Creation of public theaters, libraries, museums (kunstkamera). Imperial theaters of the Russian Empire What is prohibited in the Peter I Theater

Chelyabinsk State Academy of Culture and Arts

Essay

On the history of Russian theater

Topic: “Russian theater in the era of PeterI»

Completed:

Group student

304 TV

Abrakhin D.I.

Checked:

Tsidina T.D.

Chelyabinsk, 2008

2. Introduction 3

3. Peter's fun 4

4. School theater 5

5. Russian public theater 7

6. Johann Kunst 9

7. Conclusion 14

8. List of sources 15

Introduction.

The social, state and cultural development of Russia, which began in the 17th century and was prepared by the entire course of history, noticeably accelerated in connection with the transformations of Peter I. It marked the onset of a new historical period.

In works on the history of Russian theater, the era of Peter I is often combined with the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich. In some cases - like “the Moscow theater under Tsars Peter and Alexei”, in others - it is covered by a broader chronological concept of “ancient theater”, “ancient performance”. Meanwhile, the differences in these two periods are much greater than the similarities. And in theatrical terms, the Peter the Great era stands apart, just as in all others.

The point is not only that the professional theater of Peter the Great’s time does not have a direct connection with the first professional theater under Alexei Mikhailovich, they are separated by an interval of twenty-five years, during which all traces of the first theatrical venture, both human and material, disappear. A new professional theater is emerging on completely different principles - socially political, artistic, and organizational.

For some time it was believed that after the death of Alexei Mikhailovich, performances continued in the house of Princess Sophia, an energetic, intelligent and quite educated woman for her time. However, Morozov’s work also revealed the apocryphal nature of this information, although Princess Sophia may have had an interest in the theater: at least, her favorite Prince Golitsin, a man with a pronounced “Western” streak, had in his library “four written books on the structure of comedy ", as precisely established by the inventory. But practically there was no longer a court theater.

Peter led an active offensive struggle against the dominance of religious medieval ideology and implanted a new, secular one.

This was clearly reflected in the general character and content of the arts and literature. The stronghold of the old ideology was the church - Peter subordinated it to the state, abolished the patriarchate, and created a synod consisting of representatives of the highest clergy on the royal salary and headed by an official. Peter abolished liturgical dramas, which emphasized the superiority of spiritual power over secular power and contributed to the exaltation of the church. He laid the foundation for secular education, decisively broke patriarchal life, introducing assemblies, and with them “European manners,” European dances, etc. Meeting resistance to novelty, Peter introduced it by force. The results of Peter's activities in various fields were reflected at different times; in the theater, for example, they were fully realized only in the middle of the 18th century.

"Peter's Fun"

To popularize his transformations, Peter resorted to a wide variety of means, but he attached especially serious importance to methods of visual, spectacular influence. This is precisely the reason for his widespread use of “fun” (ceremonial entrances, street masquerades, parody rituals, illuminations, etc.), as well as his appeal to the theater.

Let us dwell first of all on the so-called “amusements”, in which the agitational and political role of the spectacle appeared especially clearly.

The first experience of organizing such a spectacle was the “fiery fun” organized on the Red Pond in Moscow at Maslenitsa in 1697 on the occasion of the capture of Azov. Here emblems were first used, then usually introduced into panegyric theatrical performances of the Moscow Academy. When, after the victory over the Swedes and the founding of St. Petersburg, Peter returned to Moscow, he was given a ceremonial welcome. Several triumphal gates were built. Some of them were built by the “educational assembly of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy” and decorated with paintings that were also used in academic panegyric theatrical performances. On the triumphal gates, built in 1704 to commemorate the final liberation of the Izhora land, more sophisticated and intricate allegorical paintings were depicted. The Poltava victory was also reflected in allegorical paintings, and the same Moscow Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy took a close part in their creation. Academic poets wrote odes of praise; on the gates located near the academy and decorated with the direct participation of academic teachers, there were many emblems with corresponding inscriptions. Academy students in snow-white robes with wreaths on their heads and branches came out to meet the solemn procession with the singing of cants.

The use of panegyrics and cants brought triumphal ceremonies closer to the declamations of the 17th century, and exquisite allegories continued the scholastic traditions of school theater. A theoretical justification for the need for allegorical images on the triumphal gates was made in 1704 by Joseph Turoboysky, perfect of the Moscow Academy. The purpose of the construction of the triumphal gates, in his words, is “political, and is civil praise for those who are working towards the goals of preserving their fatherland.” Further, he refers to the custom of all Christian countries to honor the winners, turning to divine scripture, worldly stories, and poetic fiction to weave a “crown of praise.” In 1710, the same author, in connection with the celebrations on the occasion of the Poltava victory, published a detailed description and explanation of the triumphal allegories under the title “Politikolenny Apophiosis of the praiseworthy courage of the All-Russian Hercules.” The name of the Russian Hercules meant Peter I, and the Poltava victory was called “the glorious victory over the chimera-like divas - Pride, the decision of Untruth and the theft of the Sweans.” I. Turobosky in his writings tried to explain to the audience the system of symbols, emblems and allegories, since, obviously, the authors themselves were aware that not all allegorical images are publicly available.

Peter used the ancient folk custom of Christmas and Maslenitsa dressing up for the purpose of political propaganda in grandiose street masquerades. Particularly outstanding were the Moscow masquerade of 1722 on the occasion of the Peace of Nystad, the St. Petersburg masquerade on the same occasion in 1723, and, finally, the Maslenitsa masquerades of 1723 and 1724. Masquerade processions were by land (on foot and on horseback) and by water. They numbered up to a thousand main participants who were grouped thematically. Men walked in front of each group, women behind; each group had its own central figure, all the rest formed a retinue. The figures had a traditional character and moved from masquerade to masquerade. The costumes were both theatrical, props, and close to historical and ethnographic authenticity.

One masquerade figure was often borrowed from mythology: Bacchus, Neptune, Satyr, etc. Another group of masquerade images of the 1720s consisted of historical characters. The Duke of Holstein at one of the masques “represented the Roman commander Scipio Africanus in a magnificent brocade Roman costume, surrounded by silver braid, in a helmet with a high feather, in Roman shoes and with a leader’s baton in his hand.” It can be assumed that in general the traditional characters of masquerades were partly borrowed from repertoire of the modern St. Petersburg theater, from where the masquerade costumes were taken. The third group consisted of ethnographic characters: Chinese, Japanese, Indians, Tatars, Armenians, Turks, Poles, etc. Participants in masquerades of this time also dressed up in costumes of peasants, sailors, miners, soldiers, and winegrowers. They also dressed up as animals and birds: bears, cranes. All masked people had to strictly adhere to their roles and behave according to the mask during the procession. The main participants in the masquerade were located in boats, gondolas, shells, and on thrones; Once, even an exact copy of the battleship "Ferdemaker" was built with full equipment, guns, and cabins. All this was moved by horses, oxen, pigs, dogs and even scientific bears.

