Court theatre. folk drama
In the 17th century, the first oral dramas developed, simple in plot, reflecting popular moods. The puppet comedy about Petrushka (his first name was Vanka-Ratatouille) told about the adventures of a clever merry fellow who was not afraid of anything in the world. The theater really appeared in the 17th century - the court and school theater.
court theater
The emergence of the court theater was caused by the interest of the court nobility in Western culture. This theater appeared in Moscow under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The first performance of the play Artaxerxes Action (the story of the biblical Esther) took place on October 17, 1672. Initially, the court theater did not have its own premises, scenery and costumes were transferred from place to place. The first performances were staged by pastor Gregory from the German settlement, the actors were also foreigners. Later, they began to forcibly attract and train Russian "youths". Their salaries were paid irregularly, but they did not skimp on scenery and costumes. The performances were distinguished by great splendor, sometimes accompanied by playing musical instruments and dancing. After the death of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the court theater was closed, and performances resumed only under Peter I.
school theater
In addition to the court theater, in Russia in the 17th century there was also a school theater at the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, in theological seminaries and schools in Lvov, Tiflis, and Kyiv. The plays were written by teachers, and students staged historical tragedies, allegorical dramas close to European miracles, interludes - satirical everyday scenes in which protest against the social system sounded. Interludes of the school theater laid the foundation for the comedy genre in the national dramaturgy. At the origins of the school theater was a famous political figure, playwright Simeon Polotsky.
The appearance of the court school theater expanded the scope of the spiritual life of Russian society.
Theater of the early 18th century
At the behest of Peter I, in 1702, the Public Theater was created, designed for the mass public. Especially for him, not on Red Square in Moscow, a building was built - "Comedy Temple". The German troupe of I. Kh. Kunst gave performances there. The repertoire included foreign plays that were not successful with the public, and the theater ceased to exist in 1706, as the subsidies of Peter I ceased.
Conclusion
A new page in the history of the performing arts of the peoples of our Motherland was opened by serf and amateur theaters. In the serf troupes that existed from the end of the 18th century, vaudeville, comic operas, and ballets were staged. On the basis of serf theaters, private enterprises arose in a number of cities. The Russian theatrical art had a beneficial effect on the formation of the professional theater of the peoples of our Motherland. The troupes of the first professional theaters included talented amateurs - representatives of the democratic intelligentsia.
Theater in Russia in the 18th century gained immense popularity, became the property of the broad masses, another public sphere of people's spiritual activity.
Imposture as a Phenomenon of National History and Culture
In 1598, and not in 1613, during the accession of the Romanovs, as many today believe, for the first time in Russian history, Boris Godunov was elected to the reign, that is, with the consent of all free and capable estates.
He owes his nomination not so much to his nobility of origin, which he did not differ in (according to legend, the ancestor of the Godunovs, the Tatar Murza-Chet, arrived to serve the Moscow Grand Duke in the 14th century), but to his personal, business and moral qualities. As the largest Russian historian of the XX century wrote. S.F. Platonov: "Boris in his activities was predominantly a smart civil businessman and a skilled diplomat. Gifted with a soft nature, he did not like military affairs, avoided war whenever possible and almost never led the army himself" (Lectures on Russian history. St. Petersburg, 1913, p. 249).
It was precisely these qualities that the country, tormented by oprichnina, wars and devastation, needed most of all. One thing was required from the king - the appeasement of the "churned sea". Boris skillfully solved this problem.
He focused on the social sphere, or, in the language of that time, the protection of "widows and orphans." He took a number of vigorous measures to restore trade and industry. Moreover, he was not afraid to attract foreigners to Rus', especially those who knew the business of industry. Went on benefits to those who developed production. He sought to ensure the security of messages, improve police order. Eliminate all sorts of administrative abuses.
Such a "sympathetic character" (S. Platonov) distinguished the state activity of B. Godunov, extremely consonant with the needs of the country's withdrawal from the Time of Troubles. Signs of stabilization of society were not long in coming. And this despite two consecutive - 1601 and 1602 - lean years.
And here it is impossible to pass by the most curious aspect of our history, repeated with some unhealthy synchronicity. As soon as the prerequisites began to take shape in the country for the estate - class appeasement, the stabilization of economic, and after it political life, the transition to a consistent, and not jerky, evolutionary development of society, then immediately inside and outside there were forces that were frankly not to the liking of such turn of events.
Recall the "cliff" at the beginning of the XIX century. under Alexander I, the reforms of Speransky, designed to radically change the system of government of the country; the emperor's grandson, Alexander II, who was killed by the Narodnaya Volya at the time of his decision to voluntarily limit autocratic omnipotence by the constitution prepared by Loris-Melikov; the assassination of P. Stolypin, who barely brought the country out of revolutionary upheavals and almost established a normal rhythm of economic life.
One gets the impression that the country was deliberately driven into a corner just at the moment when it was ready to begin normal, "civilized" development. They created artificial obstacles, which each time she overcame with super-stress, through painful convulsions, at the cost of incredible losses and the loss of entire generations. Who else, besides us, is capable of being able to rise to his feet after such a thing, and even stand up to his full height?
