How vaudeville came to be, and what was the beginning of the end of the popularity of musical comedies

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The transformation of a life situation into a "vaudeville" does not bode well - this word has become synonymous with farce in modern language. And even though the genre itself now seems somewhat old-fashioned, vaudeville is clearly in no hurry to leave the past, firmly holding fans through nostalgic memories or transforming into something more in tune with the time. This has already happened, vaudeville tried on different masks and vestments, depending on the era or country where he found his audience.

Vaudeville: origins and history

Coming back to the origins of vaudeville leads to the town of Val de Vire, or Vaux de Vire, in Normandy. It was there, at the end of the 15th century, that the songs of local poets Olivier Basselin and Jean Le Gu were sang with pleasure. They sang, as a rule, during a feast, when they found the mood not only to relax, but also to laugh and joke, preferably with a touch of piquancy - that's what the French are for. The Normans did not invent anything particularly new in this sense, but after a while the songs themselves spread beyond the borders of the region, and a new trace of vaudeville is already found in Paris.

It was already "voix de ville", "the voice of the city" - the second component of the etymological trace of vaudeville. Be that as it may, and the songs of ordinary Frenchmen about simple intrigues and intrigues, interspersed with satire inevitable for folk art, eventually became part of folk culture. In the 18th century, vaudeville songs were already an indispensable attribute of fairground life, and after the Great French Revolution, in In 1792, the Theater of Vaudeville opened in Paris, which marked the beginning of the transformation of this designation of folk songs into theatrical genre.

Since everything French for some time now attracted the Russian nobility, and in the first half of the 19th century, Russian aristocrats not only perfectly knew this foreign language, but also often spent time in Paris, it is not surprising that soon vaudeville became fashionable in the Russian Empire as well - adapted to the new conditions.

Vaudeville in Russian

French vaudeville was often translated, replacing the characters' names with Russian ones, adding strokes that were well understood by the local society, sometimes using puns and hints - this is how a piece of music was born that resonated with the Moscow and St. Petersburg public. It would seem that they did not take vaudeville seriously - in any case, in classical literary works, skeptical statements on this matter are often found, but nevertheless, visits to theaters where they gave vaudeville were in great honor among the Russian aristocracy.

In addition, the meaning of this theatrical term changed, “matured” - the vaudeville adjusted itself to the aspirations of the composers and to the demands of the public. It was an opportunity not only to entertain the audience, but also to touch upon the most pressing topics - easily, playfully. Vaudeville was not suitable for a serious understanding of reality or harsh satire, which is why, perhaps, the surname Perepelsky is found in a series of authors of vaudeville - which does not say anything to most readers, but is the pseudonym of Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov. And the first Russian vaudeville, a small piece of music, staged on the stage, is considered "The Cossack the Poet" by Alexander Shakhovsky, a play that was a huge success with the audience. The best actors played with pleasure in vaudeville - Mikhail Schepkin, one of the founders of the national acting school, repeatedly appeared on stage as a vaudeville artist.

Russian vaudeville, however, was criticized a lot: converted from French, it acquired a noticeable ponderousness, cumbersomeness: what in the original seemed alive, light and witty, in Russia looked feigned and unnatural. The coquetry of French women, for example, the Russian audience did not see in compatriots, and therefore did not particularly recognize them on stage. The authors often sinned and outright rhyming - the songs were funny, but did not differ in great artistic value. True, this flaw did not particularly affect the popularity of the genre: vaudeville until the sixties of the XIX century remained the most widespread type of performances in Russian theaters. There were also such works, whose popularity outlived their creators, for example, "Lev Gurych Sinichkin, or Provincial Debutante", a vaudeville written by Dmitry Lensky in 1839.

Operetta, which again came from France, became a new fashion, which for a time ousted vaudeville from the stage, was the operetta, which again came from France: a genre in which both music and choreography were sustained in the same style, performing not an auxiliary function for the development of the plot, but being part of the general idea of the musical comedy.

Ah, vaudeville …

But the story of vaudeville did not end there, he just once again “changed the image”. This theatrical genre was still waiting for interesting transformations. In the USA and Canada, for example, almost any show was understood under the term "vaudeville" since the 1880s: a set of numbers of musicians, dancers, magicians, trainers, comedians and any other artists received this name. At the same time, the performance did not have any general idea, still playing a purely entertainment role: to present the audience with a pleasant, cheerful evening.

In Soviet art, vaudeville is associated primarily with cinema - thanks to several brilliant films that are few in number, but have left their mark on Russian art. Such was the film "Straw Hat", the plot of which was taken from the eponymous French vaudeville of the 1850s. Mixed in a purely French, it would seem, a combination of gallantry and enterprise, frivolity and etiquette, the Soviet audience liked the vaudeville - perhaps primarily due to the brilliant cast. By the way, after the success of Straw Hat, director Eldar Ryazanov gave up the idea of inviting Andrei Mironov and Lyudmila Gurchenko to his new film: the recent “vaudeville” roles of the actors played a role. It was then planned to shoot "The Irony of Fate".

Another excellent example of Soviet-style vaudeville was the 1979 film "Ah, vaudeville, vaudeville …", where Oleg Tabakov willingly agreed to the main role, and Galina Belyaeva, the star of the recently released film "My affectionate and gentle animal", played the role of the heroine. The script was based on the story of Pyotr Grigoriev "The Daughter of a Russian Actor", and the film got into the category of the best films of the Soviet period thanks to the songs of the composer Maxim Dunaevsky.

By the way, one of the songs of the film "Ah, vaudeville, vaudeville …" became almost more popular than the film itself.