The role and significance of masquerades of the Peter I era were not limited to external entertainment. Magnificent celebrations were a means of political agitation.

School theater

However, Peter considered theater to be a more effective means of public education. Bassevich, one of his contemporaries close to Peter, wrote: “The Tsar found that spectacles were useful in a big city.” The theater of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich pursued political goals, but was aimed at a very limited circle of courtiers, while Peter the Great's theater was supposed to conduct political propaganda among broad sections of the urban population. This led to the creation of a public theater. Peter tried to attract to Russia for the first time such actors who would speak, if not Russian, then at least one of the Slavic languages ​​close to Russian. So, when actors from a German troupe arrived in Russia in 1702, they were asked whether they could play in Polish; when Peter invited the troupe for the second time in 1720, he tried to attract Czech actors. But both of Peter's attempts were unsuccessful.

Under Peter, two main types of theater continued to develop: school and secular; At this time, plays of the city drama theater, which developed widely in the second quarter of the 18th century, also began to appear.

Oral folk drama continues to develop. It has been established that performances were performed in the early years of Peter’s reign, for example in Izmailovo in 1696, at the academy in 1699. In 1698, puppet shows were organized by Jan Splavski. About the performance in Izmailovo on January 14, 1697, the testimony of contemporaries has been preserved: “Ridiculous words in jokes and deeds displeasing to God... were performed.” At the same time, the clerk of the Preobrazhenskaya Izba, Ivan Gerasimov, said that “he, Ivan, was called in that comedy (that is, in one of the plays.) George and they laughed at that.” Probably, we are talking about the performances of 1696, which were part of the celebrations regarding the capture of Azov.

The plays of the secular theater of Peter the Great's time are oversaturated with action, the intrigue in them is extremely complicated, heroic episodes are interspersed with crudely comic scenes. The secularization of school theater plays is intensifying and deepening, They,. True, they do not yet break with the biblical and hagiographic content, but at the same time they are filled with elements of modernity; they include a wide range of symbolic, historical and mythological images.

However, there was a large discrepancy between the tasks that Peter set for the secular theater and living theatrical practice. German troupes could not play in a language understandable to the urban masses, and could not give programmatic journalistic performances. Russian theater was mainly represented by school theater. The aesthetic paths of which by this time had sharply departed from the traditions of Simeon of Polotsk.

It is still impossible to establish with accuracy when performances began at the Moscow Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. But we can guess. That they were included in the curriculum of the academy shortly after its opening. The reason for the appearance of the performances was the clash between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, and, in fact, with the Jesuits who were in Moscow, who staged performances on religious themes at their school. In response to this, Lefort gave a performance directed against Catholics (1699).

According to the information of the Jesuits, who were probably biased, the academic performances were not distinguished by great artistic merit: “since nothing special came of it,” they turned to foreign actors.

The history of the theater of the early 18th century was lucky in that the oldest drama that has come down to us from 1701 is equipped with detailed stage directions and a list of performers. This allows us to recreate with sufficient clarity the picture of the performance at the Moscow Academy of that time. The school drama of that time reproduced the emotional experiences and psychological fluctuations of a person. Instead of God, whom the school theater usually did not bring to the stage, the Judgment of God appears in front of the audience. The production of the play required rather complex stage adaptations. The play was called "The terrible betrayal of a voluptuous life with the deplorable and poor...". Allegorical characters (Lust, Truth, Retribution and others) were endowed with attributes that traditionally accompanied these figures in painting.

1.Introduction. Social, state and cultural development of Russia, which began back in the 16th century I century and prepared by the entire course of history, noticeably accelerated in connection with the transformations of Peter I. It marked the onset of a new historical period. In works on the history of Russian theater, the era of Peter I is often combined with the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich. In some cases, like the Moscow theater under Tsars Peter and Alexei, in others it is covered by a broader chronological concept of ancient theater, ancient performance.

Meanwhile, the differences in these two periods are much greater than the similarities. And in theatrical terms, the Peter the Great era stands apart, just as in all others. The point is not only that the professional theater of the Peter I era does not have a direct connection with the first professional theater under Alexei Mikhailovich, they are separated by an interval of twenty-five years, during which all traces of the first theatrical venture, both human and material, disappear.

A new professional theater is emerging on completely different principles, both socially political, artistic, and organizational. For some time it was believed that after the death of Alexei Mikhailovich, performances continued in the house of Princess Sophia, an energetic, intelligent and quite educated woman for her time. However, even through the works of Morozov, the apocryphal nature of this information was clarified, although Princess Sophia may have had an interest in the theater at least; her favorite, Prince Golitsin, a man of a pronounced Westernist bent, had in his library four written books on the structure of comedy, as is precisely installed according to the description.

But practically there was no longer a court theater. Peter led an active offensive struggle against the dominance of religious medieval ideology and implanted a new, secular one. This was clearly reflected in the general character and content of the arts and literature. The stronghold of the old ideology was the church. Peter subordinated it to the state, abolished the patriarchate, created a synod consisting of representatives of the highest clergy on the royal salary and headed by an official.

Peter abolished liturgical dramas, which emphasized the superiority of spiritual power over secular power and contributed to the exaltation of the church. He laid the foundation of secular education, decisively broke the patriarchal way of life, introducing assemblies, and with them European manners, European dances, etc. Meeting resistance to novelty, Peter introduced it by force. The results of Peter’s activities in various areas were reflected at different times, in the theater, for example. , in full only in the middle of the 17th century I century. 2.Peter's fun To popularize his transformations, Peter resorted to a wide variety of means, but he attached especially serious importance to methods of visual, spectacular influence.

It is in this that one should see the reason for his wide spread of fun at ceremonial entrances, street masquerades, parody rituals, illuminations, etc., as well as his appeal to the theater.

Let us dwell first of all on the so-called amusements, in which the agitational and political role of the spectacle appeared especially clearly. The first experience of organizing such a spectacle was the fiery fun organized on the Red Pond in Moscow at Maslenitsa in 1697 on the occasion of the capture of Azov. Here emblems were first used, then usually introduced into the panegyric theatrical performances of the Moscow Academy. When, after the victory over the Swedes and the founding of St. Petersburg, Peter returned to Moscow, he was given a ceremonial meeting. Several triumphal gates were built.

Some of them were built by the teaching assembly of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy and decorated with paintings that were also used in academic panegyric theatrical performances. On the triumphal gates, built in 1704 to commemorate the final liberation of the Izhora land, more sophisticated and intricate allegorical paintings were depicted. The Poltava victory was also reflected in allegorical paintings, and the same Moscow Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy took a close part in their creation.

Academic poets wrote laudatory odes on the gates located near the academy and decorated with the direct participation of academic teachers; there were many emblems with corresponding inscriptions. Academy students in snow-white robes with wreaths on their heads and branches came out to meet the solemn procession with the singing of cants. The use of panegyrics and cants brought the triumphal ceremonies closer to the declamations of the XVI I century, and exquisite allegories continued the scholastic traditions of school theater. A theoretical justification for the need for allegorical images on the triumphal gates was made in 1704 by Joseph Turoboysky, perfect of the Moscow Academy.

