Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2003 The history of Russian vaudeville from 1800 to 1850 Alexander V. Tselebrovski Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Tselebrovski, Alexander V., "The history of Russian vaudeville from 1800 to 1850" (2003). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 3876. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/3876 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. THE HISTORY OF RUSSIAN VAUDEVILLE FROM 1800 TO 1850 A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Theatre By Alexander V. Tselebrovski Perm State Institute of Arts (Russia), 1982 Directing Master Courses at GITIS, Moscow (Russia), 1985 May 2003 To Dr. Leigh Clemons, Dr. Harald Leder, and Dr. Leslie Wade “И дельный разговор зашел про водевиль. Да! водевиль есть вещь, а прочее все гиль.” “And we began to speak about vaudeville. Yes! vaudeville is quite a thing, and all the rest is nil.” (A.S. Griboedov. Woe from Wit, Act 4, Scene 6.) ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many individuals and institutions have helped to bring this project to reality. The Department of Theatre of Louisiana State University provided a very stimulating environment and guidance during the research period. The Interlibrary Borrowing Department of the T. Middleton Library assisted greatly in finding the necessary materials from all over the United States. Mr. M. Ledee and Dr. L. Kuyper-Rushing (Musical Resources of the Middleton Library) put aside their business each time when I needed their professional help. Dr. Harold Leich from the European Division of the Library of Congress took my concerns as his own and found materials extremely important for this work. Mr. Jan Adamczyk from the Slavic Reference Service of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign spent several months looking for necessary periodicals published in the former Soviet Union in 1936; and he found them! Mr. R. Erickson (Paris, France), Mr. R. Lynch (Hammer Gallery, New York), Mr. G. Sukharev (Tickets of Russia, Inc.), and Ms. S. Kotliarenko (Mariinskii Theatre, St-Petersburg, Russia) kindly allowed me to use photographic images from their websites. Dr. L. Stanton (Russian Area Studies, LSU) and a coterie of friends, Mr. J. Smylie is the first among them but not the only, had fun with me in search for American equivalents to the very specific Russian idiomatic expressions necessary for this work. iii Ms. S. Dixon, an LSU grad school editor, helped me (not a native speaker) greatly in formatting my dissertation by her constant encouragement and advices. And at last, this work is dedicated to three persons: Dr. Leigh Clemons, Dr. Harald Leder, and Dr. Les Wade... Without you it would never have happened. Each of you became a part of my life. Each of you made me believe in the best of human race. There are no words to thank you enough for everything. Thank you all. iv PREFACE. ON ORGANIZATION OF THE DISSERTATION AND TRANSLITERATION AND TRANSLATION OF RUSSIAN NAMES, WORDS, AND TERMS For reference purposes this dissertation uses a dual system of notes. The footnotes and the words marked with an asterisk (*) elucidate specific historical, cultural, or linguistic phenomena that might be not immediately understood by an English reader. The English translations of foreign quotations are given also in the footnotes. The numerical notes at the end of each chapter provide the sources of quotations where the names of works by foreign authors are given in the original language with the English translation in parentheses. The appendices presenting the English translation of the original Russian plays provide left side-line numbering to aid the reader in quickly finding the lines analyzed in the dissertation. The capital D, E, or F (which is followed by a dash and a page number) define the SPECIFIC APPENDIX; numbers following the semicolon define the lines of the play. Thus, referring the reader to (D-345; 16-18) would mean that he can find the lines under discussion in Appendix D , page 345, lines 16-18. This dissertation also uses System II, the Library of Congress system for transliteration of modern Russian with the diacritical marks omitted (See Shaw, J. Thomas. The Transliteration of Modern Russian for the English-Language Publications. Madison, Milwaukee, and London: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1967). System II is used consistently throughout the text of the dissertation for all place names and proper names and for words as words in the text proper and for all the citations of the bibliographical material. The names for which v Anglicized spelling is traditionally accepted follow that spelling (Moscow for Moskva, St.-Petersburg for Sankt-Peterburg, and the like). Non-Russian personal names are given in their original spelling (e.g., Eugène Scribe, Jean-François de Laharpe). Names of Russian authors or public figures of non-Russian origin, who made their reputation writing in Russian, are transliterated as Russian (e.g. Fonvizin, Gogol, Bulgarin). For the citation of place of publication for Russian sources, widely accepted abbreviations are used: M. for Moscow, SPb. for St- Petersburg, L. for Leningrad. Most of the translations of the original Russian, French, and German texts are done by the author of the dissertation. In all other cases, the translator’s name is indicated. The photographic images in this dissertation are used with the permission of copyright holders (see Appendix A). The image of the Vaudeville Theatre from J. B. Matthews’ The Theatres of Paris is used in accordance with US Code, Title 17. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................... iii PREFACE. ON ORGANIZATION OF THE DISSERTATION AND TRANSLITERATION AND TRANSLATION OF RUSSIAN NAMES, WORDS, AND TERMS ......................................................................... v LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................... x ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................... xi CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION. VAUDEVILLE IN THE RUSSIAN THEATRE HISTORIOGRAPHY .................................................................. 1 Historical Overview ................................................................................ 1 Origin Of Vaudeville ............................................................................. 13 Vaudeville As Genre ............................................................................ 21 Endnotes to Chapter 1 ......................................................................... 33 CHAPTER 2. THEATRE IN RUSSIA AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY ............................................... 36 Politics and Theatre ............................................................................. 36 The Problem of Narodnost’ in Russian Theatre ................................... 44 Repertoire of the Imperial Theatres ..................................................... 56 Endnotes to Chapter 2 ......................................................................... 63 CHAPTER 3. EMERGENCE OF THE GENRE. ARISTOCRATIC PERIOD OF THE RUSSIAN VAUDEVILLE: 1812-1825: PART ONE .... 66 Prince A. A. Shakhovskoi, First Russian Vaudevillist ........................... 66 Cossack-Versifier; Peasants, or Meeting of the Uninvited; and Lomonosov, or Recruit-Versifier .................................................... 73 Two Teachers or Asinus Asinum Fricat ................................................ 77 Endnotes to Chapter 3 ......................................................................... 94 CHAPTER 4. ARISTOCRATIC PERIOD OF THE RUSSIAN VAUDEVILLE: 1812-1825: PART TWO .......................................................... 96 N. A. Khmelnitskii, the Master of Vaudeville Style ................................ 96 A. I. Pisarev and His Vaudevilles as Weapons in Literary Battle ........ 114 The Busybody, or Know-How Gets the Job Done Best ...................... 127 Endnotes to Chapter 4 ....................................................................... 138 CHAPTER 5. A BAD REPUTATION OF THE GOOD VAUDEVILLE: WHO IS BROTHER WHO IS SISTER OR DECEIT AFTER DECEIT BY A. GRIBOEDOV AND P. VIAZEMSKII ................................... 142 vii Request for a New Vaudeville ............................................................ 144 Music in Who Is Brother Who is Sister ............................................... 152 Narodnost’ of Who Is Brother, Who is Sister ..................................... 156 Endnotes to Chapter 5 ....................................................................... 164 CHAPTER 6. THEATRE DURING THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I: 1825-1855 ............................................................................. 167 Nicholas I and His After-Decembrist Revolt Policy ............................. 167 The Repertoire