E-mail: alpserg@gmail.com Tel.: +7 (495) 939-25-64
1, Leninskie gory, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation
PhD in Philology, Associate Professor, Folklore Department, Faculty of Philology, M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University
This article discusses the role of audience tastes, expectations and preferences in shaping the genre, themes, characters, and style of modern Russian theater.
It is diffi cult to overestimate the role of memoirs in the reconstruction of the social environment, space-time context and the content of performances of folk theater of the 18th — 1 9th centuries. At the same time, the personal testimony of spectators of professional, amateur and folk theater allows us to identify and compare their ideological, emotional and aesthetic preferences, which in turn had an infl uence on the repertoire, poetic structure and dramatic technique of the actively evolving national theater.
Based on the travel journal of N. A. Demidov (1771–1773) the article analyzes the preferences of this educated Russian traveler that covered a wide range of German, French, Italian and English entertainments and theatrical forms: opera, drama, puppet theater, carnival, circus, horse racing, military maneuvers, religious ceremonies, etc. Apart from his obvious preference for Italian opera and French drama, Demidov also observed everyday forms of urban leisure pursuits (from outdoor concerts to circus performances) with interest and sympathy.
Demidov’s theatrical interests and aesthetic preferences were shared (fully or partially) by his traveling companions, his secretary and editor of the travelogue, N. I. Krymov, as well as with numerous readers of the 1786 edition of the travel memoir, including the author’s son Nikolay Demidov, a person of infl uence in the history of Russian theater.
Dmitrievskiy V. N. (2007) Teatr i zriteli. Otechestvenniy teatr v sisteme otnosheniy stseny i publiki: ot istokov do 1917 g. [The theater and spectators. Th e national theater and the system of relations between the stage and the public: from its beginnings to 1917]. St. Petersburg. In Russian.
Ivleva L. M. (1998) Doteatral’no-igrovoy yazyk russkogo fol’klora [The pre-theatrical language of play in Russian folklore]. St. Petersburg. In Russian.
Karpova E. V. (2008) “Zhurnal puteshestviya” N. A. Demidova (materialy k izucheniyu) [N. A. Demidov’s “Travel Journal” (materials for study)]. In: Demidovskiy vremennik: istoricheskiy al’manakh [Demidov annals: Historical almanac]. Vol. 2. Yekaterinburg. Pp. 612–634. In Russian.
Kosterina-Azaryan A. B. (1998) Teatral’naya starina Urala [Th e old theater of the Urals]. Ekaterinburg. In Russian.
Pirogova E. P. (2011) Istoriya izdaniya “Zhurnal puteshestviya” N. A. Demidova 1786 g. i ego rasprostranenie v Rossii, Evrope i Amerike [Th e publication history of N. A. Demidov’s “Travel Journal” (1786) and its distribution in Russia, Europe and America]. In: Problemy istorii Rossii. Vyp. 9: Rossiya i Zapad v perekhodnuyu epohu ot srednevekov’ya k novomu vremeni [Problems of Russian history. Issue 9: Russia and the West in the transitional period from the Middle Ages to Modern Times]. Yekaterinburg. Pp. 384–397. In Russian.
Sofronova L. A. (2007) Rossiyskiy featron: moskovskiy lyubitel’skiy teatr XVIII v. [Russian theatron: Moscow amateur theater of the 18th century]. Moscow. In Russian.
Sorokina S. P. (2013) Narodnaya drama “Tsar’ Maksimilian” u vostochnykh slavyan (teatral’no-dramaturgicheskaya spetsifi ka) [Th e folk drama “Tsar Maximilian” among the Eastern Slavs (its theatrical and dramaturgical specifi cs)]. Moscow. In Russian.
Troshina T. M. (2010) Vizual’nye ob,yekty v materialakh puteshestviy Demidovykh po Evrope [Visual objects in the Demidovs’ European travel materials]. Izvestiya Ural’skogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta [Proceedings of Ural State University]. 2010. No. 1 (71). Pp. 203–211. In Russian.
Alpatov S. V. Th e “sympathies of spectators” as a factor in the history of Russian theater. Traditional culture. 2019. Vol. 20. No. 3. Pp. 71–81. In Russian.