Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2002 - 19

RUSSIAN THEATRE DESIGN
Preparations
and rehearsals for
Masquerade
began in 1912.
Over the course of
the next five years,
Golovin
generated four
thousand sketches of
costumes, props, sets
and makeup.

S P R I N G

2 0 0 2

TD & T

Bowlt neatly characterized the broad and sometimes contradictory impulses of this group: "Behind its Alexandrine façade the World of Art
formed a platform for a ceaseless struggle of
extremes: Russian culture vs. that of the West, art
for art's sake vs. art for the individual, art of the
past vs. art of the present." (Proffer 1975, 379)
Works by three of the most prolific members of the group, Konstantin Korovin (1861-
1939), Aleksandr Golovin (1863-1930) and
Leon Bakst (1866-1924), exemplify the eclecticism of the mir isskusstniki and provide a
glimpse of the grandeur of the Ballets Russes.
The works by these artists illustrate the
group's desire to explore both Russian and
non-Russian themes on stage. Korovin and
Golovin were artists equally comfortable in
either sphere. They shared a common background, having received training at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and
Architecture, and in Paris. Korovin's design for
Beauty and the Beast (fig. 1) (1907, based on
another Perrault story) is a reminder of the
preference by Silver Age artists and audiences
for stories featuring the kinds of supernatural
situations and grotesque characters found in
works by the German author, E. T. A. Hoffman.
While Korovin and Golovin were comfortable designing works based on non-Russian
themes, they truly excelled when asked to turn
their talents toward indigenous subjects. Examples of Russian-inspired operas designed
by Korovin include The Golden Cockerel (1909,
based on a story by Aleksandr Pushkin) and The
Snow Maiden (1917, based on a play by Nikolai
Ostrovsky), both by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
(1844-1908). Many of Rimsky-Korsakov's fifteen operas (more than Glinka, Musorgsky
and Tchaikovsky combined) and other orchestral works were performed by Diagilev's companies, bringing the composer international fame.
Korovin was one of several World of Art painters
who designed one or more of the operas for
Diagilev. His costumes for The Snow Maiden
(fig. 7) bear the indelible mark of the Russian
countryside and lyrically echo the line of ethnographic design begun by Ponomarev and
others.
Another line of St. Petersburg culture
was started and sustained by Rimsky-Korsakov.
His musical contributions include a long list
of memorable compositions including
Sheherazade and Capriccio Espagnol, but
his legacy was ensured through his thirty-seven
years as a professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. During this time, he taught many of
the most talented young Russian composers,

including Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971),
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) and
Maximilian Steinberg (1883-1946), the
teacher of Dmitrii Shostakovich (1906-1975).
Thus, Rimsky-Korsakov's role as the proponent of a "Petersburg school of composition"
extended from the late nineteenth well into the
latter half of the twentieth century.
Rimsky-Korsakov had an especially strong
professional and personal relationship with
Stravinsky, who was a close friend of the family.
Thus, it followed that when Diagilev commissioned Stravinsky to compose a new work for his
company in 1909, the flattered young composer
immediately began work on The Firebird at
Rimsky-Korsakov's dacha outside St. Petersburg. Golovin's designs and costumes for
Stravinsky's Firebird (fig. 9) (1910, choreographed by Mikhail Fokin, after a traditional
Russian tale) are vestigial reminders of one of
Diagilev's greatest collaborative teams. Along
with Stravinsky and Golovin, legendary performances by Mikhail Fokin (also the choreographer) and Tamara Karsavina helped establish
the work as a staple of the ballet canon.
Probably the best-known World of Art designer was Leon Bakst. Trained at the St. Petersburg Academy of Art and later in Paris,
Bakst designed many of the most famous productions for the Ballets Russes including
Rimsky-Korsakov's Sheherazade (1909) and
Claude Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of
a Faun (1912). His sketches and costumes for
a production of Euripides' tragedy Hippolytus
(1902) are an evocation of Greek classicism
(fig. 8). The turn of the century zeitgeist in St.
Petersburg included an urge to discover the
path to the future through an exploration of
the past. In 1908, this impulse, a popular
trend with symbolist artists, led Bakst to paint
Terror Antiquus. The painting features an image of Aphrodite with a dove above a scene of
the destruction of Atlantis and suggests that the
way to beauty is chaotic, even barbaric.
Bakst's painting hints at what seemingly
every St. Petersburg artist felt in the early years
of the century: significant changes were coming. Perhaps the most legendary example of
this prescience can be found in Vsevelod
Meyerhold's (1874-1940) production of Masquerade, designed by Golovin (fig. 10). Completed in 1836, Mikhail Lermontov's verse
drama is set in St. Petersburg high society and
follows the melodramatic exploits of a jealous
husband who poisons his innocent wife.
Through Meyerhold's conception of the play,
the flaws and pettiness of the imperial age

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2002