Michael Maddox
Encyclopedia
Michael Maddox was an English
entrepreneur and theatre manager active in Imperial Russia. He was co-founder, with Prince Urusov, of the Petrovsky Theatre, the first permanent opera theatre in Moscow
and predecessor of the Bolshoi Theatre
.
in 1766 as the manager of a museum of 'mechanical and physical representations', visiting both St Petersburg and Moscow
. Leaving Russia he travelled to Madrid
with his museum, and spent time in London
in the ensuing decade. It is unclear whether he was related to Anthony Maddox, the successful slack-wire and theatre performer. There exists a possibility of confusion between the two with regard to references to equilibrism. Anthony Maddox drowned on a sea voyage to Dublin in 1758 along with Theophilus Cibber
.
On returning to Russia before 1776, Michael Maddox was taken into partnership in the theatre company formed that year by the Moscow Prosecutor, Prince Pyotr Vasilyevich Urusov. Maddox had had an established record of success at the Haymarket Theatre
, London where it is said that in 1770 his were the most prosperous entertainments ever carried on in that house. His profits in one season are stated to have amounted to £11,000, being £2,500 more than David Garrick
's a few years earlier.
Urusov had been granted a ten-year licence for theatrical and other performances. For four years they enjoyed success in a wooden theatre at Znamenka Street before it burnt down in early 1780. Maddox then raised enough credit to buy his share of the company from Prince Urusov and employ architect Christian Rosberg the same year to construct a new brick and stone building that faced Petrovka Street
. It thus became known as the Petrovsky theatre. The theatre had four storeys of boxes and two spacious galleries. The pit had two series of benches, with enclosed seats at the sides. The sumptuously decorated boxes were available to let at from three hundred to a thousand roubles and upwards. Admittance to the pit was one rouble.
Maddox obtained a further ten-year licence from Moscow's Governor, Prince Dolgoruky-Krymsky
, but financial difficulties meant that ownership of the theatre passed to the Office of Imperial Theatres in 1792. Empress Maria Feodorovna granted Maddox a life-long pension of 3,000 roubles for his contribution to the creation of Moscow theatre. The theatre was operational until 1805, when it burned down just before a performance of Ferdinand Kauer
's Rusalka
. (It was replaced by the Bolshoi Theatre
on the same site.)
a. Petrovsky Theatre, including the extension which contained a rotunda.
b. Interior of Rotunda/Masquerade hall. c. Interior of Theatre/Opera house
d. Relative size and situation of Petrovsky theatre and Bolshoi. e. Plan of 2nd floor with rotunda and theatre.
and opera
during this time. These included more than 100 different operas, mainly of the comic opera/opéra comique type by composers such as Grétry
, Dalayrac, Mehul, Paisiello, Philidor
and Martin y Soler, as well as Russians such as Yevstigney Fomin
and Vasily Pashkevich
.
The foreign operas were largely performed in Russian translations by S. N. Glinka
, Levshin
, Dmitrievsky
and others. Three notable melodramas (Fomin
's Orfeo, G. A. Benda
's Pygmalion and Medea & Jason), were part of the repertoire.
Theatre productions in Russian translation included Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet and Voltaire
's Mahomet
ou le Fanatisme. The most successful works however were those of August von Kotzebue
, such as Menschenhass und Reue, the Papagoy and Armuth und Edelsinn.
Masquerades for 1,500 people or more, where carnival costume was compulsory, were held in the mirror-bedecked rotunda. This part of the structure alone had cost fifty thousand roubles to construct. William Tooke
in his 'Sketch of Mosco' (sic) describes the audience in the pit of the theatre as: "perhaps, in many respects, one of the most polite that can anywhere be seen. The ears are never rent with those noisy marks of disapprobation, which do not correct bad actors, and which distress and overpower the inexperienced and timid."
From 1783, Maddox also created and ran a Vauxhall Gardens
(Vokzal/Воксал) enterprise concurrently in the Moscow suburbs, where operas and plays were performed from mid-May to September. A long gallery led to a grand circular hall for dancing. From the dancing-hall there was a large area surrounded by a covered gallery, having in the middle an elevated platform for the orchestra. This gallery was chiefly used for promenading. Beyond this was a hall allotted to refreshments of all kinds. On the sides were billiards rooms. In the evenings the galleries were illuminated with coloured lamps, and on particular days fireworks displays were set off. It is likely that Maddox and his wife retained ownership of this after the Petrovsky was taken on by the Office of Imperial Theatres.
, which is currently displayed in the Kremlin Armoury
in Moscow
.
He married a German woman from an aristocratic family and fathered eleven children, one of them the adventurer Roman Medoks. His wife survived him and continued with ownership of some theatrical buildings.
