Theodore Komisarjevsky
Encyclopedia
Fyodor Fyodorovich Komissarzhevsky or Theodore Komisarjevsky, as he is better known in the West, was a Russia
n theatrical director and designer. He began his career in Moscow, but had his greatest influence in London. He was noted for groundbreaking productions of plays by Chekhov
and Shakespeare.
, Komisarjevsky was born into theatre, as his father Fyodor Petrovich Komissarzhevsky
was an opera singer who had befriended Tchaikovsky
and his sister, Vera Komissarzhevskaya
, was an eminent actress.
Originally interested in architecture, Komisarjevsky turned to theatre in 1907, when he started staging plays in his sister's theatre.
s, lines, and music
emphasize the acting, they can give the actor's words alternate meanings, they can pervert the episodes of the performance".
In 1910, Komisarjevsky set up his own studio in Moscow. He demonstrated his ideas in well-received productions of Goethe's Faust
and The Idiot
. Actors entering his studio were trained also in dancing and singing, as Komisarjevsky sought to prepare a new breed of "universal actors". Some of these, like Igor Ilyinsky
and Mikhail Zharov
, went on to make spectacular careers in theatre and cinema in Soviet Russia.
Following the Russian Revolution of 1917
, Komisarjevsky was named Director of the Bolshoi Theatre
, in which he had produced several opera
s.
After Lenin advised Lunacharsky to "put theatres into coffins", Komisarjevsky emigrated to Britain. In June 1921 he presented, with tenor Vladimir Rosing
and conductor Adrian Boult
, a season of Opera Intime at London's Aeolian Hall. In the following decade he gained a formidable reputation for having introduced British audiences to Chekhov's plays.
In the 1930s Komisarjevsky was so commanding a presence in so many areas of theatre that the Encyclopædia Britannica
recognized him as "one of the most colourful figures of the European theatre". His much reprinted study of theatrical dress, The Costume of the Theatre, appeared in 1932. He also delivered lectures at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
, with the likes of John Gielgud
and Charles Laughton
among his students. Donald Wolfit
, Christopher Plummer
, and his own wife Peggy Ashcroft
were among the many fine actors who starred in Komisarjevsky's productions.
It was at that time that he directed his unorthodox versions of Shakespearean plays and scandalised the conservative British establishment with novel interpretations of classics. His 1933 production of Macbeth
in Stratford-on-Avon received much publicity, as it featured an abstract aluminium set, sparse lighting and extravagant costumes, notably a crown of saucepan lids worn by Lady Macbeth
. Three years later, he won another box-office success with King Lear
, with action set “outside time and beyond geography", as the director termed it.
in the shape of theatre
buildings he designed, including the Phoenix Theatre
in Charing Cross Road
and the Tooting Granada, the first cinema to be awarded Grade I-listed building status.
Upon the outbreak of the World War II
, he chose to move to the USA, however. The director died in Darien
, Connecticut
.
Komisarjevsky's second wife, noted dancer Ernestine Stodelle, died January 8, 2008 in Santa Barbara, California
.
Komisarjevsky's grandson by adoption is Joshua Komisarjevsky, one of the perpetrators convicted for the Cheshire, Connecticut, home invasion murders in 2007.
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 theatrical director and designer. He began his career in Moscow, but had his greatest influence in London. He was noted for groundbreaking productions of plays by 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...
and Shakespeare.
Early life
Born in VeniceVenice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, Komisarjevsky was born into theatre, as his father 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...
was an opera singer who had befriended Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
and his sister, Vera Komissarzhevskaya
Vera Komissarzhevskaya
Vera Fyodorovna Komissarzhevskaya was the most celebrated Russian actress at the turn of the twentieth century.Vera Komissarzhevskaya was the daughter of Fyodor Komissarzhevsky, a leading tenor of the Mariinsky Theatre, and sister of Theodore Komisarjevsky, a famous theatrical director...
, was an eminent actress.
Originally interested in architecture, Komisarjevsky turned to theatre in 1907, when he started staging plays in his sister's theatre.
Theater career
Two years later he joined the theatrical revolutionary Nikolai Yevreinov in establishing a new stage company whose productions were intended to combine philosophy and romance. Interested in the idea of art synthesis, Komisarjevsky dreamed about the "theatre of all the arts". He maintained that "colorColor
Color or colour is the visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to the categories called red, green, blue and others. Color derives from the spectrum of light interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors...
s, lines, and music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
emphasize the acting, they can give the actor's words alternate meanings, they can pervert the episodes of the performance".
In 1910, Komisarjevsky set up his own studio in Moscow. He demonstrated his ideas in well-received productions of Goethe's Faust
Goethe's Faust
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust is a tragic play in two parts: and . Although written as a closet drama, it is the play with the largest audience numbers on German-language stages...
and The Idiot
The Idiot (novel)
The Idiot is a novel written by 19th century Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It was first published serially in The Russian Messenger between 1868 and 1869. The Idiot is ranked beside some of Dostoyevsky's other works as one of the most brilliant literary achievements of the "Golden Age" of...
