A Triptych from the Russian Theater is a biography of a remarkable theatrical dynasty whose influence on opera and drama was felt not only in Russia, but on stages around the world.
"It is hard today to imagine how much the Russians loved their theater; to say it was their life is no exaggeration," writes Victor Borovsky, a Russian theater historian and the author of this book, referring to a time during the latter part of the 19th century in Russia, a time when interest in opera and the theater was growing and evolving. This period forms the springboard for an excellent book in which Borovsky follows the colorful lives of three members of the Komissarzhevsky family, through to the 1950s. In doing so, he also brings to life some of the issues as central to artistic expression in 19th- and early 20th-century Russia as in Britain or the United States today: the relationship between actor and director; the extent to which theater reflects life; the importance of the spiritual side of life and its manifestation on stage; and symbolism in theater.
The first section of the biography follows the changing fortunes of Fyodor Komissarzhevsky (1832-1905), a leading tenor at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. As Borovsky writes, Komissarzhevsky did not look for adventures, they happened of their own accord, lending him the glamour of a romantic hero offstage. This section abounds with entertaining anecdotes about the "romantic hero," and places the older Komissarzhevsky within the musical context of his time. He was a close friend of Alexander Dargomyzhsky, whose opera "The Stone Guest," based on the legend of Don Juan, was composed with him in mind. He was also friends with Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Modest Mussorgsky (who wrote the role of Dmitry in "Boris Godunov" for him), and with fellow singer Fyodor Stravinsky (father of Igor), as well as writers such as Fyodor Dostoevsky and Ivan Turgenev. He was also highly respected and well liked as a teacher of vocal technique and stagecraft. After his retirement from performing, he became a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. Among his private pupils was the young Konstantin Stanislavsky, who dreamt of an operatic career. Komissarzhevsky could be seen as his only mentor and a contributor to what later became known as the Stanislavsky method. Stanislavsky himself was to write: "I do not know what did me more good, the lessons themselves or the conversations afterwards."
Komissarzhevsky's daughter, Vera Komissarzhevskaya (1864-1910), is the subject of the second part of this biography. She is the foremost actress in the history of Russian theater and became a cultural institution in her time. Like Stanislavsky, she had aspirations for an operatic career and was his acting partner during their early years at the Society for Art and Literature in Moscow. Her friends and admirers included Sergei Rachmaninov, Fyodor Chaliapin and Anton Chekhov. She played Nina Zarechnaya in the premier of "The Seagull" in 1896 at the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. Chekhov used to say: "No one so truly, really and deeply understood me as did Vera Komissarzhevskaya."
Komissarzhevskaya founded her own theater in St. Petersburg where Vsevolod Meyerhold's productions were at the forefront of Symbolist theater. Despite her public successes, Vera suffered much in her private life. Borovsky describes the torments of her marriage to Count Vladimir Muravyov, including his affair with her sister, which resulted in a baby. The strength of Vera's love for him is reflected in her suicidal despair following this episode. But it was her refusal to submit to the blows of fate, combined with "a melancholy and compassion reaching ... deep into the heart" that drew her contemporaries to her. When she died in 1910, she was mourned throughout Russia.
The final section of the book, and perhaps the most entertaining, with its peppering of British theatrical voices and associations, describes the life of Vera's half-brother, Fyodor Komissarzhevsky fils (1882-1954), who began his career in her theater as head of production alongside Vsevolod Meyerhold. He studied architecture and music, spoke several European languages fluently and had an encyclopedic knowledge of the arts. Komissarzhevsky became an eminent director of opera and drama in pre-Revolutionary Russia. He wrote numerous books and articles that demonstrate a subtle and original view of the nature of theater. He emigrated in 1919 and for 20 years was a leading figure in British theater. His first engagement in England was a production of Alexander Borodin's "Prince Igor" at the Royal Opera House. His work as an opera director was recognized worldwide and then forgotten. His productions of Chekhov's plays were a revelation both to actors and to the public, for besides being a great producer, Komissarzhevsky was also a brilliant stage designer. He had nothing in common with the photographically realistic English designers of the time. His settings reduced factual realism to a minimum, stressing mood over detail. Komissarzhevsky was a leading director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and his innovative productions, many of which he designed himself, are still regarded as classics.