The suggestions that he was a Professor of Mathematics from Oxford University and that he had tutored the Tsarevich Pavel
prior to moving to Moscow have not been substantiated.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
entrepreneur and theatre manager active in Imperial Russia. He was co-founder, with Prince Urusov, of the Petrovsky Theatre, the first permanent opera theatre 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...
and predecessor of the Bolshoi Theatre
Bolshoi Theatre
The Bolshoi Theatre is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds performances of ballet and opera. The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera are amongst the oldest and most renowned ballet and opera companies in the world...
.
Life and career
Described as a famous equilibrist, Michael Maddox arrived first in RussiaRussia
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...
in 1766 as the manager of a museum of 'mechanical and physical representations', visiting both St Petersburg and 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...
. Leaving Russia he travelled to Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
with his museum, and spent time in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in the ensuing decade. It is unclear whether he was related to Anthony Maddox, the successful slack-wire and theatre performer. There exists a possibility of confusion between the two with regard to references to equilibrism. Anthony Maddox drowned on a sea voyage to Dublin in 1758 along with Theophilus Cibber
Theophilus Cibber
Theophilus Cibber was an English actor, playwright, author, and son of the actor-manager Colley Cibber.He began acting at an early age, and followed his father into theatrical management. In 1727, Alexander Pope satirized Theophilus Cibber in his Dunciad as a youth who "thrusts his person full...
.
On returning to Russia before 1776, Michael Maddox was taken into partnership in the theatre company formed that year by the Moscow Prosecutor, Prince Pyotr Vasilyevich Urusov. Maddox had had an established record of success at the Haymarket Theatre
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...
, London where it is said that in 1770 his were the most prosperous entertainments ever carried on in that house. His profits in one season are stated to have amounted to £11,000, being £2,500 more than David Garrick
David Garrick
David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson...
's a few years earlier.
Urusov had been granted a ten-year licence for theatrical and other performances. For four years they enjoyed success in a wooden theatre at Znamenka Street before it burnt down in early 1780. Maddox then raised enough credit to buy his share of the company from Prince Urusov and employ architect Christian Rosberg the same year to construct a new brick and stone building that faced Petrovka Street
Petrovka Street
Petrovka Street is a street in Moscow, Russia, that runs north from Kuznetsky Most and Theatral Square up past Strastnoy Boulevard and Petrovsky Boulevard....
. It thus became known as the Petrovsky theatre. The theatre had four storeys of boxes and two spacious galleries. The pit had two series of benches, with enclosed seats at the sides. The sumptuously decorated boxes were available to let at from three hundred to a thousand roubles and upwards. Admittance to the pit was one rouble.
Maddox obtained a further ten-year licence from Moscow's Governor, Prince Dolgoruky-Krymsky
Vasily Dolgorukov
Vasily Dolgorukov:* Vasily Lukich Dolgorukov* Vasily Vladimirovich Dolgorukov* Vasily Alexandrovich Dolgorukov , Marshal of the Imperial Court under Tsar Nicholas II...
, but financial difficulties meant that ownership of the theatre passed to the Office of Imperial Theatres in 1792. Empress Maria Feodorovna granted Maddox a life-long pension of 3,000 roubles for his contribution to the creation of Moscow theatre. The theatre was operational until 1805, when it burned down just before a performance of Ferdinand Kauer
Ferdinand Kauer
Ferdinand August Kauer , was an Austrian composer and pianist.-Biography:Kauer was born in Klein-Thaya near Znaim in South Moravia. He studied in Znaim, Tyrnau, and Vienna, and later settled in Vienna around 1777. In 1781 he joined Karl von Marinelli's newly formed company at Vienna as leader and...
's Rusalka
Rusalka
In Slavic mythology, a rusalka was a female ghost, water nymph, succubus, or mermaid-like demon that dwelled in a waterway....
. (It was replaced by the Bolshoi Theatre
Bolshoi Theatre
The Bolshoi Theatre is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds performances of ballet and opera. The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera are amongst the oldest and most renowned ballet and opera companies in the world...
on the same site.)
a. Petrovsky Theatre, including the extension which contained a rotunda.
b. Interior of Rotunda/Masquerade hall. c. Interior of Theatre/Opera house
d. Relative size and situation of Petrovsky theatre and Bolshoi. e. Plan of 2nd floor with rotunda and theatre.
Maddox Theatre Company
The Maddox troupe delivered 425 performances of drama, balletBallet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
and opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
during this time. These included more than 100 different operas, mainly of the comic opera/opéra comique type by composers such as Grétry
Grétry
People of the surname Grétry include* André Grétry , composer of opéras comiques;* Jeanne-Marie Grandon Grétry , painter, wife of André;...
, Dalayrac, Mehul, Paisiello, Philidor
Philidor
Philidor or Danican Philidor was a family of musicians that served as court musicians to the French kings. The original name of the family was Danican and was of Scottish origin...
and Martin y Soler, as well as Russians such as Yevstigney Fomin
Yevstigney Fomin
Yevstigney Ipat'yevich Fomin was a Russian opera composer of the 18th century.-Biography:...
and Vasily Pashkevich
Vasily Pashkevich
Vasily Alexeyevich Pashkevich also Paskevich was a Russian composer, singer, violinist and teacher who lived during the time of Catherine the Great.-Biography:...