Applied to the 17th century. Borisov’s enemies of the pacification of society became, Firstly, tribal boyars. Later, the fierce enemy of B. Godunov, in contrast to him, was really self-appointed, who proclaimed himself tsar without any Council, V. Shuisky, frankly admitted that the impostor False Dmitry was called in only to get rid of Boris.
Secondly, deacon - the highest official layer of Muscovy. The chronicler testified that Boris "brought upon himself the indignation of decorous - bosses." This de and "destroyed the beauty of the flourishing kingdom."
Third, our closest neighbors, in particular, Catholic Poland. The magnates of the Commonwealth financed False Dmitry, mobilized to his side detachments of the then lumpen - rootless Cossacks and runaway serfs loitering on the outskirts of Muscovy.
Convinced of the impossibility of overthrowing Boris openly, as they say, democratically, by convening a Council, the boyar and bureaucratic "revanchists", as well as their foreign well-wishers, relied on forceful methods. There was only one way to remove Godunov, while preserving in the eyes of the people the appearance of decency or, as we would say today, legitimacy, by opposing him, the elected king, with the tribal king, that is, a representative of the Kalita dynasty - in this case, False Dmitry.
Appearance
Let us dwell on the impostor himself, since, in my opinion, in him, and not only in the Time of Troubles, the origins of many of those negative phenomena, which subsequently grew like thistles on domestic soil, causing a sharp rejection of the Russians. I am sure that without the imposture of the Time of Troubles, our history would not be completely different, but much cleaner, closer to the national mentality. Despite the abundance of research, who False Dmitry was remained a mystery. His namelessness is another confirmation that the initiators of imposture do not need a person, but only the guise of an impostor.
Pushkin officially used the version of the impostor, put forward in January 1605, when False Dmitry went to Moscow. According to her, a really real person, a fugitive monk, who was the son of a Galician small estate nobleman Grigory Otrepyev, was declared an impostor.
The attitude of the poet towards him is characteristic. Unlike other traitors to his people, say Mazepa, Pushkin clearly sympathized with the literary impostor. Obviously, he was fascinated by the situation itself, which fashioned a figure so unusual for that time. In the image of Otrepiev, the poet combined the seemingly incompatible: the archaic foundations of imposture with the type of adventurer who had a sufficiently developed self-consciousness to not only plan, but radically change his social role.
Pushkin called Grigory a "dear impostor", singled out in him a special talent, a desire to live to the fullest extent of his daring, valiant strength, a desire to amuse himself in battles, to feast at the royal meal. He even "forced" Pimen to transfer the work of his life to Otrepyev, apparently considering him a completely acceptable candidate for continuing such an important work in the eyes of the poet as the compilation of annals.
The real impostor clearly did not draw on his literary imprint. It is authentically known that his trail originates in the Vishnevetsky estate. Here, in 1603, a young man appeared, posing as a miraculously saved Tsarevich Dmitry.
Why Vishnevetsky? Old Prince Adam was married to the Lithuanian Anna Glinskaya. Her daughter Elena is known to have been the mother of Ivan the Terrible. It is no coincidence that Pushkin put into the mouth of the impostor the phrase: "The shadow of the Terrible adopted me."
By the time False Dmitry appeared in Moscow, many Glinsky relatives lived, who considered themselves deprived of the "upstart" Godunov and ready to play along with the impostor in the fight against Boris, help financially and politically, reinforcing the myth of the miraculous salvation of the son of Ivan the Terrible.
Personality
According to contemporaries, upon accession to the Moscow throne in 1605, False Dmitry was 25 years old. He looked like a strong, stocky, broad-shouldered man. The face is yellow, wide, on which a thick nose with a wart and a large mouth stand out.
Contemporaries quickly discerned in False Dmitry lust for power and vanity, a commitment to luxury and feasts. Wanting to get closer to the boyars, he constantly organized crowded hunts, followed by many hours of plentiful libations.
Academician M. Tikhomirov singled out at least three among the true merits of the impostor. First, the impostor was a Russian man. Although he spoke Polish, he wrote in this language with spelling errors that were unforgivable for a person of his rank. The Poles did not trust him. Chancellor of Poland Jan Zamoy-sky, having learned about the adventures of False Dmitry in Russia, ironically remarked: "Is this a comedy by Plautus or Terence?" The Polish Sejm forbade Poles to join the impostor's armed detachments. King Sigismund helped him mainly with money.
Secondly, the impostor was well acquainted with military affairs, which is why Tikhomirov suggested that he came from Cossacks or small estate nobles. Thirdly, despite the opinion that the impostor was corrupt to the Vatican, he retained respect for Orthodoxy. It was rumored that even before coming to Moscow, False Dmitry, without too much publicity, made a large contribution to one of the Orthodox churches in Lvov.
His appearance in 1604 on the southern borders of the Muscovite state literally paralyzed the entire society. Comparatively numerous (up to 20 thousand people), but poorly armed and completely untrained detachments of the impostor, easily defeated Godunov's regular army units sent against them, led by experienced tsarist governors. At the same time, frequent cases of their transition to the side of the impostor were noted. The most shameful episode occurred in April 1605, when the units that besieged False Dmitry near Kromy unexpectedly surrendered their positions.
