Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"The eccentric characters, amusing anecdotes, and pointed insights draw the reader in, making this an appetizing work."—Valerie Kivelson, author of Cartographies of Tsardom: The Land and Its Meanings in Seventeenth-Century Russia
"Fascinating and entertaining, Russia's Theatrical Past takes us backstage at Tsar Aleksei Mikhailovich's new court theater in the 1670s, tracking how actors, musicians, and theatrical companies from Northern Europe joined in Moscow with other directors, musicians, and amateur actors (many from the 'German Suburb') and staged works from Biblical epics to Tamburlaine. With on-the-ground detail (sets, casts, salaries, scripts), the authors display the world of theater and performance in Muscovy as a dynamic interchange of Northern European, Ukrainian Orthodox, and Muscovite culture."—Nancy S. Kollmann, Stanford University
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
A Note on Dates, Transliteration, and Translation
List of Abbreviations
Introduction: The Comedians Come to Pskov
1. Court Music at Home and Abroad
2. The Theater of Diplomacy
3. Introducing Pickleherring: The Origins of the Russian Court Theater
4. The Plays and "Ballets" for the Tsar
5. The Play of Tamerlane
6. From Tamerlane to Tamerlane and Beyond
Bibliography
Index