.
The foreign operas were largely performed in Russian translations by S. N. Glinka
Sergey Glinka
Sergei Nikolayevich Glinka was a minor Russian author of the Romantic period.-Biography:Glinka was the elder brother of Fedor Nikolaevich Glinka. He was born at Smolensk in 1774. In 1796 he entered the Russian army, but after three years service retired with the rank of major...
, Levshin
Platon Levshin
Plato II or Platon II was the Metropolitan of Moscow from 1775 to 1812. He personifies the Age of Enlightenment in the Russian Orthodox Church....
, Dmitrievsky
Ivan Dmitrievsky
Ivan Afanasyevich Dmitrevsky is generally regarded as the most influential actor of Russian Neoclassicism and "Russia's first great tragedian"....
and others. Three notable melodramas (Fomin
Yevstigney Fomin
Yevstigney Ipat'yevich Fomin was a Russian opera composer of the 18th century.-Biography:...
's Orfeo, G. A. Benda
Benda
-Places:* Benda, Sirampog, a subdistrict of Sirampog, Central Java, Indonesia* Benda, Tangerang, a subdistrict of Tangerang, Banten, Indonesia* Benda, Guinea* Qulbəndə , a village and municipality in the Agdash Rayon, Azerbaijan...
's Pygmalion and Medea & Jason), were part of the repertoire.
Theatre productions in Russian translation included Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet and Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
's Mahomet
Mahomet (play)
Mahomet is a five-act tragedy written in 1736 by French playwright and philosopher Voltaire. It received its debut performance in Lille on 25 April 1741....
ou le Fanatisme. The most successful works however were those of August von Kotzebue
August von Kotzebue
August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue was a German dramatist.One of Kotzebue's books was burned during the Wartburg festival in 1817. He was murdered in 1819 by Karl Ludwig Sand, a militant member of the Burschenschaften...
, such as Menschenhass und Reue, the Papagoy and Armuth und Edelsinn.
Masquerades for 1,500 people or more, where carnival costume was compulsory, were held in the mirror-bedecked rotunda. This part of the structure alone had cost fifty thousand roubles to construct. William Tooke
William Tooke
William Tooke was a British clergyman and historian of Russia.-Life:Tooke was the second son of Thomas Tooke of St. John's, Clerkenwell, by his wife Hannah, only daughter of Thomas Mann of St. James's, Clerkenwell, whom he married in 1738...
in his 'Sketch of Mosco' (sic) describes the audience in the pit of the theatre as: "perhaps, in many respects, one of the most polite that can anywhere be seen. The ears are never rent with those noisy marks of disapprobation, which do not correct bad actors, and which distress and overpower the inexperienced and timid."
From 1783, Maddox also created and ran a Vauxhall Gardens
Vauxhall Gardens
Vauxhall Gardens was a pleasure garden, one of the leading venues for public entertainment in London, England from the mid 17th century to the mid 19th century. Originally known as New Spring Gardens, the site was believed to have opened before the Restoration of 1660 with the first mention being...
(Vokzal/Воксал) enterprise concurrently in the Moscow suburbs, where operas and plays were performed from mid-May to September. A long gallery led to a grand circular hall for dancing. From the dancing-hall there was a large area surrounded by a covered gallery, having in the middle an elevated platform for the orchestra. This gallery was chiefly used for promenading. Beyond this was a hall allotted to refreshments of all kinds. On the sides were billiards rooms. In the evenings the galleries were illuminated with coloured lamps, and on particular days fireworks displays were set off. It is likely that Maddox and his wife retained ownership of this after the Petrovsky was taken on by the Office of Imperial Theatres.
Miscellaneous
Maddox manufactured a tower clock for Empress Catherine II of RussiaCatherine II of Russia
Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...
, which is currently displayed in the Kremlin Armoury
Kremlin Armoury
The Kremlin Armory is one of the oldest museums of Moscow, established in 1808 and located in the Moscow Kremlin .The Kremlin Armoury originated as the royal arsenal in 1508. Until the transfer of the court to St Petersburg, the Armoury was in charge of producing, purchasing and storing weapons,...
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...
.
He married a German woman from an aristocratic family and fathered eleven children, one of them the adventurer Roman Medoks. His wife survived him and continued with ownership of some theatrical buildings.
The suggestions that he was a Professor of Mathematics from Oxford University and that he had tutored the Tsarevich Pavel
Paul I of Russia
Paul I was the Emperor of Russia between 1796 and 1801. He also was the 72nd Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta .-Childhood:...
prior to moving to Moscow have not been substantiated.