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Government of St Petersburg
Committee for Culture
St Petersburg State Museum of Theatre and Music
Main quarters of the Museum
6 Ostrovsky Sq.
Press conference starts at 4 p.m. on March 25, 2011
After presenting the other parts of the new exhibition dedicated to the Silver Age, avant-garde of 1920-30s and the “Iron Curtain” period, Museum announces one more part of its ambitious project, «Theatric legends of St Petersburg»:
«Theatric life in St Petersburg in 19th century» tells about the times when the local scenic tradition begun and national repertoire and artistic school was created. The exhibition presents a number of rarities from the museum collection, which remind us about the first productions of «A Life for the Tsar» by Glinka, «The Government Inspector» by Gogol, Griboyedov’s «Woe from Wit» and «The Mermaid» by Dargomyzhski, operas by Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov and plays by Ostrovsky, Leo Tolstoy and Sukhovo-Kobylin. It all seems to be traditional and what is untraditional indeed that all these extraordinary events were set into the wider context of the modern European theatre. In the first half of the 19th century St Petersburg strived to become the new theatre capital of the world. In one time there performed Russian, French, Italian and German Imperial Companies and almost all world celebrities were on tour in this city. Audience heatedly discussed play of the famous Russian Hamlet, premiere of Alexandrinsky company Vasiliy Karatygin and French actress Elise Rachel, one easily could compare dance of Avdotya Istomina and Maria Taglioni and enjoy singing of Giovanni Rubini or Pauline Viardot as freely as Russians Ossip Retrov, Anna Vorobieva and Nymphadora Semenova. In the middle of the century not only Ostrovsky’s “The Storm” (1859) amazed the public but also, among many other masterpieces, “La Forza del Destino” (1862) commissioned by Russian Court to Giuseppe Verdi. Yet not only the favourite actors and burning issues of the day attracted audience to theatres. It was theatre’s magic world created by designers and scene machinists. To translate theatric atmosphere of those days, magnificent costumes executed by workshops of the Imperial theatres, set models and designs were placed near to newly created art-objects in the new exhibition. The audience will be able to see what actually was theatric design and machinery like in 19th century and to experience still fascinating scenic effects. The new exhibition will help our contemporaries to stare into images and beautiful faces of the great theatric epoch, which is gone.
Author and curator of the exhibition Rosa Sadykhova
Design by «Museum-Exhibition complex» Ltd.
 
   
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