The purpose of the construction of the triumphal gates, according to him, is political, and is civil praise to those who work for the purpose of preserving their fatherland. Further, he refers to the custom of all Christian countries to honor the victors, turning to divine scripture, worldly stories, and poetic fiction to weave a crown of praise.

In 1710, the same author, in connection with the celebrations on the occasion of the Poltava victory, published a detailed description and explanation of triumphal allegories under the title Politicolupe Apophiosis of the praiseworthy courage of the All-Russian Hercules. The name of the Russian Hercules meant Peter I, and the Poltava victory was called the glorious Victoria over the chimera-like divas Pride , by reason of untruth and theft of the Svei.

I. Turobosky in his dissections tried to explain to the audience the system of symbols, emblems and allegories, since, obviously, the authors themselves were aware that not all allegorical images are publicly available. Peter used the ancient folk custom of Christmastide and Maslenitsa dressing up for the purpose of political agitation in grandiose street masquerades. Particularly outstanding were the Moscow masquerade of 1722 on the occasion of the Peace of Nystad, the St. Petersburg masquerade on the same occasion in 1723, and, finally, the Maslenitsa masquerades of 1723 and 1724.

Masquerade processions could be carried out on foot, on horseback or on water. They numbered up to a thousand main participants who were grouped thematically. In front of each group were men; behind the woman, each group had its own central figure, and everyone else formed a retinue. The figures had a traditional character and moved from masquerade to masquerade. The costumes were both theatrical, props, and close to historical and ethnographic authenticity.

One masquerade figure was often borrowed from mythology: Bacchus, Neptune, Satyr, etc. Another group of masquerade images of the 1720s consisted of historical characters. The Duke of Holstein at one of the masquerades represented the Roman commander Scipio Africanus in a magnificent brocade Roman costume, surrounded by silver braid, wearing a helmet with a high feather, in Roman shoes and with a leader's baton in his hand. It can be assumed that, in general, traditional masquerade characters were partly borrowed from the repertoire of the modern St. Petersburg theater, from where the masquerade costumes were taken.

The third group consisted of ethnographic characters: Chinese, Japanese, Indians, Tatars, Armenians, Turks, Poles, etc. Participants in masquerades of this time also dressed up in costumes of peasants, sailors, miners, soldiers, and winegrowers. They also dressed up as animals and birds, bears and cranes. All masked people had to strictly adhere to their roles and behave according to the mask during the procession.

The main participants in the masquerade were seated in boats, gondolas, shells; once even an exact copy of Ferdemaker’s battleship with full equipment, cannons, and cabins was built on thrones. All this was moved by horses, oxen, pigs, dogs and even scientific bears. The role and significance of masquerades of Peter the Great's time was not limited to external entertainment. Magnificent celebrations were a means of political agitation. 3. School theater.

However, Peter considered theater to be a more effective means of public education. Bassevich, one of the contemporaries close to Peter, wrote: The Tsar found that spectacles were useful in a big city. The theater of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich pursued political goals, but was aimed at a very limited circle of courtiers, while the Peter the Great Theater was supposed to conduct political propaganda among broad sections of the urban population. This led to the creation of a publicly accessible theater. Peter worked to attract to Russia for the first time such actors who would speak, if not Russian, then at least one of the Slavic languages ​​close to Russian.

So, when actors from a German troupe arrived in Russia in 1702, they were asked whether they could play in Polish. When in 1720, Peter invited the troupe for the second time, he tried to attract Czech actors. But both of Peter’s attempts were unsuccessful. Under Peter, two main types of theater, school and secular, continued to develop; at this time, plays of the city drama theater, which developed widely in the second quarter of the 18th century, also began to appear. Oral folk drama continues to develop.

It has been established that performances were performed in the early years of Peter’s reign, for example in Izmailovo in 1696, at the academy in 1699. In 1698, puppet shows were organized by Jan Splavsky. About the performance in Izmailovo on January 14, 1697, testimonies from contemporaries have been preserved. Laughable words were jokes and deeds displeasing to God were done. At the same time, the clerk of the Preobrazhenskaya Izba, Ivan Gerasimov, said that he, Ivan, was named in that comedy, that is, in one of the plays. George and so on they laughed. Probably, we are talking about the performances of 1696, which were part of the celebrations regarding the capture of Azov. The plays of the secular theater of Peter the Great's time are oversaturated with action, the intrigue in them is extremely complicated, heroic episodes are interspersed with crudely comic scenes. The worldliness of school theater plays is intensifying and deepening. True, they have not yet broken with the biblical and hagiographic content, but at the same time they are filled with elements of modernity; they include a wide wave of symbolic, historical and mythological images.

However, there was a large discrepancy between the tasks that Peter set for the secular theater and living theatrical practice.

German troupes could not play in a language understandable to the urban masses, and could not give programmatic journalistic performances. Russian theater was mainly represented by school theater.

The aesthetic paths of which by this time had sharply departed from the traditions of Simeon of Polotsk. It is still impossible to establish with accuracy when performances began at the Moscow Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. But one can assume that they were included in the curriculum of the academy soon after its opening. The reason for the appearance of the performances was the clash between the Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, and, in fact, with the Jesuits who were in Moscow, who staged performances on religious themes at their school. In response to this, Lefort gave a performance directed against Catholics in 1699. According to the Jesuits, probably biased, academic performances were not distinguished by great artistic merit, since nothing special came out of it, they turned to foreign actors. The history of the theater of the early 18th century was lucky in that the oldest drama that has come down to us from 1701 is equipped with detailed stage directions and a list of performers.

This allows us to recreate with sufficient clarity the picture of the performance at the Moscow Academy of that time.

The school drama of that time reproduced the emotional experiences and psychological fluctuations of a person. Instead of God, whom the school theater usually did not bring to the stage, the Judgment of God appears in front of the audience. The production of the play required rather complex stage adaptations. The play was called A terrible betrayal of a voluptuous life with the deplorable and the poor. The allegorical characters of Voluptuousness, Truth, Retribution and others were endowed with attributes that traditionally accompanied these figures in painting.

Another example of school drama of the early 18th century of the same genre is Dmitry Rostovsky's drama The Penitent Sinner. It is interesting because it was part of the repertoire of the Yaroslavl theater of F. Volkov, and in 1752 it was performed by the Yaroslavl people at court. Christian and religious edification, a wide introduction of allegorical characters, and complex technical design make this play similar to the previous one.

Along with morality plays, the Russian school theater knew a large number of Easter plays and Christmas mystery dramas. In Christmas dramas, the influence of folk dramas of nativity scenes and games is noticeable, and there is also a connection with everyday life. The Comedy of the Nativity of Christ in 1702, attributed to Dmitry Rostovsky, is worthy of attention. It develops the legendary plot of the Christmas drama, a prophecy about Christ is heard, there is a scene of the shepherds, who appears as an angel, then the scene of Herod with the wise men going to worship Christ, the scene of the magicians Herod gives the order for the beating of infants and Finally, Herod dies in agony.

