Theater and music of ancient Rus'. Literature and music of ancient Rus'

The history of the emergence of the Russian theater

Introduction

The history of the Russian theater is divided into several main stages. The initial, playful stage originates in a tribal society and ends by the 17th century, when, along with a new period of Russian history, a new, more mature stage in the development of the theater, culminating in the establishment of a permanent state professional theater in 1756.

The terms “theatre”, “drama” entered the Russian dictionary only in the 18th century. IN late XVII centuries, the term “comedy” was used, and throughout the century - “fun” (Amusing closet, Amusement chamber). In the popular masses, the term “theater” was preceded by the term “disgrace”, the term “drama” - “game”, “game”. In the Russian Middle Ages, definitions synonymous with them were common - “demonic”, or “satanic”, buffoon games. All sorts of curiosities brought by foreigners in the 16th-17th centuries, and fireworks were also called fun. The military occupations of the young Tsar Peter I were also called fun. In this sense, both the wedding and dressing up were called “play”, “game”. “Play” has a completely different meaning in relation to musical instruments: playing tambourines, sniffles, etc. The terms “game” and “play” in relation to oral drama were preserved among the people until the 19th-20th centuries.

Folk art

Russian theater originated in ancient times. Its origins go to folk art- rituals, holidays associated with labor activity. Over time, the rites have lost their magical meaning and turned into performance games. Elements of the theater were born in them - dramatic action, disguise, dialogue. In the future, the simplest games turned into folk dramas; they were created in the process of collective creativity and stored in people's memory passing from generation to generation.

In the process of their development, the games were differentiated, disintegrated into related and at the same time more and more distant varieties - into dramas, rituals, games. They were brought together only by the fact that they all reflected reality and used similar methods of expressiveness - dialogue, song, dance, music, disguise, disguise, acting.

Games instilled a taste for dramatic creativity.

Games were originally a direct reflection of the tribal community organization: they had a round dance, choric character. In round dance games, choral and dramatic creativity was organically merged. Songs and dialogues, abundantly included in the games, helped to characterize the playful images. Mass commemorations also had a playful character; they were timed to coincide with the spring and were called “mermaids”. In the XV century, the content of the concept of "Rusalia" was defined as follows: demons in human form. And the Moscow “Azbukovnik” of 1694 already defines mermaids as “buffoon games”.

The theatrical art of the peoples of our Motherland originates in rituals and games, ritual actions. Under feudalism theatrical art cultivated, on the one hand, by the “popular masses”, and on the other hand, by the feudal nobility, buffoons also differentiated accordingly.

In 957 grand duchess Olga gets acquainted with the theater in Constantinople. Hippodrome performances are depicted on the frescoes of the Kiev Sophia Cathedral of the last third of the 11th century. In 1068, buffoons were first mentioned in the annals.

Three types of theaters were known to Kievan Rus: court, church, folk.

buffoonery

The oldest "theater" was the games of folk actors - buffoons. Shyness is a complex phenomenon. Buffoons were considered a kind of magicians, but this is erroneous, because buffoons, participating in rituals, not only did not enhance their religious and magical character, but, on the contrary, introduced worldly, secular content.

Buffoon, i.e. sing, dance, joke, act out skits, play on musical instruments and to act, that is, to portray some kind of person or creature, anyone could. But only the one whose art stood out above the level of the art of the masses by its artistry became and was called a buffoon-craftsman.

In parallel with the folk theater, professional theatrical art developed, the carriers of which in Ancient Rus' were buffoons. The appearance of a puppet theater in Rus' is connected with buffoon games. The first chronicle information about buffoons coincides in time with the appearance on the walls of the Kiev Sophia Cathedral of frescoes depicting buffoon performances. The chronicler monk calls buffoons servants of the devils, and the artist who painted the walls of the cathedral found it possible to include their image in church decorations along with icons. Buffoons were associated with the masses, and one of the types of their art was "gum", that is, satire. Skomorokhovs are called "fools", that is, scoffers. Glum, mockery, satire will continue to be firmly associated with buffoons.