. Actors entering his studio were trained also in dancing and singing, as Komisarjevsky sought to prepare a new breed of "universal actors". Some of these, like Igor Ilyinsky
Igor Ilyinsky
Igor Vladimirovich Ilyinsky was a famous Russian actor and notable silent film comedian.-Early years:Igor Ilyinsky was born on 24 July 1901 in Moscow.At the age of 16 he entered the Komissarzhevskaya Theatre Studio and in half a year already debuted on the professional stage in Kommisarzhevskaya...
and Mikhail Zharov
Mikhail Zharov
Mikhail Ivanovich Zharov was a Russian actor.He studied under the prominent director Theodore Komisarjevsky and debuted in Yakov Protazanov's Aelita...
, went on to make spectacular careers in theatre and cinema in Soviet Russia.
Following the Russian Revolution of 1917
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
, Komisarjevsky was named Director 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...
, in which he had produced several 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...
s.
After Lenin advised Lunacharsky to "put theatres into coffins", Komisarjevsky emigrated to Britain. In June 1921 he presented, with tenor Vladimir Rosing
Vladimir Rosing
Vladimir Sergeyevich Rosing , aka Val Rosing, was a Russian-born operatic tenor and stage director who spent most of his professional career in England and the United States...
and conductor Adrian Boult
Adrian Boult
Sir Adrian Cedric Boult CH was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company. His first prominent post was...
, a season of Opera Intime at London's Aeolian Hall. In the following decade he gained a formidable reputation for having introduced British audiences to Chekhov's plays.
In the 1930s Komisarjevsky was so commanding a presence in so many areas of theatre that the Encyclopædia Britannica
Encyclopædia Britannica
The Encyclopædia Britannica , published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia that is available in print, as a DVD, and on the Internet. It is written and continuously updated by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert...
recognized him as "one of the most colourful figures of the European theatre". His much reprinted study of theatrical dress, The Costume of the Theatre, appeared in 1932. He also delivered lectures at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school located in London, United Kingdom. It is generally regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in the world, and is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 1904.RADA is an affiliate school of the...
, with the likes of John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
and Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton
Charles Laughton was an English-American stage and film actor, screenwriter, producer and director.-Early life and career:...
among his students. Donald Wolfit
Donald Wolfit
Sir Donald Wolfit, KBE was a well-known English actor-manager.-Biography:Wolfit, who was "Woolfitt" at birth was born at New Balderton, near Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire and attended the Magnus Grammar School and made his stage début in 1920...
, Christopher Plummer
Christopher Plummer
Arthur Christopher Orne Plummer, CC is a Canadian theatre, film and television actor. He made his film debut in 1957's Stage Struck, and notable early film performances include Night of the Generals, The Return of the Pink Panther and The Man Who Would Be King.In a career that spans over five...
, and his own wife Peggy Ashcroft
Peggy Ashcroft
Dame Peggy Ashcroft, DBE was an English actress.-Early years:Born as Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft in Croydon, Ashcroft attended the Woodford School, Croydon and the Central School of Speech and Drama...
were among the many fine actors who starred in Komisarjevsky's productions.
It was at that time that he directed his unorthodox versions of Shakespearean plays and scandalised the conservative British establishment with novel interpretations of classics. His 1933 production of Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
in Stratford-on-Avon received much publicity, as it featured an abstract aluminium set, sparse lighting and extravagant costumes, notably a crown of saucepan lids worn by Lady Macbeth
Lady Macbeth
Lady Macbeth may refer to:*Lady Macbeth, from William Shakespeare's play Macbeth**Queen Gruoch of Scotland, the real-life Queen on whom Shakespeare based the character...
. Three years later, he won another box-office success with King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
, with action set “outside time and beyond geography", as the director termed it.
Legacy
Komisarjevsky left a lasting legacy in LondonLondon
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 shape of theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
buildings he designed, including the Phoenix Theatre
Phoenix Theatre (London)
The Phoenix Theatre is a West End theatre in the London Borough of Camden, located on Charing Cross Road . The entrance is in Phoenix Street....
in Charing Cross Road
Charing Cross Road
Charing Cross Road is a street in central London running immediately north of St Martin-in-the-Fields to St Giles Circus and then becomes Tottenham Court Road...
and the Tooting Granada, the first cinema to be awarded Grade I-listed building status.
Upon the outbreak of the 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...
, he chose to move to the USA, however. The director died in Darien
Darien
Darien is a masculine name; variants include Darian and Darion. Darien may refer to:-Panama:*Darién Gap, border area between Panama and Colombia*Darién National Park*Darién Province*Gulf of Darién*Santa María la Antigua del Darién, town founded in 1510...
, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
.
Komisarjevsky's second wife, noted dancer Ernestine Stodelle, died January 8, 2008 in Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
.
Komisarjevsky's grandson by adoption is Joshua Komisarjevsky, one of the perpetrators convicted for the Cheshire, Connecticut, home invasion murders in 2007.