These episodes were framed by allegorical scenes. The play also contains speeches from the throne, usual for secular drama of that time. So, biblical plots in school drama underwent a peculiar treatment, gradually becoming secularized, absorbing everyday material. A special group of plays in the school theater of the early 18th century were panegyric dramas in which political allusions to the praise of Peter pushed into the background the religious basis of the plot.

Such are, for example, the Terrible Image of the Second Coming of the Lord in 1702, in which the policy of the Polish King Augustus was condemned, or the Triumph of the Orthodox Peace in 1703, in which the victory of the Russian Mars - Peter over Misfortune - the Swedes. On June 11, 1702, Stefan Yavorsky wrote about this to the head of the Ambassadorial Prikaz, Golovin. Now, in honor of the supreme ones and in praise of our most gracious monarch, dialogues are being prepared at the Moscow Academy, and this action will be carried out when the people, or your desired arrival to us, are expected.

In February 1705, the play Liberation of Livonia and Ingermenland, written in honor of the conquest of the Baltic states in 1703-1704, was staged. The Poltava victory in February 1710 at the Moscow Academy was marked by a solemn allegorical act of God's humiliation of the proud. It is based on the biblical legend about the victory of David over Goliath. The play included lame Sweden, an allusion to the lameness of Charles XII, who was wounded in the leg before the Battle of Poltava, and Treason, the allegorical embodiment of Mazepa.

The play consisted of two parts, the first showed the united proud, the second opponents or traitors. Each part was preceded by pantomime. The allegory became clear to the audience especially in the second part, in which the action unfolded in two plans on stage in a dramatic presentation of Absalom’s indignation against his father David, the conqueror of Goliath and on a transparent screen through umbers, that is, in shadow paintings.

In these paintings, the viewer saw how the Russian eagle lion chrome and lion cubs caught the lion cubs with the help of God, the lion chrome beige. The play ended, according to the custom of school drama, with a special epilogue. Interludes were played during the intermissions of the performance, but their content, unfortunately, is not known. Plays of this kind in their poetics did not differ from contemporary panegyric literature in general and from fun. This drama is characterized by the widespread use of allegories and an abundance of scholastic embellishments.

Characters such as Self-Will, Pride, Vengeance, Idolatry, Wrath, Truth, Peace, Judgment and the like were woven into the action, alternating with the biblical images of Jesus and David. Historical figures Alexander, Pompey and mythological images Mars, Fortune. The author's thought was difficult to discern in the poetic and rhetorical heaps. The characters and stage positions moved from one work to another. And the plays themselves suffered from monotony.

The texts of the panegyric school performances of the early 18th century have not survived, but their detailed programs, written in stilted, archaic language, have reached us. Feofan Prokopovich These works are opposed by the drama of one of the associates of Peter Feofan Prokopovich. Feofan Prokopovich 1681 - 1736 was an outstanding speaker, poet, and expert on ancient culture. The son of an impoverished merchant, he received an excellent education at the Kiev-Mohyla Academy and in educational institutions in Western Europe.

In Prokopovich's biography there are some features that bring him closer to Simeon of Polotsk. Both of them studied at the Kyiv Academy, completed their education in the West and were repeatedly attacked for this by the reactionary Orthodox clergy. Prokopovich's aesthetic views found vivid expression in the course on pietics, which he taught at the Kyiv Academy from 1704. He consciously retreated from scholastic aesthetics, objected to the abuse of allegories and mythology. Prokopovich said: A Christian poet should not bring out pagan gods or goddesses for some work of our god or to indicate the virtue of heroes; he should not say Pallas instead of fire instead of wisdom.

Prokopovich sharply condemned the favorite formalistic methods of versification, built on anagrams, parallel verses, and poetic echo. He fought against authors who wrote poems in the shape of an egg, cube, pyramid, star, circle, etc. He called such works nonsense, childish toys with which a rude age could amuse themselves. Prokopovich turned to the works of Aristotle, Seneca Plautus, Terence, and other ancient authors.

He was also familiar with the works of French classicists. Thus, Prokopovich read the Sid Corneille and Andromache of Racine in Polish translation. Prokopovich assigned an important role to poetic artistic fiction. Having taken an event, he wrote in his Piitik, the poet does not inquire how it happened, but having examined it, sets out how it could have happened. Whether the poet creates the whole event or only the method of its origin, he must mainly and solely to observe that general virtues or vices are depicted in certain and individual individuals.

The poet describes the feats of famous people, and the historian does this; he, the historian, describes them as they were, the poet, as they should have been. Remarkable is Prokopovich’s patriotic call for writers, playwrights and orators to turn to themes of national history, so that our enemies will finally know that our fatherland and our faith are not fruitless in valor. Prokopovich's aesthetic principles were vividly embodied in the tragic comedy Vladimir he created. This is the best of all school dramas. The play maintains unity of action and place. The very genre of the play Tragedocomedy Vladimir was also an innovation and is closely connected with the oratorical activity of Feofan Prokopovich, and in particular with his Sermon on St. Vladimir’s Day.

Spoken shortly before he wrote the play. Vladimir is an allegorical work.

Vladimir’s struggle with the pagans meant Peter’s struggle with representatives of the church reaction. Prokopovich puts into the mouth of Apostle Andrei a prediction about Russia's victory over Sweden. In the drama of Feofan Prokopovich, scenes full of deep reflections, tender lyricism and inspired pathos are written with great force. To judge the effectiveness and sharpness of Prokopovich’s satire, the following fact is indicative of Feofan’s enemy Markel Radyshevsky, who wrote in a denunciation that Feofan Prokopovich brings out the Russians under the names of zherivols, calls them hypocrites and idolatrous priests. The reactionary clergy was indignant when they recognized themselves in the characters of the tragedy-comedy.

Prokopovich also contributed a lot of new things to the development of the syllabic verse in which his play was written. It should be noted that the school theater not only created a new repertoire, but also tried to adapt plays from the time of Alexei Mikhailovich to its needs, despite their stylistic differences. The comedy about Judith was apparently resumed by Stefan Yavorsky on the stage of the school theater at the Moscow Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy as a response to the Poltava victory, as evidenced by the prologue about the disgrace of the pride of the Swedish king Charles XII and the almost complete destruction of his troops near Poltava.

School theater, legalized by the Spiritual Regulations. Even in the era of Peter the Great, it began to spread in the provinces, even in Siberia. In 1702, Metropolitan Philofey Leshchinsky was appointed to Tobolsk, a lover of theatrical performances, he made glorious and rich comedies.

The school theater developed a strictly normative theory of drama and performing arts. At their core, they were the same for school theater in all countries. The founders of poetics were the famous Jesuits Pontanus and Scaliger. As for the art of performance, it followed the art of oratory and went back to Quintilian; its rules were set out in rhetoric. The ethics of performance were normative. So in anger the voice should sound sharp, cruel, often truncated, that is, not loud, slow and weakening in fear, the words should be pronounced quietly, in a low voice and intermittently, as if stuttering in a cheerful state - pronounce extensively, pleasantly, softly, cheerfully, moderately loudly, interrupting speech with exclamations.