The secular art of buffoons was hostile to the church and clerical ideology. The hatred that the churchmen had for the art of buffoons is evidenced by the records of the chroniclers (“The Tale of Bygone Years”). Church teachings of the 11th-12th centuries declare that disguise, which buffoons resort to, is also a sin. Buffoons were subjected to especially strong persecution during the years of the Tatar yoke, when the church began to intensively preach an ascetic way of life. No persecution has eradicated the buffoon art among the people. On the contrary, it successfully developed, and its satirical sting became more and more acute.

Art-related crafts were known in Ancient Rus': icon painters, jewelers, wood and bone carvers, and book scribes. Buffoons belonged to their number, being "cunning", "masters" of singing, music, dance, poetry, drama. But they were regarded only as amusing, funny people. Their art was ideologically connected with the masses of the people, with the artisan people, usually opposed to the ruling masses. This made their skill not only useless, but, from the point of view of the feudal lords and clergy, ideologically harmful and dangerous. Representatives christian church buffoons were placed next to the magi and fortune tellers. In rituals and games there is still no division into performers and spectators; they lack developed plots, reincarnation into an image. They appear in a folk drama permeated with sharp social motifs. The appearance of the square theaters of the oral tradition is connected with the folk drama. The actors of these folk theaters (buffoons) ridiculed those in power, the clergy, the rich, sympathetically showed ordinary people. Performances of the folk theater were built on improvisation, included pantomime, music, singing, dancing, church numbers; performers used masks, make-up, costumes, props.

The nature of the performance of the buffoons initially did not require them to be combined into large groups. For the performance of fairy tales, epics, songs, playing the instrument, only one performer was enough. Buffoons leave their homes and roam the Russian land in search of work, move from villages to cities, where they serve not only the rural, but also the townspeople, and sometimes princely courts.

Buffoons were also attracted to folk court performances, which multiplied under the influence of acquaintance with Byzantium and its court life. When the Amusing Closet (1571) and the Amusement Chamber (1613) were arranged at the Moscow Court, buffoons found themselves in the position of court jesters there.

Representations of buffoons united different types arts: and actually dramatic, and church and "variety".

The Christian Church opposed folk games and the art of buffoons with ritual art, saturated with religious and mystical elements.

Representations of buffoons did not develop into professional theater. There were no conditions for the birth of theater troupes - after all, the authorities persecuted buffoons. The church also persecuted buffoons, turning to secular authorities for assistance. Against the buffoons were sent a charter of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery of the XV century, the Statutory charter of the beginning of the XVI century. The Church persistently put buffoons on a par with the bearers of the pagan worldview (magicians, sorcerers). And yet, buffoon performances continued to live, the folk theater developed.

At the same time, the church took all measures to assert its influence. This found expression in the development of the liturgical drama. Some liturgical dramas came to us along with Christianity, others in the 15th century, along with the newly adopted solemn charter of the “great church” (“Procession on the Ground”, “Washing of the Feet”).

Despite the use of theatrical and spectacular forms, the Russian church did not create its own theater.

In the 17th century, Simeon of Polotsk (1629-1680) tried to create an artistic drama on the basis of liturgical drama. literary drama This attempt proved isolated and fruitless.

Theaters of the 17th century

In the 17th century, the first oral dramas developed, simple in plot, reflecting popular moods. The puppet comedy about Petrushka (his first name was Vanka-Ratatouille) told about the adventures of a clever merry fellow who was not afraid of anything in the world. The theater really appeared in the 17th century - the court and school theater.

court theater

The emergence of the court theater was caused by the interest of the court nobility in Western culture. This theater appeared in Moscow under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The first performance of the play "The Action of Artaxerxes" (the story of the biblical Esther) took place on October 17, 1672. Initially, the court theater did not have its own premises, scenery and costumes were transferred from place to place. The first performances were staged by pastor Gregory from the German settlement, the actors were also foreigners. Later, they began to forcefully recruit and train Russian “youths”. Their salaries were paid irregularly, but they did not skimp on scenery and costumes. The performances were distinguished by great splendor, sometimes accompanied by playing musical instruments and dancing. After the death of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the court theater was closed, and performances resumed only under Peter I.

school theater

In addition to the court theater, in Russia in the 17th century there was also a school theater at the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, in theological seminaries and schools in Lvov, Tiflis, and Kyiv. The plays were written by teachers, and the students staged historical tragedies, allegorical dramas close to European miracles, interludes - satirical everyday scenes in which there was a protest against the social system. Interludes of the school theater laid the foundation for the comedy genre in the national dramaturgy. At the origins of the school theater was a famous political figure, playwright Simeon Polotsky.