This would never have happened if the regular army, as well as the rest of society, had not been in some kind of "moral bewilderment" (S. Platonov). This "perplexity" or the problem of choosing which of the rulers to give preference to, in different variations, will be repeated more than once in our history, confusing contemporaries and descendants.
Godunov himself did not live to see the shame of being expelled from the throne by an impostor. On April 13, 1605, he died suddenly, passing the throne to his son Fyodor. But the awareness of the ease with which False Dmitry won the favor of the Muscovites, of course, poisoned Boris the last years of his life. According to the historian, the king dies "with a bitter consciousness that he and his family are deprived of any ground under their feet and defeated by the ghost of the legitimate king."
IN MOSCOW
The Muscovites greeted the impostor almost with delight. Again, almost a natural feature of the national character: if only someone, only the current ones off their shoulders! Moreover, False Dmitry tried to win over not only Moscow nobility, but also common people. From him originates such a strange, but very popular phenomenon among us today, as the distribution of impracticable promises to the right and left. Later, many wise sociologists will christen it with a little-understood, but "scientific" phrase - populism.
The impostor, having entered Moscow, immediately ordered (of course, no one could either confirm or refute how his order was carried out, but it doesn’t matter, the main thing is to order) to resolve all civil cases without red tape and bribes.
He tried to "democratize" the royal appearance, abandoning the magnificent royal departure, which was due to him numerous servants. He began defiantly, like an ordinary archer, to ride a horse. (Well, why not a forerunner of the future rejection of the government limousine and trips on an ordinary trolley bus?)
But most of all, the Muscovites' imagination was struck by the impostor's walking, alone and without guards, through the city streets, especially during the "holy" for any noble nobleman, not to mention the king, the afternoon "dead hour".
From the impostor went another shameful tradition - to assert itself at the expense of others. More precisely, at the expense of their predecessors. False Dmitry began not simply by vilifying everything, including the positive, that was done by Godunov, but by grossly desecrating the very memory of him as an Orthodox sovereign. He ordered the ashes of Boris to be thrown out of the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin, where the remains of the dead Russian tsars were buried. Then destroy his house in Moscow. And even expel Borisov's relatives and friends from the capital.
It is regrettable that in this defeat of Russian traditions and the moral foundations of the people, the impostor was assisted not only by the hypocritical boyars, but also by the Orthodox Church. Without her silence, the accomplishment of such blasphemous deeds would be simply unthinkable.
The Church did not warn M. Naguya against sin, who by that time had taken the tonsure under the name of nun Martha. Nagaya indulged in the comedy of "filial love" masterfully played by the impostor for her unforgettable "mother", preferring a cramped monastic cell and fast food to the Kremlin rooms and royal hospitality. This, however, did not prevent Nagoya, when the situation changed and False Dmitry was removed, right there, exactly six months later, to renounce the "son", branding him with the last words. So there is nothing to be surprised at the current enlightened shifters. They trade "only" convictions and conscience, while the leaders of the turmoil No. 1 did not disdain to throw the memory of their own children at the politicking.
Finally, for the first time after the Horde yoke, the "tsar", who considered himself a Russian, brought an armada of foreign parasites behind him. Other Russian sovereigns also led foreigners to Rus', especially under the Horde, but this phenomenon never had such a massive character as under False Dmitry, and most importantly, it did not pursue the goal of outright destruction of the primordially Russian lands.
To the father of his wife Marina Mnishek, with whom the impostor did not hesitate to marry in the Kremlin, the Sandomierz governor Yuri, he promised a million zlotys to cover debts; Marina herself - to give possession of the Pskov and Smolensk lands. By the way, under the impostors, almost everyone who could, and almost everything that could be robbed, was robbed.
False Dmitry quickly "molted". Even those who recently contributed to his promotion and glorification fled from the Kremlin. "Mavr" did his job - he removed the Borisov tribe from the throne, and now no one needs it.
The corrupt boyars, headed by V. Shuisky, incapable of anything but malicious intrigue, plotted against the impostor and initiated a "popular uprising." On May 17, 1606, in the turmoil around the Kremlin, False Dmitry was killed. Shuisky, who took the reins of power, ordered to dig up the buried corpse of the impostor, burn it, load the cannon with ashes and shoot into space.
The new period of Russian history, which began approximately in the 17th century and related to the entire life of the Russian people, also affected theatrical art. The Russian theater has entered the "mature" stage of its existence. It differed from the playful one in that theatrical art became spectacular. Public speaking has become a profession. Oral dramaturgy was replaced by written and bookish. Special buildings were built for theatrical performances.
The folk oral play theater continued to exist, but at the same time, church-school, boyar and royal court theaters began to be organized, although they differed from each other, but influenced one another. Their sharp distinction occurred only in the 18th century.
The masses of the people were the first to create a new type of theater. Its initiators were urban slobozhans, petty clergy and the Volga-Don Cossacks. In the 30s of the 17th century, artisans who left the countryside for seasonal work in the cities had their own puppet theater, which later received the name of the Petrushka Theater. In the Petrushka Theater, it was told about how a young guy, having come to the city to earn money, succumbs to the city's temptations and begins to walk and act outrageously. The end of the performance corresponded to the religious views of that time: the devil took the young man to hell.
