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 transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

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, Karamzinian 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. 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 Bennig ...

, 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 libre ...

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 S ...

). 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. ''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