The appearance of the court school theater expanded the scope of the spiritual life of Russian society.

Theater of the early 18th century

By order of Peter I in 1702 was created public theater intended for the general public. Especially for him, not on Red Square in Moscow, a building was built - “Comedy Temple”. The German troupe of I. Kh. Kunst gave performances there. The repertoire included foreign plays that were not successful with the public, and the theater ceased to exist in 1706, as the subsidies of Peter I ceased.

Conclusion

A new page in history performing arts The peoples of our Motherland opened serf and amateur theaters. In the serf troupes that existed from the end of the 18th century, vaudevilles were staged, comic operas, ballets. On the basis of serf theaters, private enterprises arose in a number of cities. The Russian theatrical art had a beneficial effect on the formation of the professional theater of the peoples of our Motherland. The troupes of the first professional theaters included talented amateurs - representatives of the democratic intelligentsia.

Theater in Russia in the 18th century gained immense popularity, became the property of the broad masses, another public sphere of people's spiritual activity.

Pupil of the 10th grade of secondary school No. 15 in Sergiev Posad Zakharova Vsevolod 1) The emergence of a professional theater 2) Old Russian musical culture 3) Sources of information 1) Reveal the features of the emergence of a professional theater in Russia, 2) Reveal the features of the formation of musical culture from ancient Rus' to Russia, 3) Contribute to the formation of the spiritual culture of students, interest and respect for the culture of our country. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich The foundations of the professional Russian theater were laid in the second half of the 17th century. Its origin is usually attributed to 1672, when the first performance of the court theater was presented to Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich - the persecutor of the people's "fun" and a great lover of magnificent spectacles and entertainment. The enlightened boyar Artamon Sergeevich Matveev became the initiator of the creation of a theater like a European one. The German pastor of the Lutheran Church in Moscow, Johann Gottfried Gregory, was appointed playwright - a well-educated man, literary gifted and with the necessary knowledge in the field of German and Dutch theater. The theater was hastily built in the Tsar's residence near Moscow, in the village of Preobrazhensky. The auditorium of the “comedy mansion”, located in an amphitheater, was inferior in size to the stage, but was richly decorated: the walls and floor were upholstered with crimson, red and green cloth; with their "rank and rank", the audience was placed, some of them stood on the stage. For the queen and princesses, special boxes were arranged - "cages", according to tradition, separated from the auditorium by a lattice. The first performance on the stage of the “comedy mansion” was the play “Esther, or Artaxerxes Action”. The plot of the play was based on the biblical story about Esther - a humble beauty who attracted the attention of the Persian king Artaxerxes and saved her people from death by becoming his wife. The performance lasted ten hours, but the king watched everything to the end and was very pleased. Ten more plays were staged in the "comedy mansion": "Judith", "The Pitiful Comedy about Adam and Eve", "Joseph" and others, on religious and historical subjects. Court performances were staged on a large scale and luxury, as they were supposed to reflect the splendor and wealth of the royal court. The costumes were made from expensive fabrics. Music, singing and dancing were widely used in performances. Organ, pipes and other instruments often sounded. Each performance had lifting scenery and side wings. With the help of stage equipment, various effects were applied. The first performers of the plays of the court theater were mostly actors from the German Quarter and only men. At the end of the 17th century, the “state entertainment” was replaced by the school theater (organized at some educational institution), based on the richest experience of theaters in Poland and Ukraine. Its origin was associated with the name of a graduate of the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, educator, poet and playwright Simeon Polotsky. Especially for the school theater, he wrote two plays - "The Comedy of the Parable of prodigal son” and “O king Nevchadnezzar, about a golden body and about three children who were not burned in a cave.” The court and school theaters of the 17th century laid the foundation for the development of theatrical art in Russia and largely determined its future. With its origins, ancient Russian musical culture goes back to the pagan traditions of the Eastern Slavs, which developed long before the adoption of Christianity. The musical instruments of Ancient Rus' were quite diverse. The