GREAT STRANGER
(Commemorating the 130th birth anniversary of Ivan Bunin)
By M. Faustova
On October 22 Russian literature marks a prominent date - the 130th
anniversary of the great Russian writer Ivan Bunin.
A poet, prose writer, publicist and excellent stylist, Ivan Bunin was
the first Russian writer to receive the Nobel Prize in literature. For
more than 30 years Bunin lived in emigration in the south of France, always
remaining a Russian writer. In Russia a
ttitude
to his literary gift remained ambiguous for many decades. Before the 1917
revolution, when Bunin liven in Russia, his work aroused admiration. After
the revolution he was forgotten for decades. Only real lovers of literature
appreciated his talent. For most readers he remained a stranger.
Born into a noble but impoverished family of the Russian gentry, Ivan
Bunin had many talents. He could excellently play the violin and draw and
had a command of four foreign languages. But his real passion was literature
and he devoted his whole life to poetry and prose.
As a poet, Bunin became famous when he was young. In 1901 his poetic
collection, entitled "Listopad" (Fall of the Leaves), earned
him the Pushkin Prize. Later he was elected an honorary member of the Imperial
Academy of Sciences and an honorary member of the society of lovers of
Russian literature. His first prosaic works - "The Village" and
"Sukhodol" - stunned his contemporaries by vivid descriptions
of Russian nature and the daily life of the Russian village. The writer
tried to depict everything he saw, to describe every detail. These seemingly
insignificant details were the most important in his poems, short stories
and novels.
"Until now Bunin remains one of the major Russian masters of the
word," says Professor of Moscow University, philologist Alla Zhurina.
"He sought to catch his immediate and direct impressions of life and
put them into words. Be that the color of the sky, the noise of the rain
or the odor of the autumn leaves. His descriptions gave the reader the
feeling of firsthand experience. Readers will never stop admiring the fresh
and original quality of his prose. In his attitude to the word he has no
equals and will never have."
Bunin was a passionate traveler. He traveled to Turkey, Egypt, Syria,
Palestine, Greece and Iran and many other countries. Yet he had never thought
he would become an exile. The 1917 revolution changed his life and drove
him out of the country he loved so devotedly.
"He could not accept the changes and the new conditions of life
that evolved after the revolution," says Alla Zhurina. "Despite
his close and natural links with Russia, the Russian village and Russian
nature, which were indispensable to his life, he could never return home.
He felt he would not be able to preserve his real self in new Russia, that
he would not be able to remain loyal to his creative gift. He suffered.
He longed for Russia, dreamt about it and wrote about it."
"Okayannye Dni" (The Accursed Days) was his first book written
in emigration. The book is devoted to the tragic days when old Russia was
giving way to a new Russia, the country the writer could not accept, the
country that did not want him. Then for the first time the subject of loneliness
and death appeared in his novel to appear again and again in every of his
next works.
In November 1933 the Swedish Academy conferred the Nobel Prize on the
writer for his autobiographic novel "The Life of Arseniev". "This
work has no equal in Russian literature," says Alla Zhurina. "And
I think it was a just decision to give Bunin the Nobel Prize for this work.
The amazing craftsmanship and originality of this novel have never been
surpassed by any of the other famous Russian writers - be it Dostoevsky
or Tolstoy. These are the masters with a different, more realistic, attitude
to the world and the word. Bunin can be described as a writer of a new
time, an impressionist, who made it a point to depict every moment of life,
make it freeze in its beauty."
The last among the writer's major works was a series of short stories
entitled "Dark Avenues" in which he summed up his lifetime search
for beauty. "On the decline of life, when you have nothing left but
memories, you set out on your last path along the dark avenues of passion,
of the physical. There is only one way out of these avenues - into the
final darkness of death," Bunin wrote once.
Ivan Bunin died on his villa near Grasse in 1953. Many years later
another famous Russian poet Alexander Tvardovsky said about him: "He
lived as though he was carrying a lit candle before him. And he was afraid
of putting it out."
PRIMA DONNA OF RUSSIAN FOLK SONG
(to the birth centennial of Lidia Ruslanova)
By N. Viktorova
October 27th marked the birth centennial of a prima donna of the Russian
folk song Lidia Ruslanova.
True art outlives its performers. Ruslanova's songs live on in tape
recordings and can often be heard in the performance of modern folk singers.
