Vladislav Aleksandrovich Ozerov (russian: Владисла́в Алекса́ндрович О́зеров) (11 October 1769 – 17 September 1816) was the most popular
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
n dramatist in the first decades of the 19th century.
Ozerov wrote five tragedies "in the stilted and sentimental manner of the Frenchified era". Their success was tremendous, largely owing to the remarkable acting of one of the greatest Russian tragediennes,
Ekaterina Semyonova
Ekaterina Semenova (Russian: Екатерина Семёновна Семёнова; 18 November 1786–13 March 1849) was an actress in the Russian Empire. Life
Semenova became a student in the Saint Petersburg Theatre School in 1790 where she wa ...
. What the public liked in these tragedies was the atmosphere of sensibility and the polished,
Karamzin Karamzin (russian: Карамзин) is a Russian masculine surname, its feminine counterpart is Karamzina. It originates from the Tatar surname Kara-Murza, meaning ''black lord'', and may refer to
*Aurora Karamzin (1808–1902), Finnish-Swede phil ...
ian sweetness that Ozerov infused into the classical forms.
Ozerov's first success was ''Oedipus in Athens'' (1804), a wry comment on
Alexander I Alexander I may refer to:
* Alexander I of Macedon, king of Macedon 495–454 BC
* Alexander I of Epirus (370–331 BC), king of Epirus
* Pope Alexander I (died 115), early bishop of Rome
* Pope Alexander I of Alexandria (died 320s), patriarch of ...
's rumoured privity to the murder of his father
Paul
Paul may refer to:
*Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name)
* Paul (surname), a list of people
People
Christianity
*Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...
. The public was ecstatic about his next tragedy, ''Fingal'' (1805), staged with effective sets representing sombre Scottish scenery. ''Dmitry Donskoy'' (1807) was staged within days after the
Battle of Eylau
The Battle of Eylau, or Battle of Preussisch-Eylau, was a bloody and strategically inconclusive battle on 7 and 8 February 1807 between Napoléon's ''Grande Armée'' and the Imperial Russian Army under the command of Levin August von Bennigs ...
, when its patriotic ethos was particularly apposite. (It was later used as the basis for an
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
of the same name by
Anton Rubinstein
Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein ( rus, Антон Григорьевич Рубинштейн, r=Anton Grigor'evič Rubinštejn; ) was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who became a pivotal figure in Russian culture when he founded the Sai ...
). His last play was ''Polyxena'' (1809), variously assessed as the finest sentimental tragedy in the language and the best Russian tragedy on the French classical model.
D.S. Mirsky
D. S. Mirsky is the English pen-name of Dmitry Petrovich Svyatopolk-Mirsky (russian: Дми́трий Петро́вич Святопо́лк-Ми́рский), often known as Prince Mirsky ( – c. 7 June 1939), a Russian political and lit ...
. ''A History of Russian Literature''. Northwestern University Press, 1999. . p. 68.
The production of ''Polyxena'' turned out to be a flop, largely due to intrigues adding to Ozerov's literary woes. He was forced to leave
St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
for his country estate near
Zubtsov
Zubtsov (russian: Зубцо́в) is a town and the administrative center of Zubtsovsky District in Tver Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Volga and Vazuza Rivers, south of Tver, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: ...
, where he reportedly went mad and burnt all his papers. Ozerov's last years were spent in poverty, and his posthumous reputation was damaged by
Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
's dismissal of his plays as "very mediocre".
References
External links
Works by Vladislav Ozerov
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ozerov
1769 births
1816 deaths
Russian male poets
Russian dramatists and playwrights
Russian male dramatists and playwrights