Alexander Ostuzhev
Encyclopedia
Alexander Alexeyevich Pozharov ' onMouseout='HidePop("21115")' href="/topics/Voronezh">Voronezh
Voronezh
Voronezh is a city in southwestern Russia, the administrative center of Voronezh Oblast. It is located on both sides of the Voronezh River, away from where it flows into the Don. It is an operating center of the Southeastern Railway , as well as the center of the Don Highway...

 – died March 1, 1953 in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

),
better known by the stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...

 Alexander Ostuzhev
was a Russian
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

 and Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 drama
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...

 actor.
Ostuzhev became the lead actor of the Maly Theatre
Maly Theatre (Moscow)
Maly Theatre is a drama theater in Moscow, Russia. Established in 1806 and operating on its present site on the Theatre Square since 1824, the theatre traces its history to the Moscow University drama company, established in 1756...

 company in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 in 1898.

He completely lost hearing by 1910 yet managed to stay on stage and play leading roles at Maly until 1952,
including critically acclaimed productions of Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...

(1935) and Uriel da Costa
Uriel da Costa
Uriel da Costa or Uriel Acosta was a philosopher and skeptic from Portugal.-Life:Costa was born in Porto with the name Gabriel da Costa...

(1940).

Early career

Alexander Pozharov was born in the family of a railroad engineer
Railroad engineer
A railroad engineer, locomotive engineer, train operator, train driver or engine driver is a person who drives a train on a railroad...

 in Voronezh
Voronezh
Voronezh is a city in southwestern Russia, the administrative center of Voronezh Oblast. It is located on both sides of the Voronezh River, away from where it flows into the Don. It is an operating center of the Southeastern Railway , as well as the center of the Don Highway...

. After two years in high school he was expelled after a conflict with the schoolmaster and had to rely on accidental jobs to make a living. He played as an amateur at a local drama theatre where he was spotted by Alexander Yuzhin
Alexander Yuzhin
Alexander Ivanovich Yuzhin was a stage name of the Georgian Prince Sumbatov , who dominated the Malyi Theatre of Moscow at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. He was best known for the Romantical parts in the dramas by Schiller and Victor Hugo but also penned a number of plays himself...

. Yuzhin invited Pozharov to Maly Theatre College of Acting in Moscow and granted him a scholarship of 300 roubles annually. Pozharov trained at the College of Acting under Alexander Lensky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko
Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko
Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko was a Georgian-born Russian theatre director, writer, pedagogue, playwright, producer and theatre organizer, who founded the Moscow Art Theatre with his colleague, Konstantin Stanislavsky, in 1898.-Biography:Vladimir Ivanovich Nemirovich-Danchenko was born...

 for two years.

In 1898 Lensky set up his own company of actors at Maly Theatre, inviting Pozharov. Young actor adopted stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...

 Ostuzhev (based on , frost), antonymous to his real surname (based on , fire). Most common version, later retold by Ostuzhev himself, connects the choice with the director's fear of the public mistaking the actor's real surname with a fire alarm call. Historian Yury Eichenwald proposed a different, perhaps parallel, version, that Lensky chose surname Ostuzhev for being opposite to Alexander's hot temper on stage and in real life. In 1901 the media named him the perfect Romeo
Romeo Montague
Romeo is one of the fictional protagonists in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Romeo is the son of old Montague and his wife, who secretly loves and marries Juliet, a member of the rival House of Capulet...

 (his first top billing at Maly), but soon his explosive personality backfired: Ostuzhev physically assaulted another actor and was forced to leave Maly. Ostuzhev joined the private Korsch Theatre company for the 1901–1902 season and was later readmitted to Maly, where he would play for the next five decades.

Voice and deafness

Young Ostuzhev was admired for his voice. Tommaso Salvini
Tommaso Salvini
Tommaso Salvini was an Italian actor. His father and mother were both actors, and Tommaso first appeared when he was barely fourteen as Pasquino in Goldoni's Donne curiose. In 1847 he joined the company of Adelaide Ristori, who was then at the beginning of her brilliant career...

 who watched Ostuzhev as Cassio
Michael Cassio
Michael Cassio, or simply Cassio, is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's Othello. The source of the character is the 1565 tale "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio; Cassio is unnamed in Cinthio but referred to as "the squadron leader." In the play, Cassio is a young and handsome lieutenant...

 in 1900 rehearsals of Othello, seriously advised him to pursue a career in bel canto
Bel canto
Bel canto , along with a number of similar constructions , is an Italian opera term...

 singing. However, 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...

 argued that Ostuzhev "would have been a better actor had he not had such a beautiful voice" and branded his style "declamatory singsong a la Ostuzhev".