He left England in 1938 for the United States, where his contribution was again considerable. He set up his own theater school in New York City, where he taught private students. Komissarzhevsky, who believed in realism, used whatever props were available. New York City policemen summoned to a midtown apartment house by telephone calls claiming that a young man was pursuing a girl up a fire escape discovered that they were merely two members of Komissarzhevsky's drama class doing the balcony scene from "Romeo and Juliet."
The book is based on Russian and Western archival material and unpublished memoirs and letters, as well as interviews with theater greats John Gielgud, Edith Evans, Peggy Ashcroft, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quayle and Charles Laughton, who all claim to have been influenced by Komissarzhevsky. Peggy Ashcroft, to whom he was briefly married, recalled: "His work immediately made an enormous impression on all theater students of the time, and everyone wanted to work with the Russian magician."
Borovsky, who teaches Russian and lectures on Russian theater history at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London, also interviewed Ernestine Stodelle-Komissarzhevsky, the last wife of Fyodor Komissarzhevsky, who allowed him access to her private papers.
Apart from a few articles in academic journals -- mainly about Vera -- nothing has been written in the West about the Komissarzhevskys. This book, as well recording three remarkable lives, traces Russian theatrical culture over a century and its impact on British and American theater. It contains 81 rare photographs, and though a scholarly book packed with facts and notes, it is a good read.
Nina Lobanov-Rostovsky is a London-based freelance writer and lecturer specializing in Russian theatrical art.
"A Triptych from the Russian Theater: An Artistic Biography of the Komissarzhevsky Family," by Victor Borovsky. Published by the University of Iowa Press, $49.95. 588 pages.
This review first appeared in the Spring 2001 issue of Rossica, a journal of Russian culture on sale at Anglia bookshops in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
"It is hard today to imagine how much the Russians loved their theater; to say it was their life is no exaggeration," writes Victor Borovsky, a Russian theater historian and the author of this book, referring to a time during the latter part of the 19th century in Russia, a time when interest in opera and the theater was growing and evolving. This period forms the springboard for an excellent book in which Borovsky follows the colorful lives of three members of the Komissarzhevsky family, through to the 1950s. In doing so, he also brings to life some of the issues as central to artistic expression in 19th- and early 20th-century Russia as in Britain or the United States today: the relationship between actor and director; the extent to which theater reflects life; the importance of the spiritual side of life and its manifestation on stage; and symbolism in theater.
The first section of the biography follows the changing fortunes of Fyodor Komissarzhevsky (1832-1905), a leading tenor at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. As Borovsky writes, Komissarzhevsky did not look for adventures, they happened of their own accord, lending him the glamour of a romantic hero offstage. This section abounds with entertaining anecdotes about the "romantic hero," and places the older Komissarzhevsky within the musical context of his time. He was a close friend of Alexander Dargomyzhsky, whose opera "The Stone Guest," based on the legend of Don Juan, was composed with him in mind. He was also friends with Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Modest Mussorgsky (who wrote the role of Dmitry in "Boris Godunov" for him), and with fellow singer Fyodor Stravinsky (father of Igor), as well as writers such as Fyodor Dostoevsky and Ivan Turgenev. He was also highly respected and well liked as a teacher of vocal technique and stagecraft. After his retirement from performing, he became a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. Among his private pupils was the young Konstantin Stanislavsky, who dreamt of an operatic career. Komissarzhevsky could be seen as his only mentor and a contributor to what later became known as the Stanislavsky method. Stanislavsky himself was to write: "I do not know what did me more good, the lessons themselves or the conversations afterwards."
