How Russian noblemen mocked serfs to amaze guests with ballet

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

Russian ballet is practically a quality mark in the theater arts. However, the origins of Russian ballet, as is often the case with the origins, are unsightly. After all, it began as a fun of slave owners, and the fate of even the real stars of the scene was rarely enviable.

Survivor's mistake

Two friends, two of the most famous actresses of the serf theater, Tatyana Shlykova, a ballerina, and Praskovya Zhemchugova, a singer, are often cited as examples of the fact that any wildness retreats in admiration for real talent. Zhemchugova, who with her talent so charmed the owner that she became his lawful married wife, is remembered most often, and the biography of Shlykova, she is Granatova (Count Sheremetev did not like his artists' real Russian surnames and constantly came up with new, "precious" ones) is worth recalling separately.

At the age of seven, the girl Tanya was taken from her parents to the manor house, because she seemed charming to Sheremetev. Mother and father were not asked for their opinion; they could have only one opinion: to rejoice and thank for the mercy. The cute baby was taught manners, languages and the main thing, for which they undertook to nurture her: dance, singing, playing music. Yes, from Tatiana from an early age and purposefully raised the star of the stage. And the project turned out to be very successful. Shlykova's performance impressed even Empress Catherine II - she noted him by summoning the ballerina to her box, allowing her to kiss her hand and presenting several gold ducats.

At the age of twenty, Tatyana was given freedom, but she, of course, did not leave the owners anywhere (frankly, there was nowhere to go, and the Sheremetevs treated her very well). When Count Sheremetev and Praskovya Zhemchugova died, Shlykova raised their son, and then raised their grandson. But to consider the fates of Tatiana and Praskovya indicative of serf artists means committing a “survivor's mistake”. Serfs much more often received freedom, earning money and buying their freedom. And ballet dancers - including those who were applauded after a performance with all their ardor - were not often expected to be free and kindly treated.

Ballet is about serfdom

In the second half of the eighteenth century and until the abolition of serfdom, ballet existed primarily at the expense of slave actors: not only were there more serf theaters than imperial or state theaters, they were sometimes even larger. Thus, the Sheremetev Theater in Ostankino, which existed for about ten years, was more luxurious than the Empress's Hermitage Theater. European masters were signed up for him, teaching artists of different genres. But Sheremetev often skimped on the actors themselves. Only the leading artists ate sweetly. The rest were simply "women and men" for the owner, they were poorly fed, kept in cramped, poorly heated bedrooms for several people.

But even worse was the public theater of Count Kamensky in Orel. Outwardly democratic (it is necessary, and the theater for the general public, and he sits at the box office, sells tickets), the count was in fact a despot and stingy. During the performances, he attentively, even meticulously followed what was happening on the stage and entered the actors' mistakes in a special book. The mistakes were corrected right there, during the intermission: they beat the actors behind the scenes with rods. The sounds of blows and groans of pain sometimes reached the viewer. In general, the Russian serf theater lay in the interval between Sheremetev and Kamensky. What does it mean: fought. But after the performances.

The life of the average serf artist did not differ much from the life of the average peasant. Most often, a dancer, as well as a singer, and a dramatic actor from ordinary agricultural work - first of all, corvee, and secondly, plowing to feed his family - was not exempted in any way. This meant that during the harvest, the theatrical season was stopped almost everywhere, otherwise either the master was left without a crop, or the actor, along with his relatives, would die of hunger. Less often, the owners of theaters followed the path of Sheremetev, selecting children from their parents for permanent residence at the master's house.

One could collect as many applause for oneself and compliments to the owner who arranged the theater, but to be free over one's life is even less than ordinary peasants. Those at least could marry or get married at their own discretion (yes, the parents did not always choose for the bride and groom). At times they tried to breed the actors like hounds, "crossing" with each other, regardless of likes and dislikes. Moreover, very often, looking back at the fashion for harems that swept across Europe in the eighteenth century, the bar not only held their actresses for a personal harem, but also offered them to visit dear guests. This did not contribute to harmony in acting families. During the day, the actor was flogged to try; at night he took revenge and beat his wife "for fornication", trying only not to spoil - otherwise you will get even more from the master.

The same Sheremetev who married Zhemchugova kept his prim for concubines. Imitating the customs of the Sultan's harem, as they were described in Europe, he left a silk scarf in the room of one or another beauty, and at night he seemed to come to pick it up and left with him in the morning, after certain actions. Nobody asked the consent of the "concubine" - let them still be grateful! In others, after the performance, the actresses were probably set up half-naked in the garden, portraying nymphs, so that the guests had someone to chase after and someone to take half-force right on the grass. Often Cupids, the sons of the same actresses, dressed in tunics, had to play along with this action.

And, of course, actors and actresses traded right and left, almost more actively than serfs of other occupations. Because a good shoemaker will come in handy even in bad times, and artists are just pampering. Often the actors were not sold, but rented out. The best option for the artist in this case was the Imperial Theater. If the actor liked him, they tried to buy him out, but the tenant was often refused on the principle “you need such a cow yourself,” but the imperial family was afraid to refuse.

Torture as a measure of education

The landlords were especially inventive in getting the necessary diligence and quality of play from the artists. They easily replaced any system of encouragement and motivation with torture, ranging from "banal" whips to measures that can be called sophisticated. So, Prince Shakhovskoy, as a special (but often applied) measure of punishment, ordered the artist to sit on an iron chair attached to the wall. Above the chair was an iron collar, which was fastened around the neck of the "educated". In this position, without sleep, without food, almost without movement, with increasing pain in the spine from inappropriate support, the artists sometimes spent several days.

Often landowners casually shouted at the actors from the auditorium, and sometimes in the middle of the performance they went on stage to make a thrashing - from a slap in the face to a natural hail of cuffs, from which, defending himself, the artist bent into three deaths. Immediately after that, the actor or actress had to quickly recover, take on the desired look and play further, taking into account, so to speak, the comments on their performance. Such cases are evidenced, for example, by Prince Pyotr Vyazemsky:

"Another gentleman enters the backstage during the intermission and makes a delicate, fatherly remark:" You, Sasha, did not quite deftly endure your role: the countess must behave with great dignity. "And 15-20 minutes of intermission Sasha got dearly, the coachman whipped her with full dignity. Then the same Sasha had to either play in vaudeville, or dance in ballet."

“No matter how hard you try, you can’t imagine that people, and even girls, after the rods, and in addition to the coachmen’s rods, forgetting both pain and shame, could instantly turn either into important countesses, or jump, laughing heartily, to be nice, to fly in the ballet, but meanwhile they had to and did, because they had learned by experience that if they did not immediately spin from under the rods, make merry, laugh, jump, then again the coachman … They know with bitter experience what kind of the slightest sign of coercion they will be flogged again and terribly flogged. It is impossible to present such a situation clearly, but all this was … Just like organ-grinders with sticks and whips make the dogs dance, so the landowners made people laugh and dance with rods and whips,”there is such evidence.

Less than a century passed from the abolition of serfdom to the Diaghilev seasons. Before Agrippina Vaganova, the mother of Russian ballet - less than half a century. Sometimes the greatest things have a terrible, unsightly past.

The masters of the serfs got away with almost anything. A landowner who "loved" children very much: Why did officials turn a blind eye to the harem of minors Lev Izmailov.