Gestures should correspond to the words in anger and jealousy; they should be abundant and fast, eyebrows should be furrowed, the whole body should be straightened and tense; at the same time, gestures should not be abused, so as not to resemble a madman or a drunk.

In sadness and tenderness, gestures should be few, and they should be slow, the head should be humbly bowed, and tears should appear at times. In fear, the body was supposed to be clenched, the eyebrows raised, like a question. To express joy and love, the gesture should be free, the expression of the eyes and the whole face should be bright, smiling, but modest, not like a boat shaken by the wind, one should not break or squeeze one’s fingers. When talking about inferior ones, one should lower one’s hand, when speaking about superior ones one should raise one’s hand, about those who are close - pull up your hand.

Facial expressions are the main means of expression; they mainly convey the movements of the heart. To the stated theory of dramatic art, one should add a discussion about the actor of the Vilna school leader Sarbeevsky, perhaps he was also known in Moscow. Tragedy especially in the last acts in the 4th and 5th The tragic actor in buskins should act with a very special gait with an elevated posture, with With well-known, somewhat excited movements of the chest and the whole body, the voice should be especially sonorous, full, strong, each word should be pronounced expressively, gracefully, regally.

A comic actor in low shoes should act with an ordinary gait, speak in an ordinary tone, with moderate body movements, with a voice that is not tense, but ordinary. The theater attached great importance to the design of the performance, mainly to the scenery.

The performance, according to Sarbewski, must recreate actions not only with words and speech, but also with gestures, intonation, movements on stage, expression of moods, and finally, with the help of music, machines and furnishings. If all this is created or regulated by art, then the same applies to the lighting in which the performance is performed, since according to various requirements, depending on the mood, either sad or pleasant, artificial light can be increased and decreased.

The school theater had a great influence on the development of Russian urban drama theater of the 18th century. Russian public theater. Peter was not satisfied with the school theater. Religious in its content, this theater was aesthetically too intricate and complex for the average viewer. Peter, on the other hand, sought to organize a secular theater accessible to the urban masses. The theater he founded, despite the short duration of its existence, played an important role in the development of Russian theatrical culture.

In 1698-1699, a troupe of actors and puppeteers was in Moscow. They were led by the Hungarian Jan Splavsky. Puppeteers gave performances not only in the capital, but also in the provinces. It is known that in September 1700, some of them were sent to perform comedy pieces in Ukraine, and Jan Splavsky was sent to the Volga cities, including Astrakhan. And so in 1701, the Tsar gave the same Splavsky an order to go to Danzig to invite comedians to the Russian service.

In Danzig, Splavsky entered into negotiations with one of the best German troupes of that time, headed by the actor Johann Kunsth and directly associated with the famous German theater reformer Felten. An agreement was reached, but the troupe was afraid to go to Russia. They had to send for the actors a second time. This time, in the summer of 1702, Kunst and his eight actors arrived in Moscow.

According to the concluded agreement, Kunst pledged to faithfully serve His Royal Majesty. While negotiations were ongoing with the troupe, the question of where and how to build a theater building was discussed for a long time. It was planned to equip an old room in the palace above the pharmacy as a theater. Temporarily, a large hall in the Lefortovo House in Nemetskaya Sloboda was adapted for performances. At the end of 1702, the construction of the comedic mansion on Red Square was completed. It was 18 meters long and 10 fathoms wide, 36 x 20 m, illuminated by tallow candles.

The technical equipment was luxurious at that time, with many sets, cars, and costumes. Since Peter’s intentions included the creation of a public theater in the Russian language, on October 12 of the same year, 1702, Kunst sent ten Russian youths from clerks and merchant children to study. Then twenty of them were recruited. At the same time, it was indicated that they should be taught with all diligence and haste, so that they could learn those comedies in a short time. In the same year, one of his contemporaries wrote that the Russians had already given several small performances in the house in German settlement.

According to documents, it is known that some kind of comedy was shown on December 23, 1702. This is how the Russian public theater began its existence. Performances were performed twice a week, German performances alternated with Russian ones. This continued for more than a year, that is, until Kunst’s death in 1703, when the German troupe was mostly released to their homeland, Kunst’s widow and actor Bandler were instructed to continue training Russian actors. However, they apparently could not cope with the task, and in March of the following 1704, Otto Fürst Firsht, a goldsmith by profession, became the head of the theater business.

But he also failed to cope with the matter. Misunderstandings constantly arose between Furst and his Russian students. The students, in essence, stood up for a national theater, and therefore complained about their principal that he did not know Russian behavior, was careless in compliments and due to lack of knowledge in speeches, the actors did not act in firmness.

For the entire year 1704, only three comedies were staged. The actors asked to choose the head of the theater from among themselves and continue the business on a new basis, in other words, they wanted to free themselves from foreign tutelage. But Fürst remained at the head of the business until 1707. To increase the number of spectators, in 1705 a decree was published for the Comedy to act in Russian and German, and for those comedies, musicians to play different instruments.

Nevertheless, few people attended the performances; sometimes only 25 spectators gathered in the hall intended for 450 people. By 1707, performances had completely ceased. The reasons for the failure of the Kunst Fürst Theater and its short-lived existence, despite the support of Peter and the government, are explained by the fact that the performances did not satisfy the audience. The activities of two types of theaters of the early 18th century, school and secular public, did not pass without a trace in the history of theater in Russia.

To replace the closed public theater, theaters for various segments of the population began to emerge one after another in the capitals. In 1707, Russian performances began in the village of Preobrazhenskoye with the Tsar’s sister Natalya Alekseevna, in 1713 in the village of Izmailovo with the widow of Ivan Alekseevich Proskovya Fedorovna. Costumes from the theater on Red Square were sent to the village of Preobrazhenskoye, and plays from the Kunst repertoire were also sent there. Princess Natalya formed a whole theater library. The theater at the court of Tsarina Praskovya Fedorovna functioned since 1713. It was organized and directed by her daughter Ekaterina Ivanovna.

Performances to which the public was allowed were performed in Russian, but the theater’s repertoire cannot be determined. After the death of the Tsar's sister, the St. Petersburg theater continued to function for a long time. In 1720, Peter made a new attempt to invite to Russia from abroad a troupe of actors who spoke one of the Slavic languages, in the hope that they would quickly learn the Russian language. He ordered a company of comedians to be hired from Prague . A traveling group of Eckenbarg-Mann, whom Peter could have seen abroad, arrives in St. Petersburg.

The troupe gives several performances and, on Peter’s initiative, plays an April Fool’s joke with the audience. On this day, a performance is announced in the presence of the royal family, and therefore Mann even doubles the prices. However, when the audience arrives, they find out that there will be no performance on the occasion of the first of April. Thus, Peter uses a theatrical joke to popularize the reform of the calendar.