Gradually, the content of Petrushka's performances changed, more and more new options appeared. But the main thing remained unchanged: Petrushka is a cheerful, mischievous, dexterous and invincible hero of the folk puppet comedy. Spectators watched with delight as he fooled and defeated the clergy and government officials. For a long time he remained a favorite hero of the puppet theater.
At the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, an oral folk drama appeared on the legendary theme " About King Herod." It tells how Herod, fearing the seizure of power by the Jews, ordered the destruction of all Jewish babies. For such an atrocity, the king was executed and doomed to eternal suffering in hell. This play was a success, because the memory of the atrocities of the tsars Ivan the Terrible and Boris Godunov, on whose orders Tsarevich Dmitry was allegedly killed, was preserved among the people.
The next oral drama that came down to us was composed, like many songs among the Cossacks, and dedicated to the beloved folk hero Stepan Razin and his Astrakhan campaign. This oral drama had several titles. The most common of them is "Boat".
All the plays of the folk theater were each in their own way directed against the authorities.
The church-school theater in Russia was created by the learned monk Simeon of Polotsk. In the mid-60s of the 17th century, he wrote the comedy The Prodigal Son. This play was directed against young people whom their parents sent to study abroad in those years, and they were drinking and wasting their father's money. The play urged them to come to their senses and repent. This play was the first Russian written drama. The development of Russian dramaturgy in the near future followed the path indicated by Simeon of Polotsk.
The court theater was created for the amusement of the royal court. A special building for the theater was built - Amusement Chamber (1613). At first they tried to use the art of buffoons. But it soon turned out that it did not satisfy the increased tastes of the audience, and besides, the buffoons were not pleasers of the royal power. Therefore, they turned to Simeon Polotsky. But he was unable to create a permanent professional theater. Then Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich decided to turn to foreigners, and from 1660 they began to invite German actors to Moscow. In 1664, performances began to be given by their forces in Moscow, in the villages of Izmailovo and Preobrazhensky. In 1672, the organization of performances was entrusted to the teacher of the German settlement Gregory.
Gregory staged a comedy about "Esther", and liked the performance, but the court needed a national Russian theater. Therefore, a year later, the tsar ordered the same Gregory and two other teachers of the German school to train a troupe of Russian youths. Women did not perform on stage then. In 1675, after the death of Gregory, the troupe became completely Russian. All the plays had a political character - they called the boyars to humility, submission to the tsar and awakened patriotic feelings. Among the latter was a remake of Marlo's tragedy "Tamerlane the Great" under the title "Comedy about Bayazet and Tamerlane". The repertoire included plays in such a way that the viewer, watching the performance, would find a connection between the stage action and the events that excite him. Such events for that time were the war with Turkey and the struggle against the boyars.
After the death of the tsar, the performances organized by him ceased, but the development of the theater in Russia did not die out. Theatrical performances were arranged under the ruler Princess Sophia and the young Peter I.
Having taken up the task of transforming Russia, Peter I for the first time organized a public theater (that is, not only for the tsar and courtiers).
Theatrical art under Tsars Alexei and Peter I was distinguished by a desire for stage truth. The plays were oversaturated with action, heroic deeds, comic scenes, and so on. This was especially liked by the wide urban audience, who began to organize their own urban public performances. But the state theater was truly created only in 1756 thanks to the energy of the actor F.G. Volkov and writer playwright A.P. Sumarokov.
3 Organization of the court theater of Alexei Mikhailovich
In 1672, in Moscow, at the court of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, a kind of theater that had never been seen before in Rus' was created. It was a theater of the type that developed in the West during the Renaissance and whose appearance marked a new stage in the history of the world theater, defining the character of the pan-European theater as a secular and professional theater. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich loved beautiful and spectacular spectacles, appreciated the pomp and expressiveness of the court ceremonial, and even introduced features of theatrical festivity into the falconry charter he developed. It can be safely assumed that the boyar Artamon Matveev, one of the most progressive and enlightened statesmen of his time, a lover of music and theater, also played a big role in the creation of the theater (5).
Creating a court theater was not an easy task. There were no Russian people in Moscow familiar with the experience of organizing and operating a professional theater of this type. There were no actors. There were no plays. There was no theater itself, that is, a theater building, however, in Ukraine, in the Kyiv Theological Academy, there was a church school theater that reached a high level. But the Russian court needed a secular theater. It was decided to turn to the "foreigners". In the spring of 1672, energetic preparations began for the creation of a court theater, a royal decree was announced, ordering the construction of a “comedy mansion” and “perpetrate a comedy, and comedy from the Bible to act from the Bible book" Esther ". Gregory supervised the production of plays and the training of actors. He found assistants, wrote the play "Artaxerxes Action" based on the plot of the biblical book "Esther", gathered a troupe of students from the school he led in the German Quarter. On October 17, 1672, the first performance took place. The success of the performance decided the further fate of the theatre. The performance of "Esther" or "Artaxerxes action" has firmly entered the repertoire of the "comedy mansion". And after that, the theater staged a number of productions. The new "fun" became an integral part of court life, it was strictly closed, had a palace character. The courtiers were informed about the performances by "delivered falconers" and "rubber grooms". In 1676, after the death of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the theater was closed. Created at the court of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the theater was a complex combination of various theatrical systems: the court theater, the church and school theater, and the so-called “English comedians” theater, which is widespread in the West.
