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The Snow Maiden (play)
''The Snow Maiden'' (russian: Снегурочка, ''Snegurochka'') is a play in verse by Alexander Ostrovsky written in 1873 and first published in the September 1873 issue of ''Vestnik Evropy''. It was adapted into an opera of the same name by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, which premièred in 1882. Background The idea of the play based on a fairytale about Snegurochka came to Ostrovsky in his Shchelykovo estate, the place he admired and almost worshipped, imagining it as a piece of wonderland here on Earth, saturated with the spirit of Old Rus with its heroic warriors and gentle, benevolent tsars. The play tells the story of an idyllic utopian kingdom ruled by the Berendei, a poet and an artist who believes in love, peace and good will and promotes this belief of his. The play's plot was based on the Russian folk fairytale Ostrovsky read in the Vol. 2 of Alexander Afanasyev's book ''The Slavs' Views Upon Nature'' (1867). History In 1873, the Malyi Theatre was closed for renovati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Ostrovsky
Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky (russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Остро́вский; ) was a Russian playwright, generally considered the greatest representative of the Russian realistic period. The author of 47 original plays, Ostrovsky "almost single-handedly created a Russian national repertoire." His dramas are among the most widely read and frequently performed stage pieces in Russia. Biography Alexander Nikolayevich Ostrovsky was born on 12 April 1823, in the Zamoskvorechye region of Moscow, to Nikolai Fyodorovich Ostrovsky, a lawyer who received religious education. Nikolai's ancestors came from the village Ostrov in the Nerekhta region of Kostroma governorate, hence the surname. Later Nikolai Ostrovsky became a high-ranked state official and as such in 1839 received a nobility title with the corresponding privileges. His first wife and Alexander's mother, Lyubov Ivanovna Savvina, came from a clergyman's family. For some time the family lived in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexander Gretchaninov
Alexander Tikhonovich GretchaninovAlso commonly transliterated as ''Aleksandr/Alexandre'' ''Grechaninov/Gretchaninoff/Gretschaninow'' ( rus, Алекса́ндр Ти́хонович Гречани́нов, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɡrʲɪtɕɐˈnʲinəf; , Kaluga – 3 January 1956, New York City) was a Russian Romantic composer. Life Gretchaninov started his musical studies rather late, because his father, a businessman, had expected the boy to take over the family firm. Gretchaninov himself related that he did not see a piano until he was 14 and began his studies at the Moscow Conservatory in 1881 against his father's wishes and without his knowledge. His main teachers there were Sergei Taneyev and Anton Arensky. In the late 1880s, after a quarrel with Arensky, he moved to St. Petersburg where he studied composition and orchestration with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov until 1893. Rimsky-Korsakov immediately recognized Gretchaninov's extraordinary musical imagination and talent and ga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Midsummer Night's Dream
''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' is a comedy written by William Shakespeare 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict among four Athenian lovers. Another follows a group of six amateur actors rehearsing the play which they are to perform before the wedding. Both groups find themselves in a forest inhabited by fairies who manipulate the humans and are engaged in their own domestic intrigue. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular and is widely performed. Characters * Theseus—Duke of Athens * Hippolyta—Queen of the Amazons * Egeus—father of Hermia * Hermia—daughter of Egeus, in love with Lysander * Lysander—in love with Hermia * Demetrius—suitor to Hermia * Helena—in love with Demetrius * Philostrate—Master of the Revels * Peter Quince—a carpenter * Nick Bottom—a weaver * Francis Flute—a bellows-mender * Tom Snout—a tinker * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the " Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. He remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna Hall, Susanna, and twins Hamnet Shakespeare, Hamnet and Judith Quiney, Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-reformed Russian. ; ), usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. He received nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature every year from 1902 to 1906 and for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902, and 1909; the fact that he never won is a major controversy. Born to an aristocratic Russian family in 1828, Tolstoy's notable works include the novels ''War and Peace'' (1869) and ''Anna Karenina'' (1878), often cited as pinnacles of realist fiction. He first achieved literary acclaim in his twenties with his semi-autobiographical trilogy, ''Childhood'', '' Boyhood'', and ''Youth'' (1852–1856), and '' Sevastopol Sketches'' (1855), based upon his experiences in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lev Mei
Lev Aleksandrovich Mei (russian: Лев Алекса́ндрович Мей (name sometimes transliterated as Lev Mey); ) was a Russian dramatist and poet. Biography Mei was born on 13/25 February 1822, in Moscow. His father was a German officer who was wounded in the Battle of Borodino and died young. His mother was Russian. Mei completed his studies in Moscow in 1841 and served in the office of the Governor for 10 years. He became part of the "young editorial staff" of Mikhail Pogodin's ''Moskvityanin''. For a time, he taught secondary school, but was forced to retire because of conflicts with his colleagues. He moved to Saint Petersburg, where he was active in literary endeavors. It was during this period that he contributed to the leading Russian magazines, including ''Biblioteka Dlya Chteniya'', ''Otechestvennye Zapiski'', '' Syn Otechestva'', ''Russkoye Slovo'', '' Russkiy Mir'', and '' Svetoch''. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy
Count Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (russian: Граф Алексе́й Константи́нович Толсто́й; – ), often referred to as A. K. Tolstoy, was a Russian poet, novelist, and playwright. He is considered to be the most important nineteenth-century Russian historical dramatist, primarily on account of the strength of his dramatic trilogy ''The Death of Ivan the Terrible'' (1866), ''Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich'' (1868), and ''Tsar Boris (drama), Tsar Boris'' (1870). He also gained fame for his satirical works, published under his own name (''History of the Russian State from Gostomysl to Timashev'', ''The Dream of Councillor Popov'') and under the collaborational pen name of Kozma Prutkov. His fictional works include the novella ''The Family of the Vourdalak'', ''The Vampire (novella), The Vampire'' (1841), and the historical novel ''Prince Serebrenni'' (1862). Aleksey was a member of the Tolstoy family, and a second cousin of Leo Tolstoy. Due to his mother's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Tale Of Igor's Campaign
''The Tale of Igor's Campaign'' ( orv, Слово о пълкѹ Игоревѣ, translit=Slovo o pŭlku Igorevě) is an anonymous epic poem written in the Old East Slavic language. The title is occasionally translated as ''The Tale of the Campaign of Igor'', ''The Song of Igor's Campaign'', ''The Lay of Igor's Campaign'', ''The Lay of the Host of Igor'', and ''The Lay of the Warfare Waged by Igor''. The poem gives an account of a failed raid of Igor Svyatoslavich (d. 1202) against the Polovtsians of the Don River region. While some have disputed the authenticity of the poem, the current scholarly consensus is that the poem is authentic and dates to the Middle Ages (late 12th century). The ''Tale of Igor's Campaign'' was adapted by Alexander Borodin as an opera and became one of the great classics of Russian theatre. Entitled ''Prince Igor'', it was first performed in 1890. Content The story describes a failed raid made in year 1185 by ''Kniaz'' Igor Svyatoslavich, Prince of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexey Suvorin
Aleksei Sergeyevich Suvorin (Russian: Алексей Сергеевич Суворин, 11 September 1834, Korshevo, Voronezh Governorate – 11 August 1912, Tsarskoye Selo) was a Russian newspaper and book publisher and journalist whose publishing empire wielded considerable influence during the last decades of the Russian Empire. He set out as a liberal journalist but, like many of his contemporaries, he experienced a dramatic shift in views, gradually drifting towards nationalism. Early career Suvorin was a quintessential selfmade man. Born of a peasant family, he succeeded in gaining access to a military school at Voronezh from which he graduated in 1850. In the following year, he arrived in St. Petersburg and joined a major artillery school there. With limited prospects of pursuing a military career, he spent eight years in his native haunts, teaching history and geography, first in Bobrov and then in Voronezh. No one could have predicted that within two or three dec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grigory Danilevsky
Grigory Petrovich Danilevsky (russian: Григо́рий Петро́вич Даниле́вский; – ) was a Russian historical novelist, and Privy Councillor of Russia. Danilevsky is well known as the author of the novel ''Beglye v Novorossii'' (''Fugitives in New Russia'', 1862). Life Born into the family of an impoverished landowner, Petr Ivanovich Danilevsky, in the Izyumsky district of Kharkov Governorate, Grigory was educated in the Moscow ''Dvoryansky institut'' (Institute of the Nobility) from 1841 to 1846, then studied law at Saint Petersburg University. In 1849 he was mistakenly arrested in connection with the Petrashevsky case and spent several months in the prison of the Peter and Paul Fortress, but he was released and received his certification as ''kandidat'' in 1850. From 1850 to 1857 he served in the Ministry of Education, where he was sent a number of times to examine the archives of monasteries in the south. In 1856 he was one of the writers sent by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov . At the time, his name was spelled Николай Андреевичъ Римскій-Корсаковъ. la, Nicolaus Andreae filius Rimskij-Korsakov. The composer romanized his name as ''Nicolas Rimsky-Korsakow''.The BGN/PCGN transliteration of Russian is used for his name here. ALA-LC system: Nikolaĭ Andrevich Rimskiĭ-Korsakov, ISO 9 system: Nikolaj Andreevič Rimskij-Korsakov. (18 March 1844 – 21 June 1908) was a Russian composer, a member of the group of composers known as The Five. He was a master of orchestration. His best-known orchestral compositions—''Capriccio Espagnol'', the ''Russian Easter Festival Overture'', and the symphonic suite ''Scheherazade''—are staples of the classical music repertoire, along with suites and excerpts from some of his 15 operas. ''Scheherazade'' is an example of his frequent use of fairy-tale and folk subjects. Rimsky-Korsakov believed in developing a nationalistic style of classical mu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexandrinsky Theatre
The Alexandrinsky Theatre (russian: Александринский театр) or National Drama Theatre of Russia is a theatre in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The Alexandrinsky Theatre was built for the Imperial troupe of Petersburg (Imperial troupe was founded in 1756). Since 1832, the theatre has occupied an Empire-style building that Carlo Rossi designed. It was built in 1828–1832 on Alexandrinsky Square (now Ostrovsky Square), which is situated on Nevsky Prospekt between the National Library of Russia and Anichkov Palace. The theatre was opened on 31 August (12 September) 1832. The theatre and the square were named after Empress consort Alexandra Feodorovna. The building is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments. It was one of the many theatres of the Imperial troupe. Dramas, operas and ballets were on the stage. Only in the 1880s, the theatre has become dramatic and tragedy filled. The premières of n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