In 1723, Mann's troupe reappeared in St. Petersburg, for which Peter ordered the construction of a new theater, already in the center, near the Admiralty. Peter himself visited the Mann Theater more than once, and therefore a type of royal box was built for him. However, this troupe also cannot solve the problems that Peter sets for the theater. At the direction of his contemporaries, Peter even specifically promised a reward to the comedians if they composed a touching play. In fact, the first drama competition was announced in Russia.

The acting troupe does not live up to Peter's hopes and leaves St. Petersburg. Thus, Peter’s second attempt to establish a public theater in Russia, this time in the new capital, ended unsuccessfully. Conclusion. Peter himself failed to create a permanent public theater. Both attempts in Moscow and St. Petersburg do not give the desired results. Nevertheless, it was in the era of Peter the Great that a solid foundation was laid for the further development of the Russian theater. Under Peter I, the theater was quite clearly given political and artistic tasks - to serve the cause of state building in Russia.

At this time, early Russian drama took shape, part of the new secular fiction. For the first time, theater becomes a means of educating the broad masses, albeit far from achieving the goal in this sense, but still functioning as a public and accessible theater. In the era of Peter the Great, the first professional entrepreneurs appeared in Russia, the acting profession stabilized, and the first actresses appeared on the stage.

For some time after the death of Peter 1, Russian theater continued to develop in the forms of amateur theater and the theater of the urban lower classes. But here, too, everything that the Peter the Great era brought to Russian theatrical culture is being mastered. And here forces are accumulating to fight for the further establishment of the national Russian theater.

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Chelyabinsk State Academy of Culture and Arts

Essay

On the history of Russian theater

Topic: “Russian theater in the era of Peter I »

Completed:

Group student

304 TV

Abrakhin D.I.

Checked:

Tsidina T.D.

Chelyabinsk, 2008

2. Introduction 3

3. Peter's fun 4

4. School theater 5

5. Russian public theater 7

6. Johann Kunst 9

7. Conclusion 14

8. List of sources 15

Introduction.

The social, state and cultural development of Russia, which began in the 17th century and was prepared by the entire course of history, noticeably accelerated in connection with the transformations of Peter I. It marked the onset of a new historical period.

In works on the history of Russian theater, the era of Peter I is often combined with the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich. In some cases - like “the Moscow theater under Tsars Peter and Alexei”, in others - it is covered by a broader chronological concept of “ancient theater”, “ancient performance”. Meanwhile, the differences in these two periods are much greater than the similarities. And in theatrical terms, the Peter the Great era stands apart, just as in all others.

The point is not only that the professional theater of Peter the Great’s time does not have a direct connection with the first professional theater under Alexei Mikhailovich, they are separated by an interval of twenty-five years, during which all traces of the first theatrical venture, both human and material, disappear. A new professional theater is emerging on completely different principles - socially political, artistic, and organizational.

For some time it was believed that after the death of Alexei Mikhailovich, performances continued in the house of Princess Sophia, an energetic, intelligent and quite educated woman for her time. However, Morozov’s work also revealed the apocryphal nature of this information, although Princess Sophia may have had an interest in the theater: at least, her favorite Prince Golitsin, a man with a pronounced “Western” streak, had in his library “four written books on the structure of comedy ", as precisely established by the inventory. But practically there was no longer a court theater.

Peter led an active offensive struggle against the dominance of religious medieval ideology and implanted a new, secular one.

This was clearly reflected in the general character and content of the arts and literature. The stronghold of the old ideology was the church - Peter subordinated it to the state, abolished the patriarchate, and created a synod consisting of representatives of the highest clergy on the royal salary and headed by an official. Peter abolished liturgical dramas, which emphasized the superiority of spiritual power over secular power and contributed to the exaltation of the church. He laid the foundation for secular education, decisively broke patriarchal life, introducing assemblies, and with them “European manners,” European dances, etc. Meeting resistance to novelty, Peter introduced it by force. The results of Peter's activities in various fields were reflected at different times; in the theater, for example, they were fully realized only in the middle of the 18th century.

"Peter's Fun"

To popularize his transformations, Peter resorted to a wide variety of means, but he attached especially serious importance to methods of visual, spectacular influence. This is precisely the reason for his widespread use of “fun” (ceremonial entrances, street masquerades, parody rituals, illuminations, etc.), as well as his appeal to the theater.

Let us dwell first of all on the so-called “amusements”, in which the agitational and political role of the spectacle appeared especially clearly.

The first experience of organizing such a spectacle was the “fiery fun” organized on the Red Pond in Moscow at Maslenitsa in 1697 on the occasion of the capture of Azov. Here emblems were first used, then usually introduced into panegyric theatrical performances of the Moscow Academy. When, after the victory over the Swedes and the founding of St. Petersburg, Peter returned to Moscow, he was given a ceremonial welcome. Several triumphal gates were built. Some of them were built by the “educational assembly of the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy” and decorated with paintings that were also used in academic panegyric theatrical performances. On the triumphal gates, built in 1704 to commemorate the final liberation of the Izhora land, more sophisticated and intricate allegorical paintings were depicted. The Poltava victory was also reflected in allegorical paintings, and the same Moscow Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy took a close part in their creation. Academic poets wrote odes of praise; on the gates located near the academy and decorated with the direct participation of academic teachers, there were many emblems with corresponding inscriptions. Academy students in snow-white robes with wreaths on their heads and branches came out to meet the solemn procession with the singing of cants.

The use of panegyrics and cants brought triumphal ceremonies closer to the declamations of the 17th century, and exquisite allegories continued the scholastic traditions of school theater. A theoretical justification for the need for allegorical images on the triumphal gates was made in 1704 by Joseph Turoboysky, perfect of the Moscow Academy. The purpose of the construction of the triumphal gates, in his words, is “political, and is civil praise for those who are working towards the goals of preserving their fatherland.” Further, he refers to the custom of all Christian countries to honor the winners, turning to divine scripture, worldly stories, and poetic fiction to weave a “crown of praise.” In 1710, the same author, in connection with the celebrations on the occasion of the Poltava victory, published a detailed description and explanation of the triumphal allegories under the title “Politikolenny Apophiosis of the praiseworthy courage of the All-Russian Hercules.” The name of the Russian Hercules meant Peter I, and the Poltava victory was called “the glorious victory over the chimera-like divas - Pride, the decision of Untruth and the theft of the Sweans.” I. Turobosky in his writings tried to explain to the audience the system of symbols, emblems and allegories, since, obviously, the authors themselves were aware that not all allegorical images are publicly available.

Peter used the ancient folk custom of Christmas and Maslenitsa dressing up for the purpose of political propaganda in grandiose street masquerades. Particularly outstanding were the Moscow masquerade of 1722 on the occasion of the Peace of Nystad, the St. Petersburg masquerade on the same occasion in 1723, and, finally, the Maslenitsa masquerades of 1723 and 1724. Masquerade processions were by land (on foot and on horseback) and by water. They numbered up to a thousand main participants who were grouped thematically. Men walked in front of each group, women behind; each group had its own central figure, all the rest formed a retinue. The figures had a traditional character and moved from masquerade to masquerade. The costumes were both theatrical, props, and close to historical and ethnographic authenticity.