Church activities
The Middle Ages are considered to be the time when the formidable seal of the church lay on everything, fettering the manifestations of human thoughts and feelings ... But who are these cheerful people who roam the roads, enter the knight's castles, gather a crowd around them in the squares of cities? These are folk actors - histrions. Their art is varied. They are jugglers, and acrobats, and storytellers, and trainers, and musicians, and singers.
These first folk actors, showing comical scenes, not only amused the audience, but often caustically ridiculed those who oppressed and oppressed ordinary people. Therefore, the performance of folk actors was severely persecuted and prohibited by many decrees issued by the feudal lords and the church.
Realizing that decrees alone cannot kill the love of the people for spectacles, the church decides to force the art of the theater to serve its goals. In order to attract more people to church services, they begin to supplement them with separate scenes from the life of Christ and the saints, which are first played out by disguised priests. Subsequently, for the performance of certain roles (mainly the inhabitants of hell - devils), persons of a non-clerical rank are also invited.
This is how the church theater arises - the main form of theatrical art in Europe of the Middle Ages.
From the beginning of the 9th century, during the church service - the liturgy - they began to play out the most dramatic episodes from the Holy Scriptures. These performances were called liturgical drama. But in the XII century they were forbidden to be shown in churches. The action was taken out to the porch in front of the temple and was now played out for a larger number of spectators. Such spectacles came to be called semi-liturgical drama.
The further development of the church theater leads to the mysteries - the most massive type of theatrical spectacle.
Mystery arose in the second half of the 13th century. In its religious content, it was associated with the church theater, but the performances were no longer staged by the clergy, but by artisans and artisans. Women's roles in the mysteries were played not by men, as in the ancient theater or Shakespeare's theater, but by women. The whole city watched with joyful excitement as scenery was erected on the square. They began to be built long before that holiday or fair, when the performance was scheduled. During the holidays, a noisy crowd gathers in the square. Next to the heavy velvet of rich townspeople are the simple clothes of the villagers, residents of the surrounding villages, who also came to the city to watch the holiday; in some places, knightly armor sparkles. The eyes of all the people gathered are no longer riveted to the church, not to the porch, but to separate pavilions, where the spectacle takes place. Sometimes it is taken out to the very square, and then the audience becomes, as it were, participants in the performance.
What are these performances about?
The duration of the mystery is all ages from the “creation of the world”. Therefore, the text of the mysteries contained up to 70 thousand verses, and the performance could last from 2 to 20 days. The place of action of the mysteries is the whole Universe. The spectators moved from gazebo to gazebo, following the development of the action, which was transferred from paradise to the king's palace, from ancient Rome to a tavern or to Noah's ark.
Sometimes the audience did not have to move from their place - the theater itself came to the viewer. One by one, wagons drove into the square, on which the scenes of the play were successively played out. The directors of the mysteries strove for plausibility and effects. If, for example, a scene of the global flood was depicted, the square was flooded with water.
The enthusiasm of the crowd reached its limit when a noisy crowd of devils poured into the square in tongues of flame with a cry and laughter from the hellish mouth open in a monstrous grin. Witty jokes alternated with acrobatic performances and skits on topical everyday topics. The text for them, as a rule, was improvised by the actors themselves right here on the square. In these scenes one could also meet the echoes of folk games and rituals.
Scenes were called inserts, or stuffing of mysteries - minced meat. Hence the word "farce", which gave its name to the late independent form of the performance of the Middle Ages, which by the 16th century had become the dominant type of theatrical spectacle.
Farce is the most democratic genre of medieval theater. The authors and performers of farces reproduced real pictures of the life and customs of their time. Farce performances were full of sharp satire, cheerful, juicy folk humor and enjoyed great success with the public.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, moralizing performances were widely spread - morality, where allegorical figures acted as characters: stinginess with a golden bag, selfishness, constantly looked in the mirror, love, carrying a heart in its hands.
An asset that traces its history back to the 17th century. It was then that the formation of the basic principles of theatrical performances began and the foundation was laid for this type of art in Russia.
Origins of Russian theater
The Russian people have always been famous for their ability to diversify their leisure time. Since ancient times, fairs and holidays were held in Rus', at which buffoons became the main characters. This is how the people called artists, among whom were singers, musicians, and actors.
Usually, theatrical performances were timed to coincide with some kind of church or, however, over time, festivities could be arranged without any reason. Buffoons were people without shelter and money, they often gathered in separate groups and went around cities and villages in order to earn money. In their performances, they used various, psaltery), dolls, home-made costumes.
A little later, the artists, coming to the new city, erected a special building on its square, where they lived and received the audience. Such a building became known as a booth, and subsequently all theatrical performances received the same name. The buffoons' repertoire included social satire, jokes, ballads, and fairy tales.