Komissarzhevsky's daughter, Vera Komissarzhevskaya (1864-1910), is the subject of the second part of this biography. She is the foremost actress in the history of Russian theater and became a cultural institution in her time. Like Stanislavsky, she had aspirations for an operatic career and was his acting partner during their early years at the Society for Art and Literature in Moscow. Her friends and admirers included Sergei Rachmaninov, Fyodor Chaliapin and Anton Chekhov. She played Nina Zarechnaya in the premier of "The Seagull" in 1896 at the Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. Chekhov used to say: "No one so truly, really and deeply understood me as did Vera Komissarzhevskaya."
Komissarzhevskaya founded her own theater in St. Petersburg where Vsevolod Meyerhold's productions were at the forefront of Symbolist theater. Despite her public successes, Vera suffered much in her private life. Borovsky describes the torments of her marriage to Count Vladimir Muravyov, including his affair with her sister, which resulted in a baby. The strength of Vera's love for him is reflected in her suicidal despair following this episode. But it was her refusal to submit to the blows of fate, combined with "a melancholy and compassion reaching ... deep into the heart" that drew her contemporaries to her. When she died in 1910, she was mourned throughout Russia.
The final section of the book, and perhaps the most entertaining, with its peppering of British theatrical voices and associations, describes the life of Vera's half-brother, Fyodor Komissarzhevsky fils (1882-1954), who began his career in her theater as head of production alongside Vsevolod Meyerhold. He studied architecture and music, spoke several European languages fluently and had an encyclopedic knowledge of the arts. Komissarzhevsky became an eminent director of opera and drama in pre-Revolutionary Russia. He wrote numerous books and articles that demonstrate a subtle and original view of the nature of theater. He emigrated in 1919 and for 20 years was a leading figure in British theater. His first engagement in England was a production of Alexander Borodin's "Prince Igor" at the Royal Opera House. His work as an opera director was recognized worldwide and then forgotten. His productions of Chekhov's plays were a revelation both to actors and to the public, for besides being a great producer, Komissarzhevsky was also a brilliant stage designer. He had nothing in common with the photographically realistic English designers of the time. His settings reduced factual realism to a minimum, stressing mood over detail. Komissarzhevsky was a leading director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and his innovative productions, many of which he designed himself, are still regarded as classics.
He left England in 1938 for the United States, where his contribution was again considerable. He set up his own theater school in New York City, where he taught private students. Komissarzhevsky, who believed in realism, used whatever props were available. New York City policemen summoned to a midtown apartment house by telephone calls claiming that a young man was pursuing a girl up a fire escape discovered that they were merely two members of Komissarzhevsky's drama class doing the balcony scene from "Romeo and Juliet."
The book is based on Russian and Western archival material and unpublished memoirs and letters, as well as interviews with theater greats John Gielgud, Edith Evans, Peggy Ashcroft, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quayle and Charles Laughton, who all claim to have been influenced by Komissarzhevsky. Peggy Ashcroft, to whom he was briefly married, recalled: "His work immediately made an enormous impression on all theater students of the time, and everyone wanted to work with the Russian magician."
Borovsky, who teaches Russian and lectures on Russian theater history at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University of London, also interviewed Ernestine Stodelle-Komissarzhevsky, the last wife of Fyodor Komissarzhevsky, who allowed him access to her private papers.
Apart from a few articles in academic journals -- mainly about Vera -- nothing has been written in the West about the Komissarzhevskys. This book, as well recording three remarkable lives, traces Russian theatrical culture over a century and its impact on British and American theater. It contains 81 rare photographs, and though a scholarly book packed with facts and notes, it is a good read.
Nina Lobanov-Rostovsky is a London-based freelance writer and lecturer specializing in Russian theatrical art.
"A Triptych from the Russian Theater: An Artistic Biography of the Komissarzhevsky Family," by Victor Borovsky. Published by the University of Iowa Press, $49.95. 588 pages.
This review first appeared in the Spring 2001 issue of Rossica, a journal of Russian culture on sale at Anglia bookshops in Moscow and St. Petersburg.