One masquerade figure was often borrowed from mythology: Bacchus, Neptune, Satyr, etc. Another group of masquerade images of the 1720s consisted of historical characters. The Duke of Holstein at one of the masques “represented the Roman commander Scipio Africanus in a magnificent brocade Roman costume, surrounded by silver braid, in a helmet with a high feather, in Roman shoes and with a leader’s baton in his hand.” It can be assumed that in general the traditional characters of masquerades were partly borrowed from repertoire of the modern St. Petersburg theater, from where the masquerade costumes were taken. The third group consisted of ethnographic characters: Chinese, Japanese, Indians, Tatars, Armenians, Turks, Poles, etc. Participants in masquerades of this time also dressed up in costumes of peasants, sailors, miners, soldiers, and winegrowers. They also dressed up as animals and birds: bears, cranes. All masked people had to strictly adhere to their roles and behave according to the mask during the procession. The main participants in the masquerade were located in boats, gondolas, shells, and on thrones; Once, even an exact copy of the battleship "Ferdemaker" was built with full equipment, guns, and cabins. All this was moved by horses, oxen, pigs, dogs and even scientific bears.

The role and significance of masquerades of the Peter I era were not limited to external entertainment. Magnificent celebrations were a means of political agitation.

School theater

However, Peter considered theater to be a more effective means of public education. Bassevich, one of his contemporaries close to Peter, wrote: “The Tsar found that spectacles were useful in a big city.” The theater of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich pursued political goals, but was aimed at a very limited circle of courtiers, while Peter the Great's theater was supposed to conduct political propaganda among broad sections of the urban population. This led to the creation of a public theater. Peter tried to attract to Russia for the first time such actors who would speak, if not Russian, then at least one of the Slavic languages ​​close to Russian. So, when actors from a German troupe arrived in Russia in 1702, they were asked whether they could play in Polish; when Peter invited the troupe for the second time in 1720, he tried to attract Czech actors. But both of Peter's attempts were unsuccessful.

Under Peter, two main types of theater continued to develop: school and secular; At this time, plays of the city drama theater, which developed widely in the second quarter of the 18th century, also began to appear.

", which included Peter himself under the name Pyotr Mikhailovich. In Amsterdam (Holland) he sees the ballet “Cupid”, in London - the tragedy of N. Lee “The Rival Queens or the Death of Alexander the Great” (with the participation of the first actor of the troupe, Betterton). In Vienna, Peter attends the Italian opera and a large masquerade. All this convinces him of the special artistic power of the theater and its exceptional importance for society. Therefore, Peter decides to create a theater in Russia.

In 1702, an Anglo-German group of 8 actors arrived in Moscow under the direction of Johann Kunst. The performances took place in the house of Admiral Lefort, in the German settlement. The actors played in German. Such a theater turned out to be a theater for the elite. Peter wanted to organize a Russian public theater that would be understandable to a wide range of spectators, so it was decided to send 10 Russian children, “no matter what class they come from,” to study with Kunst. This is how the second acting school was opened.

Construction began then first public theater in Moscow, in the Kremlin, to the left of the Nikolsky Gate. The clerks from the Ambassadorial Prikaz tried to prevent this. Then Peter ordered the construction of a “comedy mansion” on Red Square. The clerks opposed this too, and at the same time they tried to discredit Kunst. They proposed staging a “comedy house” on Neglinnaya Street. But Peter's will was adamant. The building accommodated several hundred spectators, but this “hall” was never sold out. The public went to the theater reluctantly. The decree not to collect taxes from persons walking around the city at night did not help either.

The reason for the unpopularity of the theater was its isolation from Russian life, which was evident in the repertoire. These were plays by third-rate German playwrights of the 18th century, devoid of deep ideological content, ineffective with pompous rhetoric. And the plays of Calderon and Moliere were translated and altered, far from the original. Performances were often performed in German. And the translated plays were not in the modern spoken language, but in a language close to Church Slavonic, which also made understanding difficult.

In 1703, Kunst died and his troupe was sent home.

Since 1704, Otto Furst (Artemy Firsht) became the head of the theater business; Two troupes perform under his leadership - Russian and German. The German troupe features female actors.

Some names of actors are known in the Russian troupe - Fyodor Buslaev, Semyon Smirnov, Nikita Kondratov, etc.

Russian actors complained that Fürst did not teach them anything and could not teach them, since “a foreigner does not know their Russian behavior.” However, the actors were punished for these complaints.

The theatrical business itself is gradually falling into decline, performances are no longer attracting audiences. And in 1706, Fürst’s enterprise closed.

By creating a theater in Russia, Peter intended to achieve the following goals:

1. The theater was supposed to promote his reformist and political activities;

2. The theater was supposed to help familiarize Russian society with European culture, i.e. perform cultural and educational functions.

But the theater failed to cope with any of these tasks. The political tasks of the Russian Tsar were alien to the German actors. Their repertoire did not include plays on biblical subjects, which Russian audiences had previously been accustomed to. The theater played exclusively secular plays - adaptations of comedies by Moliere, English, Spanish, and French playwrights. It was thought that these plays would introduce the Russian public to the latest in European drama.

The book industry in Russia at that time was poorly developed, there were not enough literate people, and theater in these conditions was supposed to serve as a means of popularizing fiction, as well as instill in the viewer high feelings, grace in their manifestation, delicacy in communication, etc. But the theater also did not fulfill this cultural and educational task, because the original plays were arbitrarily shortened and simplified, scenes of battles, murders, and executions were brought to the fore. The viewer often had to guess what was happening on stage - this is how the abbreviated content of the plays was distorted.

On May 16, 1703, under the walls of the newly captured Swedish fortress Nyenschanz, Peter founded St. Petersburg, construction of the new capital of the Russian state began. In 1707 the royal court moved here. And since 1712, St. Petersburg officially became the capital of Russia, and all government institutions moved here.

What about the theater?

Another attempt to use German comedians to create a public theater was made by Peter in St. Petersburg in 1719-1722. Mann's troupe gave performances here. But this attempt also failed for the same reasons as the Moscow one.

In Moscow, the theater building itself (“comedy hall”) from 1707 to 1713. was already in a dilapidated state, and in 1713 it was finally demolished. But Peter 1’s sister Natalya Alekseevna orders “all the theatrical equipment” to be transported to her palace, to the village of Preobrazhenskoye. A Russian acting troupe also came here, and the performances continued.

