Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 469 Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Art Studies: Science, Experience, Education (ICASSEE 2020) Russian Provincial Musical Theatre in the First Quarter of the 20th Century in Saratov: Main Trends and Phenomena Irina Viktorovna Polozova1,* Arina Sergeyevna Chirila2,a 1Saratov State L.V. Sobinov Conservatoire, Saratov, Russia 2Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Iași, Romania aEmail: [email protected] *Corresponding author. Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT Based on the archive materials, the article looks more closely at the development of musical theatre in Russian provinces in the first quarter of the 20th century in Saratov. The study is centred around the main trends in the development of the theatrical life of the city, the projects realized, as well as the personality of Saratov’s artist F.A. Palchinsky – an entrepreneur, stage director and musical critic. Various spheres of his activity reflect the key aspects of the development of Russian musical theatre of the time period in question, and namely popularizing the art of Russian composers, highlighting the didactic function of musical theatre, relying on local performers, especially the younger ones, and aspiring to make musical art widely accessible (Popular theatre). The above-mentioned artistic aims were fulfilled in Palchinsky's creative projects, as well as in numerous reviews in Saratov’s periodicals. The paper arrives at some conclusions concerning the intensity of the development of musical theatre in Russian provinces, the search for new forms of existence of musical theatre and the implementation of innovative directing principles. Keywords: musical theatre, Russian province, F.A. Palchinsky, the first quarter of the 20th century, Saratov, opera, theatre company modern opera, especially the Russian ones (for more I. INTRODUCTION details, see [3]). The performers of the main roles are In the first quarter of the 20th century Russian both well-known musicians from Saratov and those musical theatre sees a period of flourishing and coming from the capital or foreign operatic troupes. dynamic development. Operas and ballets by Russian New theatrical companies and interesting creative composers, the creation of private theatre companies projects are initiated by enthusiastic musicians. Among and troupes, the rise of performing art in musical the many famous people who devoted their lives to th theatre – all these aspects contributed to the realization Saratov’s musical theatre in the first quarter of the 20 of new innovative and often experimental ideas and the century (M. Medvedev, A.M. Gorin-Goryainov, D. renewal of the cultural space of both the capital and Yuzhin etc.) we will single out F.A. Palchinsky – the provincial cities. A good example of this is Saratov’s man who played a substantial role in the development musical theatre which reflects the common trends of the of Saratov’s musical theatre. development of Russian provincial musical theatre. This presupposes the organisation of numerous II. SARATOV'S MUSICAL LIFE AT THE exhibitions, educational lectures, disputes, publication BEGINNING OF THE 20TH CENTURY AS A of polemic articles on the issues of the development of REFLECTION OF COMMON TRENDS IN THE musical culture – the phenomena that are sure to contribute to the enrichment of artistic practice and the DEVELOPMENT OF RUSSIAN MUSICAL CULTURE appearance of new creative projects and ideas [1], [2]. Saratov’s musical life of the first quarter of the 20th century was a bright and dynamic one. There was In this paper we will turn to the first quarter of the Saratov’s branch of the Russian Musical Society with 20th century, when Saratov’s musical theatre goes its musical classes; a musical college opened in 1895, through active development, and the audience has an followed by the first provincial conservatoire in 1912. opportunity to get acquainted with the best examples of Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL. This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license -http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. 23 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 469 The city hosted concerts of chamber and symphonic Saratov’s stages, the beginning of his active interest in music, and among the guest performers were such the city’s musical life goes back to 1890s, as his outstanding musicians as L. Auer, G. Venyavsky, A. personal notes from 1895 until 1906 contain a detailed Yesipova, K. Davydov, S. Prokofiev, A. Rubinshtein, description of repertoire lists, mentioning not only the A. Skryabin, P. Sarasate, V. Safonov, N. Figner etc. As name of the performance and its date, but also the for Saratov’s performers, we have to mention the names names of the performers (and namely, their initials), of A. Vinogradsky, V. Zayts, A. Palitse, E. Tsendler, O. beneficiaries etc. Chaban, S. Eksner etc. The stages of Saratov’s theatres constantly presented musical theatrical performances