Admired and adored by everyone, Ruslanova enjoyed tremendous popularity.
Once when she was on concert tour in the Far East, a crowd of devotees
held up the train she was traveling in.
Though
not a beauty, she was awfully expressive in a peculiar way. Some well-known
Soviet film-maker remarked about Ruslanova that had she been an actress,
she would have been doomed to play stepmothers and witches. Straightforward
and outspoken, uncompromising and proud of herself, she wasn't easy to
deal with. But when she sang... oh, that was real marvelous!
Ruslanova was born into a poor peasant family in a small village not
far from Saratov on the river Volga. She grew up in an orphanage where
she had been put after both of her parents died. "Songs were my nannies.
They thought me everything a person can be taught. They brought me up,
educated me, helped me to better understand the world", recalled the
singer. "What would I be without songs? When, a poor orphan, I earned
my first bread by singing, my grandmother scolded me. "God Almighty,
what a shame to sing and dance for bread!", she said. But I wasn't
ashamed ..." The choir of the orphanage where Ruslanova lived sang
in a church. She performed the solo part. To hear a little girl with an
incredible voice people sailed up down the Volga from Saratov and other
neighborhoods. When she grew up, Ruslanova took a job at a furniture factory.
The smell of paint and varnish irritated her throat, but she sang all her
way through. At 16 she was invited to sing at a concert at the Saratov
Opera Theatre. Her independent career started in Rostov-on-the-Don in 1923
and there, in Rostov, she gave her last concert 50 years later. As usual,
there was no fixed program. Ruslanova would sing a couple of songs of her
own choice and ...
During World War II she performed for troops at the frontline. To them
she was a symbol of the Motherland, a symbol of home and hope. At one of
such concerts she met her love. Her husband - commander of a cavalry corps
General Vladimir Kruchkov - was awarded the Golden Star of The Hero Of
The Soviet Union for his combat exploits.
When the war was over, there was a huge concert near Reichstag to mark
Nazi Germany's surrender. One of its participants Yuri Yaroslavtsev recalled
later: "As we were driven across the city, we could smell pungent
smoke coming from the ruins. Soldiers crowded around Reichstag, eager to
inscribe their names on its walls... Each of us felt the significance of
the moment. We sang about things that are dear to every soldier, the things
that remind them of their Motherland and of their loved ones. When Ruslanova
belted out the Russian folk song "Valenki" (felt boots) in her
inimitable style - that was an unforgettable sight".
1948 brought about a new wave of Stalinist reprisals. Ruslanova's husband
and then she herself were arrested. She was pressed to sign a forged accusation
of treason against her husband, but refused and spent five years in prison
on the allegations of anti-Soviet talk and anecdotes. In 1953 after the
death of Joseph Stalin she was released.
October saw a string of concerts in various Russian cities to mark
Ruslanova's centenary. Says a folk song performer Lyudmila Ryumina: "To
me she will always be the highest standard. Russian folk songs performed
on stage must be colorful, spicy, interesting. In my opinion, Ruslanova
is an exemplary folk singer" .
MOSCOW CIRCUS ON TSVETNOY BOULEVARD
CELEBRATES ITS 120TH BIRTHDAY
By V.Zherdeva
The first stationary circus opened in Moscow, on Tsvetnoy Boulevard,
120 years ago. And very soon all of Russia was talking about its amazing
programs. In just under a month, on the 20th of November, the Tsvetnoi
Boulevard Circus is launching a new program recalling its inception and
further development. Director Mazim Nikulin has been telling the Voice
of Russia how he sees the future of circus art. But first a word about
the building itself.
Several
steps of white marble spread with a red carpet lead up to the entrance
of the tall building, and, once inside, you see yourself, again and again,
in floor-to-ceiling mirrors that reflect magnificent crystal chandeliers.
The similarity to a first-class theatre is repeated in the auditorium,
where seats are upholstered with red plush and the performance area is
covered with fancy carpeting. Director Maxim Nikulin believes circus art
is not far removed from the art of theatre show.
"We have our own concept of how a circus should develop",
says Nikulin. "The public is weary of complicated tricks, the stock-in-trade
of circus programs in the past. Tricks are closer to sport than art. The
modern circus artist must be more than a mere acrobat or tight-rope walker.
He or she must convey an image, an idea. A circus number must be a kind
of skit, prepared by a producer, scenic artist and composer".