In late 1900s Ostuzhev gradually moved from juvenile, romantic parts of his early days to modern drama, particularly exploring mother and son relationships in a duo with Maria Yermolova
Maria Yermolova
Maria Nikolayevna Yermolova was said to be the greatest actress in the history of the Maly Theatre in Moscow and the first person to be proclaimed the "People's Artist of the Republic" ....

 (Neznamov in Guilty without Guilt and Zhadov in A Profitable Place by Aleksandr Ostrovsky, Oswald in Ghosts
Ghosts (play)
Ghosts is a play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It was written in 1881 and first staged in 1882.Like many of Ibsen's better-known plays, Ghosts is a scathing commentary on 19th century morality....

by Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...

). Ostuzhev's career could have ended there: around 1908 his hearing, damaged by Ménière's disease
Ménière's disease
Ménière's disease is a disorder of the inner ear that can affect hearing and balance to a varying degree. It is characterized by episodes of vertigo and tinnitus and progressive hearing loss, usually in one ear. It is named after the French physician Prosper Ménière, who, in an article published...

, declined, and by 1910 the actor was completely deaf. But Ostuzhev defied disability and remained on stage: in August 1909, approaching deafness, he played the tragic part of False Dmitriy I
False Dmitriy I
False Dmitriy I was the Tsar of Russia from 21 July 1605 until his death on 17 May 1606 under the name of Dimitriy Ioannovich . He is sometimes referred to under the usurped title of Dmitriy II...

 in False Dmitry and Vasily Shuisky by Aleksandr Ostrovsky (August 1909); already deaf, he played in the new Maly productions of Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

's comedies – Ferdinand in The Tempest
The Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...

, Orlando in Twelfth Night (1912) and Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...

(1916)

He designed and followed a rigorous training routine to stay on stage despite the disability; he memorized all parts of each play flawlessly before the first rehearsal, to be able to read the lips
Lip reading
Lip reading, also known as lipreading or speechreading, is a technique of understanding speech by visually interpreting the movements of the lips, face and tongue with information provided by the context, language, and any residual hearing....

 of his stage partners and even provided them with accidental prompting services
Prompter
The prompter in an opera house gives the singers the opening words of each phrase a few seconds early. Prompts are mouthed silently or hurled lyrically in a half-voice, audible only on stage...

, undetected by the audience. He retained full control of his voice and attributed his later acting success to "concentration within himself" imposed by his disability. Off stage, Ostuzhev retreated into his hobby of metalworking; his small apartment contained only a bedroom and a workshop.

Deafness
Hearing impairment
-Definition:Deafness is the inability for the ear to interpret certain or all frequencies of sound.-Environmental Situations:Deafness can be caused by environmental situations such as noise, trauma, or other ear defections...

, coupled with Ostuzhev's reputation of a star, was a significant obstacle to directors; from onset of deafness until meeting director Sergey Radlov in 1935 Ostuzhev never felt being directed professionally. Radlov controlled Ostuzhev in writing with long personal letters.

Personal crisis

Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...

 and early 1920s brought forward new names and innovations in theatre; Maly rejected experiment and remained a traditional old-school drama theatre despised by left-wing critics. Ostuzhev experienced a personal and professional crisis; he retired from his earlier shows, believing that he was too old to play young lovers, and could not secure new, more appropriate, parts in the atmosphere of increased theatrical rivalry. He did not make headlines until the 1923 premiere of Iron Wall by Runda-Alekseev (as Crown Prince) and the 1925 part of Quasimodo
Quasimodo
Quasimodo is a fictional character in the novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo. Quasimodo was born with a hunchback and feared by the townspeople as a sort of monster but he finds sanctuary in an unlikely love that is fulfilled only in death. The role of Quasimodo has been played by...

 in The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is a novel by Victor Hugo published in 1831. The French title refers to the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, on which the story is centered.-Background:...