harp, sniffles, flutes, flute were widely used. In Rus', the gusli, the oldest stringed plucked instrument, mentioned back in the 10th century in the Tale of Bygone Years, enjoyed special respect. It has long been believed that the harp is akin to the human soul, and their ringing drives away death and illness. Folk storytellers and bogatyrs played the harp: the prophetic Boyan in The Tale of Igor's Campaign, the epic bogatyrs Volga and Dobrynya Nikitich in Kyiv, Sadko in Novgorod. How Dobrynya takes in her white hands Those sonorous goslings of yaronchaty, They will pull and gilded strings, The Jewish verse will play in a dull way, In a dull and touching way In the feast, everyone became thoughtful, Thoughtful and listened to. Dobrynya began to play in a merry way, He started a game from Yerusolim, Another game from Tsar-grad, The third from the capital city of Kyiv - He brought everyone to the feast for fun. Percussion and wind instruments were used in military campaigns: drums, tambourines, pipes, rattles. They supported the morale of the soldiers during the battles, relieved emotional stress, and instilled confidence in victory. The adoption of Christianity could not completely change the traditional way of life of the people and their musical tastes. With the baptism from Byzantium, many artistic principles were transferred to Russian soil, the canon and the system of genres were borrowed. Here they were creatively rethought and reworked, which subsequently made it possible to form original national traditions. Church music in ancient Rus' existed in the form of choral singing without instrumental accompaniment. Musical instruments in Orthodox Church were banned. Moreover, instrumental music considered sinful, demonic. There was a spiritual meaning in this opposition. In those days, it was believed that only angelic singing, which is an echo of heavenly music, should sound in an Orthodox church. Such singing embodied the ideal of beauty and gave people a feeling of grace, purification, consolation, taught to love God and neighbors. The only exception was the art of playing the bells, which was developed in various forms of simple ringing, chiming, chiming, etc. Several bells with different tones formed a belfry, which made it possible to perform entire musical works. Church singing served as a model of the highest professionalism, embodied in the most various forms in a practical and theoretical system, which was called the system of osmosis, that is, the alternation of groups of tunes over periods of eight weeks. Folk music in those days was traditionally passed down from generation to generation orally, "by word of mouth". Cult music in this era was recorded with special signs, called banners, of which the most common were hooks. Therefore, ancient musical manuscripts were called Znamenny or Kryukovy. In the 17th century, musical culture in Russia, especially choral culture, reached a very high level. It was a time when, along with traditional genres musical art new forms and genres were born. Before choral music was monophonic. Now it has been replaced by polyphony. And the musical notation came to replace the hooks, and the style of partes singing arose. So then they called singing according to the notes of cantes and choral concerts. These concerts were an important transitional step from church to secular professional music. The musical culture of Ancient Rus' was that solid foundation on which a beautiful building subsequently grew, which laid the foundation for the development of professional creativity. The best examples of ancient Russian music have rightfully become the most valuable asset of the national musical culture. http://images.yandex.ru/, http://www.google.ru/imghp?hl=ru&tab=wi, http://vkontakte.ru/id47570217#/search?c%5Bsection%5D=audio, http://www.youtube.com/, World art culture. From the origins to the 17th century. 10 cells Basic level: textbook for educational institutions / G.I. Danilova. - 7th ed., revised. - M .: Bustard, 2009

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From a round dance to a booth Municipal educational institution secondary school No. 8, Severomorsk - 3, Murmansk region

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In the old days in Rus', a round dance was a popular folk game. He reflected a variety of life phenomena. There were love, military, family, labor dances ... We know three types of round dance:

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In round dance games, the choral and dramatic beginnings were organically merged. Such games usually began with "set" songs, and ended with "collapsible", and the songs were distinguished by a clear rhythm. Subsequently, with a change in the structure of the tribal community, round dance games also changed. Soloists-leaders (luminaries) and actors (actors) appeared. There were usually no more than three actors. While the choir sang the song, they acted out its content. There is an opinion that it was these actors who became the founders of the first buffoons.