The new program to have its first night on November 20th will be just
that, a skit showing the first circus director 120 years ago, Albert Salamonsky,
consulting with his assistant, a clown, as to what numbers should be included
in the first program. The costumes of the performers will be a rainbow
of colors as designer Olga Soldatova sees them. Ms. Soldatova is a well-known
Moscow designer of theatre costumes.
The centerpiece of the new program will be a sensational series of
high-flight gymnastics, performed simultaneously by several groups doing
different things right under the roof. Director Maxim Nikulin described
the scene in these words: "people will be flying in all directions".
But in bringing circus art closer to the art of the theatre with plot,
sets, costumes, music and lighting producing a harmonious whole, he has
no intention of dropping such a long-standing tradition as the performance
of trained animals. Says Maxim Nikulin: "Many circuses in the West
have been getting rid of numbers involving animals. This is very sad. A
circus without animals is no circus. Bears, tigers, dogs and all the rest
are our partners, and in the arena they are often more important than people".
So we may expect the new program, to include man's four-legged brothers
.
THE BOLSHOI'S MUSES
By N. Viktorova
The building of the Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre in the center
of Moscow is an architectural masterpiece and one of the city's main attractions.
Outstanding
Russian pianist composer Sergei Rakhmaninov once wrote to his friend: "Have
you ever seen the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow? What a magnificent, beautiful
building! And how well it suits the square it stands on, the Theatre Square."
Curiously, often people buy tickets to the Bolshoi for any performance
just for the sake of admiring its resplendent interior. The theatre's new
artistic director Gennady Rozhdestvensky said shortly after his appointment:
"It's time to reverse a wide-spread opinion that people go to the
Bolshoi to see what's inside regardless of its repertoire. We know they
do, but it's wrong. After all, to satisfy their needs, we could held the
theatre open for a few ours during daytime as it is done at Grand Opera
in Paris or La Scala in Milan.
The
Bolshoi was designed by Russian architects Osip Bove and Albert Kavos.
The classical-style facade has a portico supported by 8 pillars and adorned
with Appolo's quadriga - a chariot drawn by four horses abreast. Standing
in the chariot, pulling the reins, is Apollo, the god of arts, his head
crowned with laurels.
The first the quadriga was made of alabaster. It was destroyed by a
fire in 1853 and replaced with a bronze one. The latter was supposedly
cast according to the sketches made by famous Petr Klodt, the author of
equestrian compositions in St.-Petersburg. However, it is not mentioned
in the complete catalogue of his works. Why? Specialists assume that Klodt
just copied Stepan Pimenov's composition decorating the facade of the Alexandriisky
Theatre in St.-Petersburg and that's why didn't consider himself its author.
Inside the theatre was decorated with utmost splendour. This is how Architect
Albert Kavos described it: "I designed the hall in Renaissance and
Byzantine styles, making it both magnificent and light. White marble, the
gold and crimson draperies of the boxes, arabesques, and a big chandelier
consisting of three rows of candle-sticks - all 
merited
approval".
Says a Bolshoi Theatre museum-keeper Lyudmila Rybakova, who took part
in preparing the numerous books and albums about the Bolshoi's history:
"The chandelier we can see now at the Bolshoi was brought from Paris
in 1863 and in 1895 candles were replaced with about 300 electric bulbs."
The ceiling is decorated with a plafond painted by Alexei Titov: Appolo
and 9 Muses are dancing on the Parnasus. The nine are Calliope - the muse
of epic poetry, Euterpe - the muse of lyric poetry, Erato - the muse of
lyric and erotic poetry, Melpomene - the muse of tragedy, Thalia - the
muse of comedy, Terpsichore - the muse of the dance, Clio - the muse of
history, Urania - the muse of astronomy, and Polyhymnia - the muse of the
sublime hymn.
The hall houses 2000 spectators. Says Lyudmila Rybakova: "The
auditorium was designed in classical style. The boxes are adorned with
intricate patterns and gilded scrolls. The last time the hall was gilded
was in 1976. Nearly 6 kg of gold was spent. The work is done manually with
the help of special pincers. A restorer detaches a sheet of gold from a
tinsel box, the size of a palm, puts it on a scroll and smoothes it out
with a brush."
The Bolshoi has its own traditions. One of them is to present outstanding
personalities, whose life was connected with the theatre, with a piece
of wood from the stage or a piece of the curtain set into a glass framework.
It still lives on.
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