Vera Komissarzhevskaya
Encyclopedia
Tashkent
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...
) was the most celebrated Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n actress at the turn of the twentieth century.
Vera Komissarzhevskaya was the daughter of Fyodor Komissarzhevsky
Fyodor Petrovich Komissarzhevsky
Fyodor Petrovich Komissarzhevsky was a Russian opera singer and teacher of voice and stagecraft. A leading tenor at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, he created many roles in Russian operas, including the Pretender in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov and the title role in Tchaikovsky's Vakula...
, a leading tenor of the Mariinsky Theatre
Mariinsky Theatre
The Mariinsky Theatre is a historic theatre of opera and ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music theatre of late 19th century Russia, where many of the stage masterpieces of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov received their premieres. The...
, and sister of Theodore Komisarjevsky
Theodore Komisarjevsky
Fyodor Fyodorovich Komissarzhevsky or Theodore Komisarjevsky, as he is better known in the West, was a Russian theatrical director and designer. He began his career in Moscow, but had his greatest influence in London...
, a famous theatrical director. Her mother was Mariya Nikolaevna Shulgina, who was the daughter of General Nikolai Shulgin, a war hero and officer in the Preobrazhensky regiment
Preobrazhensky regiment
The Preobrazhensky Regiment was one of the oldest and elite regiments of the Russian army. Along with the Semenovsky regiment also served as a gendarmie unit for the state Secret Chancellery in the 18th century, headed by the Prince Fyodor Romodanovsky.It was formed by Peter the Great in the late...
.
At the age of 19 she married Count Muravyov but preferred to keep her stage name after the marriage. Since 1896, she worked in the Alexandrine Theatre of St Petersburg. Her greatest triumph was the role of Nina Zarechnaya in the premiere of Chekhov
Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
's The Seagull
The Seagull
The Seagull is the first of what are generally considered to be the four major plays by the Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov. The Seagull was written in 1895 and first produced in 1896...
in 1896.
In 1904, Komissarzhevskaya established her own theatre, the Komissarjevsky Theatre
Komissarjevsky Theatre
The Komissarjevsky Theatre is a theatre in Saint Petersburg named after Vera Komissarzhevskaya. Her brother Theodore Komisarjevsky established a studio of his sister's theatre in New York City in 1939....
, which proved immensely popular with the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n aristocracy in promoting the ideas of Russian Symbolism
Russian Symbolism
Russian symbolism was an intellectual and artistic movement predominant at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. It represented the Russian branch of the symbolist movement in European art, and was mostly known for its contributions to Russian poetry.-Russian symbolism in...
. The theatre was directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold
Vsevolod Meyerhold
Vsevolod Emilevich Meyerhold was a great Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in an unconventional theatre setting made him one of the seminal forces in modern international theatre.-Early...
in 1906, but his idiosyncratic approach led to Komissarzhevskaya's rupture with him the following year.
Vera's death from smallpox
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...
during a tour in Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
shocked many of her admirers and occasioned some poignant lyrics from Alexander Blok
Alexander Blok
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok was a Russian lyrical poet.-Life and career:Blok was born in Saint Petersburg, into a sophisticated and intellectual family. Some of his relatives were literary men, his father being a law professor in Warsaw, and his maternal grandfather the rector of Saint Petersburg...
. One of the major theatres of St Petersburg still bears her name.
There was a biographical film about her, Ya - aktrisa ("I am an actress"), released in the USSR in 1980, starring Natalia Saiko as Komissarzhevskaya.
Fyodor Petrovich Komissarzhevsky
Fyodor Petrovich Komissarzhevsky
Fyodor Petrovich Komissarzhevsky was a Russian opera singer and teacher of voice and stagecraft. A leading tenor at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, he created many roles in Russian operas, including the Pretender in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov and the title role in Tchaikovsky's Vakula...
frequently corresponded with his daughter Vera (who was his favorite), and who would also visit him as much as she could. Towards the end of his life he wrote to her mother, Mariya Nikolaevna Shulgina:
"Vera!? To say that she is often in my thoughts... would be an understatement, for never a moment passes without my thinking of her! My whole being rests on my feelings and my thoughts about her. She is to my spirit what air is to physical existence! Human being, friend, daughter, sister, family — everything is concentrated in her alone..."