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Russian dance is an integral part of folk games and festivities. She has always been associated with song. This combination was one of the main means of expression folk theatre. Since ancient times, Russian folk dance has been based on the daring of competing partners, on the one hand, and the unity, smoothness of movements, on the other.

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Russian dance was born from pagan rites. After the 11th century, with the advent of professional buffoon actors, the nature of the dance also changed. Buffoons owned a developed dance technique; varieties of buffoons-dancers arose. There were buffoons-dancers who not only danced, but also played pantomime performances with the help of dance, which were most often improvised. Dancers-dancers appeared, usually they were the wives of buffoons. Russian dance

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Dance has occupied a large place in various forms of theatre. He was a part of not only games and festivities, but also performances. puppet show Petrushki, often filled the pause between acts of the school drama. Many traditions of Russian dance have survived to this day.

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Guide bears have been mentioned in sources since the 16th century, although it is possible that they appeared much earlier. A respectful attitude towards this beast originated in pagan times. The bear is the progenitor. He is a symbol of health, fertility, prosperity, he is stronger than evil spirits.

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Among the buffoons, the bear was considered the breadwinner of the family, its full member. Such artists were called by name and patronymic: Mikhailo Potapych or Matrena Ivanovna. In their performances, guides usually depicted life common people, interludes were on a variety of everyday topics. The owner asked, for example: "And how, Misha, do small children go to steal peas?" - or: "And how do women slowly wander to the master's work?" - and the beast showed it all. At the end of the performance, the bear performed several learned movements, and the owner commented on them.

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The "bear comedy" in the 19th century consisted of three main parts: first, the dance of the bear with the "goat" (the goat was usually portrayed by a boy who put a bag on his head; a stick with a goat's head and horns was pierced through the bag from above; a wooden tongue was attached to the head, from the clapping of which there was a terrible noise), then came the performance of the beast under the jokes of the guide, and then its struggle with the "goat" or the owner. The first descriptions of such comedies date back to XVIII century. This craft existed for a long time, until the 30s of the last century.

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Since ancient times, in many European countries, it was customary to set up a manger with figurines of the Virgin, a baby, a shepherd, a donkey and a bull in the middle of the church for Christmas. Gradually, this custom grew into a kind of theatrical performance, which told with the help of dolls the famous gospel legends about the birth of Jesus Christ, the worship of the Magi and the cruel King Herod. The Christmas performance was well spread in Catholic countries, in particular in Poland, from where it moved to Ukraine, Belarus, and then, in a slightly modified form, to Vilikorossia.

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When the Christmas custom went beyond the boundaries of the Catholic church, it acquired the name vertep (Old Slavic and Old Russian - cave). It was puppet show. Imagine a box divided internally into two floors. The top of the box ended with a roof, its open side facing the public. On the roof is a bell tower. A candle was placed on it behind glass, which burned during the performance, giving the action a magical, mysterious character. Puppets for the crib theater were made of wood or rags and attached to a rod. The lower part of the rod was held by the puppeteer, so the puppets moved and even turned. The puppeteer himself was hidden behind a box. On the upper floor of the den, biblical stories were played out, on the lower floor - everyday: everyday, comedic, sometimes social. And the set of dolls for the lower floor was the usual: men, women, the devil, gypsies, a gendarme, and a simple man always turned out to be more cunning and smarter than a gendarme. It was from the Nativity Theater that the Petrushka Theater, so popular among the people, was later born.

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Everyone will dance, but not like a buffoon, ”says a Russian proverb. Indeed, many could play games, but not everyone could be a professional buffoon. The favorite among the people among professional buffoons was the puppet theater actor, and the most popular was the comedy about Petrushka. Petrushka is a favorite hero of both the buffoons who gave the performance and the audience. This is a daring daredevil and a bully, who in any situation retained a sense of humor and optimism. He always deceived the rich and the authorities, and as a spokesman for the protest, he enjoyed the support of the audience.