In 1714, Natalya Alekseevna moved to St. Petersburg, to her palace on the banks of the Neva, and next to it she ordered the construction of a theater. The troupe consisted of 10 Russian actors (from the village of Preobrazhenskoye), who had never been abroad. The repertoire of this theater consisted of plays of spiritual content and plays adapted from translated secular novels. Several plays were written by Natalya Alekseevna herself. This repertoire is an important link between the translated repertoire under Gregory-Kunst-Fürst and the future Russian repertoire - plays by Sumarokov, Lomonosov, Trediakovsky, Ozerov.

In Moscow, the theater business did not stop. It is continued by Tsarina Praskovya Fedorovna (the widow of Ivan Alekseevich, Peter’s brother) and her eldest daughter Ekaterina Ioannovna. Under their leadership, performances are organized in the village of Izmailovo, in the palace of Praskovya Fedorovna. The first Russian serf actors and court amateurs performed here, including “noble ladies and maidens”, that is the first Russian actresses. It was a semi-public - semi-court theater, which turned out to be the forerunner of future high-society performances. It ceased to exist with the death of Praskovya Fedorovna (1723).

With the death of Peter (1725), state concern for the development of Russian professional theater was interrupted for a long time. But interest in the theater no longer disappears.

Peter I understood that the theater had to be the most important link in the overall complex of his reform plans.

In 1697 ᴦ. The “great embassy” went to Western Europe, which included Peter himself under the name Pyotr Mikhailovich. In Amsterdam (Holland) he sees the ballet “Cupid”, in London - the tragedy of N. Lee “The Rival Queen or the Death of Alexander the Great” (with the participation of the first actor of the Betterton troupe). In Vienna, Peter attends the Italian opera and a large masquerade ball. All this convinces him of the special artistic power of the theater and its exceptional importance for society. For this reason, Peter decides to create a theater in Russia.

In 1702 ᴦ. An Anglo-German group of 8 actors arrived in Moscow under the direction of Johann Kunst. The performances took place in the house of Admiral Lefort in the German settlement. The actors played in German. Such a theater turned out to be a theater for the elite. Peter wanted to organize a Russian public theater that would be understandable to a wide range of spectators; in this regard, it was decided to send 10 Russian children to study with Kunst, “no matter what class they come from.” This is how the second acting school was opened.

Construction began then first public theater in Moscow, in the Kremlin, to the left of the Nikolsky Gate. The clerks from the Ambassadorial Prikaz tried to prevent this. Then Peter ordered the construction of a “comedy mansion” on Red Square. The clerks opposed this too, and at the same time they tried to discredit Kunst. They offered to stage a “comedy house” on Neglinnaya Street. But Peter's will was adamant. The building accommodated several hundred spectators, but this “hall” was never sold out. The public went to the theater reluctantly. The decree not to collect taxes from persons walking around the city at night did not help either.

The reason for the unpopularity of the theater was its isolation from Russian life, which was evident in the repertoire. These were plays by third-rate German playwrights of the 18th century, devoid of deep ideological content, ineffective with pompous rhetoric. And the plays of Calderon and Moliere were translated and altered, far from the original. Performances were often performed in German. And the translated plays were not in the modern spoken language, but in a language close to Church Slavonic, which also made understanding difficult.

In 1703 ᴦ. Kunst died, his troupe was sent home.

Since 1704 ᴦ. Otto Furst (Artemy Firsht) becomes the head of the theater business; Two troupes perform under his leadership - Russian and German. The German troupe features female actors.

Some names of actors are known in the Russian troupe - Fyodor Buslaev, Semyon Smirnov, Nikita Kondratov, etc.

Russian actors complained that Fürst did not teach them anything and could not teach them, since “a foreigner does not know their Russian behavior.” At the same time, the actors were punished for these complaints.

The theatrical business itself is gradually falling into decline, performances are no longer attracting audiences. And in 1706 ᴦ. Fürst's enterprise is closed.

By creating a theater in Russia, Peter intended to achieve the following goals:

1. The theater was supposed to promote his reformist and political activities;

2. The theater was supposed to help familiarize Russian society with European culture, ᴛ.ᴇ. perform cultural and educational functions.

But the theater failed to cope with any of these tasks. The political tasks of the Russian Tsar were alien to the German actors. Their repertoire did not include plays on biblical subjects, which Russian audiences had previously been accustomed to. The theater played exclusively secular plays - adaptations of comedies by Moliere, English, Spanish, and French playwrights. It was thought that these plays would introduce the Russian public to the latest in European drama. The book industry in Russia at that time was poorly developed, there were not enough literate people, and theater in these conditions was supposed to serve as a means of popularizing fiction, as well as instill in the viewer high feelings, grace in their manifestation, delicacy in communication, etc. . But the theater also did not fulfill this cultural and educational task, because the original plays were arbitrarily shortened and simplified, scenes of battles, murders, and executions were brought to the fore. The viewer often had to guess what was happening on stage - this is how the abbreviated content of the plays was distorted.

May 16, 1703 ᴦ. Petersburg was founded under the walls of the newly captured Swedish fortress Nyenschanz, and construction of the new capital of the Russian state began. In 1707 ᴦ. The royal court moves here.
Posted on ref.rf
And since 1712 ᴦ. St. Petersburg officially becomes the capital of Russia, and all government institutions move here.

What about the theater?

Another attempt to use German comedians to create a public theater was made by Peter in St. Petersburg in 1719-1722. Mann's troupe gave performances here. But this attempt also failed for the same reasons as the Moscow one.

In Moscow, the theater building itself ("comedy hall") from 1707 to 1713. was already in a dilapidated state, and in 1713 ᴦ. it is finally demolished. But Peter 1’s sister Natalya Alekseevna orders “all the theatrical equipment” to be transported to her palace, to the village of Preobrazhenskoye. A Russian acting troupe also came here, and the performances continued.

In 1714 ᴦ. Natalya Alekseevna moves to St. Petersburg, to her palace on the banks of the Neva, and next to it she orders the construction of a theater.
Posted on ref.rf
The troupe consisted of 10 Russian actors (from the village of Preobrazhenskoye), who had never been abroad. The repertoire of this theater consisted of plays of spiritual content and plays adapted from translated secular novels. Several plays were written by Natalya Alekseevna herself. This repertoire is an important link between the translated repertoire under Gregory-Kunst-Fürst and the future Russian repertoire - plays by Sumarokov, Lomonosov, Trediakovsky, Ozerov.

In Moscow, the theater business did not stop. It is continued by Tsarina Praskovya Fedorovna (the widow of Ivan Alekseevich, Peter’s brother) and her eldest daughter Ekaterina Ioannovna. Under their leadership, performances are organized in the village of Izmailovo, in the palace of Praskovya Fedorovna. The first Russian serf actors and court amateurs performed here, incl. ʼʼnoble ladies and maidensʼʼ, that is the first Russian actresses. It was a semi-public – semi-court theater, which turned out to be the forerunner of future high-society performances. It ceased to exist with the death of Praskovya Fedorovna (1723).

With the death of Peter (1725 ᴦ.), state concern for the development of Russian professional theater was interrupted for a long time. But interest in the theater no longer disappears.

Theater under Peter I - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Theater under Peter I" 2017, 2018.