. His Mark Antony
Mark Antony
Marcus Antonius , known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general. As a military commander and administrator, he was an important supporter and loyal friend of his mother's cousin Julius Caesar...

 in Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar (play)
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, also known simply as Julius Caesar, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the 44 BC conspiracy against...

and Fiesco
Giovanni Luigi Fieschi
Giovanni Luigi Fieschi was a Genoese nobleman, count of Lavagna. He is the subject of the play Fiesco by Friedrich Schiller.-Biography:...

 in Fiesco's Conspiracy at Genoa
Fiesco (play)
Fiesco is the second full length drama written by the German playwright Friedrich Schiller. It is a republican tragedy based on the historical conspiracy of Giovanni Luigi Fieschi against Andrea Doria in Genoa in 1547...

failed to impress the audience and both shows were soon abandoned.

In 1929 Ostuzhev was billed as Karl Moor in The Robbers. The play was a success, but spelled a professional catastrophe for Ostuzhev: between The Robbers in 1929 and Othello in 1935 he got only one part to play, that of Vova in The Fruits of Enlightenment
The Fruits of Enlightenment
The Fruits of Enlightenment, aka Fruits of Culture is a play by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. It satirizes the persistence of unenlightened attitudes towards the peasants amongst the Russian landed aristocracy...

, "entirely alien to him". By January 1935, when director Sergey Radlov began rehearsing Othello at Maly, the audience and fellow actors had nearly written him off but Radlov preferred Ostuzhev to his younger rivals and rediscovered the actor's true capabilities.

Late success

Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...

became a late breakthrough for the sixty-year-old actor. "The resonance was unheard of: all Moscow was at the door of the Maly Theatre, the queues formed since dawn." Maly Theatre veterans said that publicity of Othello surpassed the fame of best performances by Alexander Yuzhin
Alexander Yuzhin
Alexander Ivanovich Yuzhin was a stage name of the Georgian Prince Sumbatov , who dominated the Malyi Theatre of Moscow at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. He was best known for the Romantical parts in the dramas by Schiller and Victor Hugo but also penned a number of plays himself...

 and Maria Yermolova
Maria Yermolova
Maria Nikolayevna Yermolova was said to be the greatest actress in the history of the Maly Theatre in Moscow and the first person to be proclaimed the "People's Artist of the Republic" ....

. During the first night (December 10, 1935) Ostuzhev received thirty-seven curtain call
Curtain call
A curtain call occurs at the end of a performance when individuals return to the stage to be recognized by the audience for their performance. In musical theater, the performers typically recognize the orchestra and its conductor at the end of the curtain call...

s. A man in the audience responded to Ostuzhev's monologue
Monologue
In theatre, a monologue is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts aloud, though sometimes also to directly address another character or the audience. Monologues are common across the range of dramatic media...

 with a desperate shout: "It wasn't his fault!". By December 21, 1937, Maly Theatre produced a record run of 100 performances, although Ostuzhev himself suffered a heart attack on stage in the summer of 1936 and was incapacitated for several months. Ostuzhev played an Othello "who was meant to inspire love"; he reasoned that "Othello believed that in killing Desdemona he is destroying the source of evil but in the end his suicide is his punishment of the source of evil in himself". His opinion that "jealousy was not the theme of the play" was followed in all but one of the seventy-eight productions of Othello in the USSR.

After Othello Ostuzhev starred as The Miserly Knight in Little Tragedies by Alexander Pushkin (1937) and in the title role of Uriel da Costa
Uriel da Costa
Uriel da Costa or Uriel Acosta was a philosopher and skeptic from Portugal.-Life:Costa was born in Porto with the name Gabriel da Costa...

by Karl Gutzkow
Karl Gutzkow
Karl Ferdinand Gutzkow was a German writer notable in the Young Germany movement of the mid-19th century.-Life:...

 (1940); the latter became a signature play for Maly.

During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 Ostuzhev, nearly seventy years old, performed with travelling companies ("brigades") for the front-line troops. "No triumph that I have had playing Othello can compare with the tremendous joy I felt... I felt that the soldiers of my people needed me." He returned to Maly Theatre at the end of the war and continued acting; his last premiere on stage was The Narrator in War and Peace
War and Peace
War and Peace is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in 1869. The work is epic in scale and is regarded as one of the most important works of world literature...

while Othello and Uriel da Costa continued running until his retirement.

According to actress Yelena Gogoleva, Ostuzhev left the theatre in despair when another actor was given the part of Uriel da Costa while Ostuzhev himself was ill. Ostuzhev took the fact that someone else could successfully replace him as a personal insult.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK