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...
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