Editorial

How the almanac was conceived and given birth: people, money, hopes

Contents

CULTURAL JIGSAW

SOCIETY

Tatyana Klyavina

A City of Museums or a City of People?

Governors try for the best churning out another one of city's cultural development plans. Shall we approve of that? What's the big deal? Culture as it is and culture at hometown and in people's minds and hearts. Are we keeping the traditions alive? Who is the notorious Vasya (a name you are likely to enjoy seeing on every wall in town)? Whoops!.. All down in the chasms of information vacuum - watch out...

THEATER

Elena Alekseyeva

The Least Crowdy of All Arts

Ever thought of how it all began? The future of theater doomed and revived throughout the 20-th century. The audience and what it likes. The actors and how they play. Popular productions and why they are popular. Enjoy the clairvoyanty view of an insider of the Theater Galaxy.

INNOVATIONS

Andrey Zinchuk

A View Across the Infinity

Theater space is being destructed by the hurricane of the new information era in Russia. Periodicals on theatrical matters are getting harder and harder to find. Internet saves it all. Partly... Ten laws of Internet expansion. Why an almanac? Its inner laws and the aims it serves. How the almanac is distributed. What's Internet handy for: some useful addresses

Pieces of advice from an experienced internaut

A GENERAL VIEW ACROSS THE THEATER LIFE IN 1999

Maaryinsky Th, Musorgskiy Opera and Ballet Th, Academic Ballet Th (Boris Eifman), Musical Comedy Th, "Zazerkalye" kids' Musical Th, Misic Hall

Premieres, rehearsals, award-giving ceremonies, tours...

BALLET 1999

Igor Stupnikov

A show that goes on

Leading dancers, choreographers, new ballet productions, exhibitions, books

Pictures of the prima ballerinas and ballet-dancers, a lot of names and sparkling life.

INSIDERS OF THE PROCESS

Mikhail Piotrovski

"We have been deemed trustworthy of preserving the culture"

Director of the Hermitage museum is concerned about the ways people perceive culture.

Read about why the greatest Russian museum provides a musical background to its exhibitions, how it is financed, what masterpieces are still to be taken out of the back-rooms, what is likely to happen to the Hermitage theater, why opera ever comes up inside the museum halls. Read and forget about politics and the audit-chamber stuff.

Anton Getman

"We ought to rely on our own stamina"

Director of St.Petersburg Philarmonics ponders on the future of culture politics of local authorities. Allocations are scanty as ever, orchestras are mixed up in a web of complicated commercial relations. What is to be done?

Lyudmila Razumovskaya

"Life no more rests within its banks"

The famous playwright shares her thoughts as to what on earth is the matter with the Russian intelligentsia. Her plays are hardly staged here in Russia, though she has lots of productions all around the world. Are Russians in for something better, more, like, soul-feeding? Or do we just reject to see that our theater climate stinks and don't wish anything refreshing because it would turn our whole world upside down? God knows.

Timur Chkheidze

"Courting opera and St.Petersburg"

The renowned Georgian theater producer speaks about the nature of his love for St.Petersburg city and its theaters, comments on coworking with Gergiev, considers Georgian play-writing traditions. Reader is sure to find a lot more than just a celebrity's fellings and thoughts, it's all about how life is organised from within. Personality goes a long way...

Larisa Malevannaya

"Occasion poems"

The BDT actress never claimed to be a celebrated poet. She just wrote - to fit the occasions. Enjoy her love poems dedicated to Chekhov's Uncle Vanya play actors, producer Yuli Dvorkin's 60th anniversary and those written on other occasions.

A GENERAL VIEW ACROSS THE THEATER LIFE (continued)

Maly Drama Th, Aleksandrinski Th, The Tovstonogov Bolshoy Drama Th, The Akimov Comedy Th, Lensoveta Th, Komissarzhevskaya Drama Th

Premieres, rehearsals, tours, jubilees, memoria...

THE VIP GALLERY

Read about

Gali Abaydulov, Tamara Abrosimova, Vladimir Adzhamov, Marina Azizyan, Natalya Akimova, Yevgeni Akimov, Yuri Aleksandrov, Anna Aleksakhina, Sergey Akeksashkin, Viktor Aleshkov, Tatyana Amosova, Yuriy Ananyan, Olga Antonova, Vera Arbuzova, Altinay Asilmuratova, Zhanna Ayupova.

The BS Questionaire

Read famous actors and choreographers' answers to the following questions:

1. What is the year 1999 worth-remembering for?

2. What do you hope for in the year 2000?

3. What brings happiness and what upsets you in your theater life?

...Yelena Popova, Igor Volkov, Olga Dazidenko and others

Marina Zabolotnyaya

The Bows

Theater lives a many-faced, on-the-stage and behind-the-curtain life. Actors play, audiences applause. And he or she who comes out there to bow and receive the audiences feedback goes through something special. Read about His Majesty the Bow as it is mastered by famous actors and actresses.

Mariya Bergoltzs

Dedicated to Alfred Shnitke

Novels to the ballet

Loneliness, Fever, Dreams. They all dance, if you are careful. See the raving, longing, beautiful dance of theirs among flowers, clouds, trees and still waters of Russian swamps, in the novels to the ballet written in memory of the late Shnitke.