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In such a theatrical performance, two heroes simultaneously acted (according to the number of hands of the puppeteer): Petrushka and the doctor, Petrushka and the policeman. The plots were the most common: Petrushka gets married or buys a horse, etc. He always participated in conflict situation, while Petrushka's reprisals were quite cruel, but the public never condemned him for this. At the end of the performance, Petrushka was often overtaken by “heavenly punishment”. The Petrushka puppet theater was most popular in the 17th century.

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Since the end of the 18th century, at the fair, one could often see a brightly dressed man who carried a decorated box (rayok) and shouted loudly: “Come here with me to chat, honest people, both boys and girls, and well done and well done, and merchants and merchants, and clerks and clerks, and official rats and idle revelers. I'll show you all sorts of pictures: both gentlemen and men in a sheepskin coat, and you are jokes, yes different jokes listen carefully, eat apples, gnaw nuts, look at pictures and take care of your pockets. They'll cheat." Rayok

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Raek came to us from Europe and goes back to large panoramas. Art historian D. Rovinsky in the book “Russian folk pictures” describes it like this: “Raek is a small box, arshin in all directions, with two magnifying glasses in front. Inside it, a long strip with home-grown images of different cities, great people and events is rewound from one rink to another. Spectators, "on a penny from the snout," look into the glass. Rayoshnik moves the pictures and tells sayings to each new number, often very intricate.”

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Raek was very popular among the people. In it one could see both the panorama of Constantinople and the death of Napoleon, the church of St. Peter in Rome and Adam with his family, heroes, dwarfs and freaks. Moreover, the resident did not just show pictures, but commented on the events depicted on them, often criticizing the authorities and the existing order, in a word, touching on the most burning problems. As a fairground entertainment, the rayek existed until the end of the 19th century.

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Not a single fair in the 18th century was complete without a booth. Theatrical booths become favorite shows of that era. They were built right on the square, and by the way the booth was decorated, one could immediately understand whether its owner was rich or poor. Usually they were built from boards, the roof was made from canvas or linen.

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Inside there was a stage and a curtain. Ordinary spectators were seated on benches and during the performance they ate various sweets, donuts, and even cabbage soup. Later, a real one appeared in the booths auditorium with stalls, lodges, orchestra pit. Outside, booths were decorated with garlands, signboards, and when gas lighting appeared, then with gas lamps. The troupe usually consisted of professional and itinerant actors. They gave up to five performances a day. In the theatrical booth one could see the harlequinade, tricks, interludes. Singers, dancers and just "outlandish" people performed here. Popular was the person drinking the fiery liquid, or the "African cannibal" eating pigeons. The cannibal was usually an artist smeared with resin, and the pigeon was a scarecrow with a bag of cranberries. Naturally, a fair with a theatrical booth simple people always looked forward to.

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There were also circus booths, their actors were "jack of all trades". Yu. Dmitriev in the book “Circus in Russia” quotes a message about the arrival of comedians from Holland, who “walking on a rope, dancing, jumping in the air, on the stairs, holding on to nothing, playing the violin, and walking up the stairs, dancing, immensely jump high and do other amazing things.” For for long years booths changed their existence, to late XIX centuries, they almost forever disappeared from the history of the Russian theater.

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1672 - the performances of the court troupe of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich began

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1702 - the first Russian public theater on Red Square Festive processions, fireworks, masquerades, assemblies become popular

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This is what the theater in Yaroslavl looked like in 1909. In 1911 he was named after Fyodor Volkov

Russian theatrical creativity originated in the era of the primitive communal system and, to a greater extent than painting and architecture, is associated with folk art. The soil on which its original elements appeared was the production activity of the Slavs, who, in folk rites and holidays, turned it into a complex system of dramatic art.

Folk theater in Slavic countries still exists today. Weddings, funerals, agricultural holidays are complex rituals, sometimes lasting several days and widely using such theatrical elements as dramatic action, singing, dance, costume, scenery (attire of the matchmaker, bride, round dances, ritual or entertainment games etc.). The ancient Slavs also reflected the holiday of the resurrection of dead nature, characteristic of world paganism.