And although with the advent of a real theater, the attitude towards booths became sharply negative and negative, one should not forget about the influence that old Russian entertainment had on the development of the theater.
Elements of the theater that arose thanks to folk performances
Since the theater in the 17th century in Russia was just beginning its long journey, many elements and details were adopted from buffoons and taken from folk performances.
Firstly, these are theatrical premises. The first such hall was the Amusement Chamber, where buffoons were invited to perform since 1613. In full, such performances could not be called a theater, because they were of a circus nature with an abundance of humor and various tricks.
Secondly, stage platforms. During their performances, buffoons gathered a large crowd of people around them, and it became necessary to demonstrate their talents on some kind of elevation so that all people could see it. The first stage was built for a puppet show.
Thirdly, oral dramas. Buffoons performed works written by the people. Thus was born the famous hero Petrushka.
Court theater of the 17th century
Even the king during his reign thought about creating a court theater. However, to implement this idea, foreign specialists were needed, since there were no noble playwrights and artists in Rus' who could serve Melpomene with dignity.
In 1644, a troupe of actors arrived in Russia from Strasbourg and spent a month preparing their performance. However, for unknown reasons, they were expelled from the country.
A full-fledged theater in the 17th century in Russia appeared under the idea of the boyar Artamon Matveev, who often visited Europe and saw what art could be. The first Russian theater of the 17th century began its work in 1672.
The pastor from the German settlement Johann Gottfried Gregory, on the orders of Matveev, gathered a troupe of actors, consisting of men and boys, in a few weeks, and gave them lessons in dramatic art. He also wrote the first play based on the biblical stories about Esther.
A real theater stage was built in the village of Preobrazhensky. The premiere of the performance took place on October 17. The performance went on for ten hours, but the tsar, the boyars, and the tsarina and her retinue sat through to the end.
In 1673 they moved to the Kremlin. The playwright was well rewarded for his work and hastened to start writing a new play. This time he wrote about Judith, also using a biblical story. Theater in the 17th century in Russia became the main entertainment of the king.
After Gregory's death in 1675, his assistant Givner, who created several successful dramatic productions, became the head of the court theater. However, the Russian court theater of the 17th century ceased to exist in 1676, after the death of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich.
school theater
Theater in the 17th century in Russia was just beginning its rapid development, including at religious educational institutions. This became possible with the feasible participation of the church, which sought to strengthen its position among the people.
The first school theaters were opened at the Kiev-Mohyla and Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy. Religious performances formed the basis of the repertoire, but there was also a place for an interlude. Satire affected the interests of the clergy, and eventually school theaters ceased to exist closer to the 18th century.
The school theater also influenced the traditions. Sideshow became the prototype of modern comedy. Actors obeyed the principles of classicism in their productions, and also used symbols, including in clothing.
Foreign tours
Theater in the 17th century in Russia adopted invaluable experience from foreign touring troupes in Italy, Prussia and France. Thanks to them, the triumph of spiritual thought was accomplished, they were the sources of social and creative development.
With the coming to power, the theater, painting, music of the 17th century were doomed to a long stagnation, since the new king had little interest in art. But fate decreed that the age of his reign was short-lived.
Peter the Great, who ascended the throne, gave a new round to the development of theater and art in general in Russia.
IMPERIAL THEATERS, Russian theaters that were under the direct subordination and patronage of the imperial court and at its maintenance. These included court and public theaters. The first court theater appeared in 1672 at the court of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (it lasted until 1676). The first public theater was opened under Tsar Peter I in Moscow in 1702 (it existed until 1707). In the 1720s, a significant staff of musicians was established at the court, and at the end of 1731 an Italian troupe was sent to Moscow. In the mid-1730s, all court artists - comedy, intermedia, opera and ballet - united under the name "Italian Company" (not all were Italians, but mostly "from foreigners"). In 1740, the German comedy troupe under the direction of K. Neuber was kept by the imperial court for about a year, and in 1742 the French Comedy was issued to the court. Gradually, domestic performers began to penetrate into the "Italian Company": in 1738 the first Russian dance school was opened and a Russian ballet troupe appeared. On August 30 (September 10), 1756, the “Russian Theater for the Presentation of Tragedies and Comedies” was established, which marked the beginning of the national professional dramatic art (and the continuous existence of the imperial public theater). The difference between the court and public imperial theaters was that the courtiers, being in complete subordination to the imperial court, gave performances, first of all, for a narrow, court circle of spectators. Sometimes ordinary nobles were allowed into the court theater, and in special cases even “noble merchants”, while court ceremonial etiquette was necessarily observed: dress code, placement of spectators according to ranks, etc. Almost all classes had access to public imperial theaters for money. The imperial theaters were financially supported by the treasury: actors and other servants were paid guaranteed salaries, performances were played in a room that belonged to the treasury. But, despite this, the existence of the first Russian public imperial theater was very difficult both materially and organizationally. As a result, the first director of the theater A.P. Sumarokov achieved in 1759 his transfer to the court department (with all the features of the activity of the court theater, that is, limiting the circle of spectators, a certain repertoire policy, strict subordination of court life, etc., but at the same time “Particular caretakers” were ordered “to continue to let them in without money”).