A GENERAL VIEW ACROSS THE THEATER LIFE

The International Baltic Festival Center, The Baltic House theater, Teledom enterprise, The Fontanka Youth theater, Theater on Liteyny, Bryantzsev TYUZ, The Russian Entreprise, The Buff theater, Shostakovitch Philarmonics and others. Learn what's new for the year and a bit of history. Enjoy some rare pictures.

Sergey Shub

"Making festivals round the year"

Head of the Baltic Festival Center speaking about festivals planned to take place in Russia and the Baltic countries this year. What, where, when, why...Read and revive your hopes.

Aleksandr Platunov

Post Scriptum

The Tenth BaltDom theater Festival is a turning point for Russian and foreign producers and actors. Get updated on new geographical and artistic dimensions for theater, look into the roots of Soviet choreography.

Irina Tsimbal

Two etudes on Strindberg

Irina Tsimbal has been studying and loving Strinberg's books for years. She has visited the writer's last abode in Stockholm, written a thorough research on Strinberg-Chekhov intervening motifs. The etudes are full of respect to the masters and a deep understanding of the life of their plays on the Russian stage.

Katerina Novikova

The black dog Edinburgh

Read a colorful, detailed story of the annual Fringe festival in Edinburgh. The story is full of hit-the-nail-on-the-head remarks and predictions as to the future of Russian theater abroad. Besides, you might get to know the basic differences between the way Russian audience laugh (why, when and how) and the way westerners do.

"Dodin amazing, Nekroshus surprising, Bergman disappointing."

Read a "Corriere della Sera" article, December 23, 1999, dedicated to the Eighth Theater Festival, organised by The Unity of European Theaters in Strasburg last year.

Irina Pavlova

Long live St.Petersburg cinema

A sophisticated cinema expert is telling her story of the annual series of cinema festivals held across Russia. Join the breath-taking voyage across the Cinema Galaxy replete of lively traveling impressions, witty on-the-subject remarks and astonishing criticism of some deep-rooted still deplorable traditions of Russian cinematograph.

Get acquainted with the new productions...

Andrey Zenchuk

THE TWELVE

Authors of the St.Petersburg "Landscrona" almanac

St.Petersburg theater is dying away, is almost rotten in fact. Read why.

"Landscrona," despite its short history (3 years), has done a lot to revise, revive, and refresh the ancient art in modern conditions. Read about Domik Dramaturgov (House of Playwrights) association and enjoy synopses of some plays by Oleg Yernev, Andrey Zenchuk, Igor Shprits, Leonid Voron, Lyudmila Razumovskaya and Vadim Shmelev.

Sergey Nosov

The congested world of Ruza jubilee

One more festival. This time playwrights from across Russia gather in a town near Moscow and read aloud their own plays. Want to learn what was in this year? Just focus your eyes on Nosov's story then.

Aleksandr Belinski

"To take down everything you know"

A excerpt from his book "The Unpronounced, the Unfinished"

People are prone to short memory. Remember the great Russian producers Yevgeniy Gustovich Gakkel, Pavel Carlovich Veysbrem, Vladimir Platonovich Kozhich?.. Life and personalities come out alive in Belinsky's story. Rare pictures.

Marina Kornakova

"Dzin-la-la"

Dzin-la-la...Hear that, reader? That's Offenbach pushing his way for the stage. He wants to cancan it before all's over. Let him do that. He has his reasons.

Mikhaylovsky. Darwinism and Offenbach's operettas.

An historical insight into Vera Lyadova's life and actress talent. Lyadova primadonnaed in Offenbach's "Beautiful Helene" staged in Aleksandrinsky Theater in 1860's, courting controversy into the standards of morality Russian theater-lovers were used to. See pictures...

Peter Brook

There are no secrets

(Translated from English by Mikhail Stronin)

The story is based on Brook's speech in Kyoto in 1991, on the occasion of receiving an Inamory Foundation reward. The famous producer ponders on how he came to be strictly against the presence of anyone alien at rehearsals of his productions. There are no secrets, of course, but... Well, ever saw The Tempest on stage? Now read about what stands behind the inspiring scenery and comes prior to the perfect performance of actors.

Larisa Kazanskaya

Arthur Lurye: "Pushkin is our hearth"

An attempt of a music and historical treatise

Arthut Lurye (1891-1966), a composer and a pianist, is traditionally associated with the Russin futurists, poets and artists in the 1913-1915 Russia striving for new - mostly proletarian, avant-garde - prospects in art, and... with the name of Pushkin. How's that? Well just take a dip into the white-and-black ambience of that world. That's where poems meet music. Enjoy the pictures

Andrey Tolubeyev

Funeral of a tsar

(an extract from a novel)

When Tovstonogov passed away...

Tatyana Shakh-Azizova

A Theater Saint

Read a life-story of George (Georgi Ivanovich) Pitoyev (1984-1939) and his wife Lyudmila. Actors live hard lives, the soul theater may sometimes burn your soul out...