After the adoption of Christianity, the role of folk games in the life of society decreased significantly (the church persecuted paganism). Theatrical folk art, however, continued to live until the 20th century. At first, its carriers were buffoons. At the folk games, popular "games of mummers", "deceased" performances with a "learned bear" were performed. People's Theater gave the Petrushka Theater.

Favorite in Rus' were puppet shows- a nativity scene, later a district (Ukraine), in the south and west - batleiki (Belarus). These performances were given with the help of a wooden box divided into upper and lower tiers. On the top floor, a serious part of the performance was played on the theme biblical story about the birth of Christ and King Herod. On the lower floor, everyday comic and satirical scenes were shown, in many ways reminiscent of the Petrushka Theater. Gradually, the serious part of the crib performance was reduced, and the second part grew, supplemented by new comic scenes. and, the crib from a two-tier box became a single-tier one.

Until the 17th century in Russia, theatricality was an organic component of folk rituals, calendar holidays, played round dances. Elements of it were included in the church service, and it is here, as the secular principle intensifies in Russian society, that a professional theater begins to take shape.

Initially, liturgical performances arose. It's quite complex theatrical performances used to enhance the impact of church services and glorify the unity of state and church authorities. Known are the “stove action” (a staging of the massacre of King Nebuchadnezzar over Christians) and “walking on a donkey” (drawing the plot of the Bible on Palm Sunday).

The court and school theaters of the 17th century contributed to the further development of theatrical business in Russia. Even under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, court festivities, receptions, ceremonies began to take shape with a great deal of theatricality - expressively and magnificently. The first Russian professional comedy theater was a court theater and was one of the regulated “fun” of the tsar. It was headed in 1662 by the master of theology, pastor and head of the school at the Lutheran officer's church in the German Quarter of Moscow, I. Gregory. The very same building was opened in 1672 in the village of Preobrazhensky with the play "Artaxerxes Action".

The emergence of the school theater in Rus' is associated with the development of school education. IN Western Europe it arose in the 12th century in humanistic schools as a kind of pedagogical device and initially served only teaching and educational purposes. He helped students in the form of a game to master various knowledge: Latin and biblical stories, poetics and oratory. In the 16th century, the possibilities of the spiritual influence of the school theater began to be used for religious and political purposes: by Luther in the fight against Catholics, the Jesuits against Lutheranism and Orthodoxy. In Russia, school the theater was used by Orthodoxy in the fight against Roman Catholic influence. Its origin was facilitated by a monk, a graduate of the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, an educated person, politician, educator and poet Simeon Polotsky. In 1664 he came to Moscow and became the tutor of the royal children at court. In the collection of his works "Rhymologion" two plays were published - "The comedy about Novkhudonosor the king, about the body of gold and about the three children who were not burned in the cave" and the comedy "The Parable of the Prodigal Son".

S. Polotsky's plays are designed for the court theater by their nature. In their merits, they stand above the school plays of that time and anticipate the development of the theater of the 18th century. Thus, the functioning of the "comedy temple" and the emergence of the first professional dramatic works S. Polotsky was the beginning of the historically necessary and natural process of mastering the achievements of the world theater culture in Russia.

Simeon of Polotsk was not only talented poet and playwright. In the world artistic culture he played a significant role as the largest Slavic art theorist considering the problems artistic creativity- Literature, music, painting. As a theologian, he noted that art is the highest spiritual creativity. To him he attributed poetry, music and painting.

The aesthetic and educational views of S. Polotsky on art are interesting. The monk argued that the art of beauty "is spiritual and mental benefit for people". According to his reasoning, there is no poetry, painting, music without harmony, proportion and rhythm. Without art, there is no education, because through its impact on the souls of people, negative emotions are replaced by positive feelings. Through the beauty of music and words, the unsatisfied become patient, the lazy become hard workers, the stupid become smart, the dirty become pure in heart.

S. Polotsky created the first classification in the Slavic region visual arts, raising painting to the Seven liberal arts. The same applies to music. He substantiated its aesthetic value and proved the necessity for the church of polyphonic singing in a harmonious combination of voices. The modal-tonal variety of music, noted S. Polotsky, is dictated by its educational function.

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