DOI: 10.36871/hon.202201016
Authors
Wang Dan
Russian State Specialized Academy of Arts, Moscow, Russian Federation
Abstract
The article traces the theatrical life of A. S. Pushkin's dramatic and poetic works. It is known that the poet did not prevent theatrical productions of his works, as evidenced by a lifetime staging of the poem "Gypsies", the permission for which he himself gave. It is noted that Pushkin did not want to become an opera librettist, realizing that in this case he would be assigned a secondary role. An exception is his unfinished drama "The Mermaid", the text of which, according to researchers, is nothing more than a full-fledged libretto written for an unknown composer. The work emphasizes that Pushkin's poems and stories attracted special attention of theater directors. Some of the poet's works were staged in the genres of ballet, drama and even melodrama during his lifetime. A novel in verse "Eugene Onegin" was adapted for the stage as a dramatic performance by Prince G. V. Kugushev in 1846. Kugushev's play was written in the Onegin stanza and many verses from Pushkin's novel were preserved. Based on a number of studies, the paper suggests that Kugushev's play could have been the starting point for the libretto of the opera "Eugene Onegin", since the dramatic scheme of the opera by P. I. Tchaikovsky largely coincides with the plan of his play.
Keywords
works by A. S. Pushkin, staging, play, libretto, opera, theater