The analysis of Palchinsky’s lists shows that from a vast spectrum of classical and modern works. performances were given almost daily, by touring theatre companies. A year had two or three operatic Musical theatre was highly popular. Archive seasons: the first one, as a rule, opened in the second documents confirm that at that time 2-3 operatic troupes half of November, the second one – the spring one – used to perform simultaneously on Saratov’s stages. It used to start in April or early May. Besides, there were should be mentioned in this connection that by the also occasional summer theatrical seasons. Thus, beginning of the 20th century there had already been operatic performances could be seen during the most formed a large group of educated people who part of the year. understood the issues of musical art really well and could appreciate the quality of performance. Among the Saratov’s operatic repertoire on the verge of the centuries was quite vast. Foreign operas performed in constant attendees of musical theatrical performances were professional musicians, university professors, the city included the works by Verdi, Meyerbeer, students, as well as a vast number of merchants who not Rossini, Saint-Saëns, Bizet, Gounod, Wagner, infrequently spent substantial sums of money on the Moniuszko, Donizetti, Mozart, Delibes, Tomas, development of the city’s musical life. Thus, merchant Massenet, Humperdinck, Mascagni, Leoncavallo and G.V. Ovechkin invested his money in the construction Puccini. As for the Russian composers, theatres staged of a theatre building which hosted performances until Borodin, Rubinstein, Tсhaikovsky, Napravnik, 1918. Verstovsky, Glinka, Serov, Dargomyzhsky, Rimsky- Korsakov, Musorgsky and Rebikov. Compositions performed in Saratov were quite popular in Russian III. MUSICAL THEATRE IN SARATOV AND THE musical theatre of that period. In his notes on the season PERSONALITY OF F.A. PALCHINSKY of 1905/1906 Palchinsky provides us with a brief Feodor Akhimovich Palchinsky is a personality statistical analysis of the operatic repertoire: “Russian: whose name is occasionally referred to, in the studies 10 composers – 17 operas – 62 performances... Foreign: on local history centred around Saratov’s musical life, 12 composers – 19 operas – 65 performances…” [8]. as a musical critic and the organiser of several operatic The doubtless favourite among Russian composers was theatrical companies in 1905-1923 [4], [5], [6], [7]. He Tchaikovsky: his 6 operas were performed 35 times played an important role in the development of the during the season; his foreign counterpart was Verdi: city’s musical life, contributed to the initiation of a vast his 5 operas were performed 11 times, and the two audience into the academic art, and aspired to staged operettas – 2 times. modernise musical theatre by all possible means. Together with operatic performances, high The State Archive of Saratov region holds a popularity was achieved by operetta (or оперетка – the collection of F.A. Palchinsky’s personal documents, the way it was called by Saratov’s musicians of that study of which allows us to fill in several blank spaces period). Palchinsky’s list comprises data on the operetta in the history of the development of Saratov’s musical repertoire of 1905/1906, which contains 35 names, life in particular and that of Russian provinces in including some famous works by Offenbach (“La belle general. These documents make it possible to Hélène”, “La Périchole”, “Orphée aux enfers”), Strauss reconstruct some pages of Palchinsky’s life, to identify (“Der Zigeunerbaron”), as well as Planquette’s “Les his aesthetical preferences and innovative ideas, and to cloches de Corneville”, Hervé’s “Le petit Faust”, recreate numerous aspects of concert and theatrical life Audan’s “La mascotte”, Zeller’s “Der Vogelhändler”, of the city based on the study of his critical notes in and Decker-Schenk’s “Khadzhi Murat”. Quite Saratov’s periodicals. surprisingly, Verstovsky’s opera “Askold's Grave” is also on the list. This can be accounted for by the fact Biographical data on Palchinsky are extremely that оперетка was understood as a synthetic scarce. It is a well-known fact that he was a mechanical performance where an important role was attributed to engineer and in the period in question worked in musical pieces. Saratov, in the mobilization department of the Ryazan- Ural railway. Judging by Palchinsky’s notes in which The observation of Saratov’s theatrical life, he presents a list of performances of various troupes on acquaintance with its repertoire and its analysis in the 24 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 469 coming years proved to be of crucial significance for Palchinsky published his reviews on Saratov’s the composer’s critical and directorial activity. musical events not only in the local press, but also in Moscow. Thus, the State Archive of Saratov region In 1905 Palchinsky becomes a famous personality holds his correspondence with the former conductor of in the city’s musical life.