ago”, “Admiral’s Flag”, “Stalingraders”, “Front”, “Wide Steppe” - have become classics in the history of Russian theatrical art.

The artistic baton was taken over from his father by his son, People's Artist of the USSR Andrei Alekseevich Popov, a wonderful artist, director and teacher, who headed the theater from 1963 to 1973.

The main directors of the theater in different years were Yu. Zavadsky, A. Dunaev, R. Goryaev, Yu. Eremin, L. Kheifets, the main artists were N. Shifrin, P. Belov, I. Sumbatashvili.

Such wonderful performances as “The Dance Teacher”, “Ocean”, “The Holy of Holies” and “Drummer Girl”, “The Death of Ivan the Terrible” and “Paul I”, “The Mandate” and “Trees Die While Standing” were staged and were successful here. “Much Ado About Nothing” and “Sevastopol March”, many other plays - classical and modern. Chekhov, Dostoevsky and Ostrovsky, as well as Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, Moliere, Balzac, Brecht, Dreiser, Eduardo de Filippo did not leave the repertoire posters of the Big and Small stages.