In 1766, Empress Catherine II established the Directorate of Imperial Theaters, which united all court troupes and orchestras under the direction of director I.P. Elagin, who developed the “Staff for all theaters, and cameras, and ballroom music belonging to people.” This first "State" included: opera and chamber music, ballet, ballroom music, French theater, Russian theater, people belonging to the theater and artisans. The period of compulsory service for the main categories of artists was set at 10 years, after which they could retire (but not all actors relied on it and were approved by the imperial cabinet). There were students at the orchestra, ballet and Russian troupes. In 1779 V. I. Bibikov was appointed director of the Imperial Theatre. In 1782, an attempt was made to reorganize the administration of the imperial theatre, since the deficit in the Directorate's budget reached considerable proportions. In this regard, in 1783 in St. Petersburg, instead of the Directorate, a Committee was created that manages spectacles and music, with a collegial form of management. At that time, three types of theaters existed in St. Petersburg: the Hermitage - an indoor court theater; Bolshoy (Stone) - a public court, which hosted free performances, where the public got, as before, on tickets from the Court Office and was accommodated "by rank" (here, performances "for the people for money" were sometimes given, as in the city theater ); The Small (Wooden) Theater on the Tsaritsyn Meadow is a public city theater (but subordinate to the Committee), where the audience got "for money" by buying tickets. At the beginning of 1784, the "Legislations of the Committee for those belonging to the Court Theater" were developed, containing 16 points, most of which related to actors. It was stipulated how many days and weeks were given to study large and small roles, how many “trials” to arrange for plays, how and with what to fine for non-attendance and being late for auditions and performances, which dress the actor should have his own, and which one should be from the theater pantry, and etc. In 1786, the Committee was replaced by the Main Directorate of Spectacles and Music, headed by director S. F. Strekalov; in 1791-1799 this position was held by N. B. Yusupov, in 1799 - by N. P. Sheremetev (see Sheremetev's article), in 1799-1819 - by L. N. Naryshkin (see Naryshkina's article). In 1805, after the fire of the Moscow Petrovsky Theater, when Moscow was left without a public theater, and the troupe without a building and livelihood, Naryshkin filed an imperial petition to join the Moscow Theater to the Imperial Directorate.
In 1806, the Imperial Theater was established in Moscow, which was administered by the general St. Petersburg Directorate. New actors were added to the old troupe of the Petrovsky Theater, mostly from serfs bought from their owners (in particular, from A. E. Stolypin), and Pashkov’s house was rented for performances (at the corner of Bolshaya Nikitskaya and Mokhovaya streets). At the beginning of 1808, a new building of the imperial theater was built in Moscow on Arbatskaya Square; the Theater School was opened; in August 1808, the "State of the Moscow Imperial Theater" was signed and the Office was established. In 1823, the Moscow Directorate of the Imperial Theater was separated from the St. Petersburg Directorate and transferred to the jurisdiction of the Moscow Governor-General, and in 1824 a common Directorate of Imperial Theaters was re-established for both capitals with subordination to the Ministry of the Imperial Court. In 1824 the Maly Theater was opened, and in 1825 the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. In 1839, a new regulation on the artists of the imperial theaters was introduced, which determined their professional, financial and social status, a system of rewards and punishments, as well as a new pension system, which was now supposed: for Russian subjects - for 20 years of impeccable service, and for foreigners - for 10 years. -summer. Since 1881, reforms were being prepared in the theater department. One of the commissions "for the artificial part" included prominent theatrical figures: A. N. Ostrovsky, D. V. Averkiev, A. A. Potekhin, E. F. Napravnik and others.
In 1882, a number of transformations took place: on March 24 (April 5), an imperial decree was signed to abolish the monopoly of imperial theaters in the capitals, where the freedom of private theatrical entreprise was previously allowed only in exceptional cases and was subject to a large fee in favor of the Directorate of Imperial Theaters. In the imperial theaters themselves, a new “State” was established, the system of payment and remuneration of artists was changed, the editing part was updated and the artistic level of the “ambiance” of plays was raised, the rules for considering plays were established; a theatrical and literary committee was created (with two branches - Moscow and St. Petersburg), etc. In 1886, A. N. Ostrovsky was appointed head of the repertoire of the Moscow imperial theaters, who sought to remove the Moscow Directorate from the control of the St. Petersburg. In 1888, the Regulations on the Imperial Theater Schools were issued: theater schools with a ballet department, drama courses, and opera classes were established in each capital. At the beginning of the 20th century, the imperial theaters included: in St. Petersburg - the Alexandrinsky, Mariinsky and Mikhailovsky theaters; in Moscow - the Bolshoi, Maly, and also the New Theater (1898-1907). The total staff of the imperial theaters by this time was 3 thousand people; the budget exceeded 4 million rubles a year. The position of director of the imperial theaters was held by: A. A. Maikov (1821-25), S. S. Gagarin (1829-33; see Gagarina's article), A. M. Gedeonov (1834-58), A. I. Saburov ( 1858-1862), S. A. Gedeonov (1867-75), I. A. Vsevolozhsky (1881-99), S. M. Volkonsky (1899-1901), V. A. Telyakovsky (1901-17). After 1917, the imperial theaters became part of the general system of state theaters.
Lit .: Taneev S. V. From the past of imperial theaters. SPb., 1885. Issue. 1; Archive of the directorate of the imperial theaters. SPb., 1892; Yearbook of the Imperial Theaters. Season 1891-1892. SPb., 1893; Drizen N. V. One hundred and fifty years of imperial theaters. St. Petersburg, 1906; Pogozhee V.P. Centenary of the organization of imperial Moscow theaters. SPb., 1906-1908. T. 1-3; Telyakovsky V. A. Imperial theaters and 1905. L., 1926; he is. Memories. L.; M., 1965; he is. Diaries of the director of the imperial theaters. 1898-1901. Moscow. M., 1998; he is. Diaries of the director of the imperial theaters. 1901-1903. Saint Petersburg. M., 2002; he is. Diaries of the director of the imperial theaters. 1903-1906. Saint Petersburg. M., 2006.
The theater arose at the Russian royal court in 1672. Before that, buffoon acting was popular in Russia, there was a folk theater of Petrushka. Folk plays were sometimes frivolous and rude, they were not suitable for the royal court. The court theater was an innovation that came to Russia from European countries. The idea of its creation appeared at the court of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich as early as 1660, but then it was never realized. The king was alone in his aspiration, and the church in every possible way prevented the spread of hypocrisy, considering it to be a product of demons. In the 70s, the influence of Artamon Sergeevich Matveev, the head of the Ambassadorial Department and tutor of the second wife of Tsar Alexei Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina, increased at the court. Matveev was a well-known Westerner of that era, was married to a Scottish woman Hamilton and had close ties with the German settlement of the capital. There they knew about European theatrical performances earlier than at court, and arranged small home performances.
In 1672, Matveev's friend Von Staden was sent to Courland for comedians. Meanwhile, the desire to start his own theater was so strong that the tsar, without waiting for the return of his envoy, instructed the comedy to be staged by the pastor of the Lutheran church from the German Quarter, Johann Gottfried Gregory. It should be noted that in Russia at that time all theatrical performances and plays of various genres were called comedies. Tsar Alexei determined the theme of the first production by a special nominal decree. The decree prescribed "on the comedy to act from the Bible book of Esther." The comedy was called Artaxerxes Action. At court, she became popular, as in the plot they guessed a hint of the tsar's marriage to Naryshkina.
To stage plays, Gregory assembled a troupe, which included several dozen foreigners. Basically it was the youth of the German settlement. Gradually, Russian actors also joined them. Plays were played both in German and in Russian. Initially, Gregory conducted classes with actors at the school at the German Quarter, and from 1675 at the courtyard of Winont Luden. But the students did not stand on ceremony with the property of the owner who sheltered them, spoiled stoves and windows in the huts, broke fences. After that, the troupe was transferred to the Embassy Court.
A room for showing performances was equipped in one of the villages near Moscow - in Preobrazhensky. One of the royal residences frequently visited by Alexei Mikhailovich was located here. The room was called the "theatrical temple". Soon, the entire royal entourage was convinced of the wrongness of their choice. To watch the performance, the tsar and his entourage were forced to get up in the middle of the night in order to have time to make their way to Preobrazhensky, stay there and watch the entire performance, and then return to the Kremlin. According to some reports, the first performances were up to 10 hours each. After that, a special room was assigned to the theater in the Kremlin above the chambers of the Pharmaceutical order.
During the performances, spectators from among the tsar's close associates were located on the stage along with the actors, and a special bench was placed in front of the stage for the sovereign. According to the ideas of that time, entertainment like the theater was not suitable for women, and even more so for the queen. But the desire to see such an innovation and the upbringing of Natalia Naryshkina, in which Russian traditions intertwined with European innovations, led to the fact that special boxes were made for the queen and princesses, fenced off with bars. The spectators were not visible behind these bars, but they themselves could perfectly observe everything that happened on the stage.
The repertoire of the theater was quite diverse. Plays were staged on biblical and historical-heroic themes, for example, the play "Temir-Aksakovo Action", which was based on the story of the French writer Du Bec "The Story of Tamerlane". Gradually, the tsar had a desire to put on some kind of “French dance”, but for some time Alexei doubted his choice of genre. I was embarrassed by the indispensable musical accompaniment, which put the performance on a par with pagan amusements, which were strictly condemned by the church. The king expressed his doubts, to which he was told that "without music it is just as impossible to dance as without legs." As a result, the production was at the mercy of the actors. The "ballet" "Orpheus" appeared, in which dances were combined with recitation and organ accompaniment.
Some plays for the theater were written by the court poet and thinker Simeon Polotsky. These include "The Comedy-Parable of the Prodigal Son" and the comedy "On New Chadnezzar, on the body, gold and three fathers burned in the oven." Polotsky's plays were more original than those previously staged by Gregory. Gregory followed the path of German theatres, creating performances with allegorical figures as characters. Polotsky was closer to the traditions of Polish comedians, whose works were more lively, more accessible, more understandable to the Russian audience.
After the death of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, productions were not resumed. The theater could not outlive one of its creators.
