Characters

Azarov - Major, retired.

Shura - his niece.

Rzhevsky Dmitry - hussar lieutenant.

Ivan - valet, former orderly of the major.

Nurin - graph.

Vasiliev Davyd - hussar colonel.

Pelymov

Voronet

Velyaminov

Gorich

Ershov

Stankevich

Rtishchev

Khilkov - hussars, lancers, dragoons, Cossacks - officers of the partisan detachment of Davyd Vasiliev.

Cheremisov

Neplyuev - officers of the corps headquarters.

Kutuzov - Field Marshal.

Balmashov - Adjutant General.

The governor

Zizi

Nadine

Natalie

Polina

Mimi - cousins \u200b\u200bof Shura Azarova

Germont Louise - French actress.

Salgari Vincento - lieutenant.

Dyusier - general.

Lepeletier

Armagnac - officers of the headquarters of the Dusier brigade.

Guests at the ball, servants in the house of Major Azarov, partisans, officers of the corps headquarters, officers of Kutuzov's suite.

The action takes place in 1812.

Living room in the house of retired Major Azarov. Old-fashioned furnishings for 1812. On the walls there are large portraits of Catherine II and Suvorov. Several windows and three doors. In the evening, there should be a ball in the house in honor of the birthday of Major Shura's niece and pupil. On the eve, numerous cousins \u200b\u200bof Shurochka gathered here. Now they are trying on fancy dress for the ball. Cheerful animation. Ribbons, shawls, and mantilla flashes in the air. Mimi and Natalie turn around in front of the mirror. Pauline strumming the harpsichord. Nadine and Zizi are doing intricate steps in the middle of the room. The day is drawing to a close. There are cheerful spots of the sun in the room.

Zizi

I am the shepherdess!

Nadine

I am Columbine!

But this dress is long for me ...

Mimi

I'm with this white crinoline

Quite a marquis on the panel.

Polina

Look, Zizi, and I'm Pierrette.

Zizi

It will go awful to you ...

Natalie

And I will dress up in a kokoshnik ...

Like this...

Mimi

Venus a la russ! ..

Nadine

I don't think I've danced for ages!

Zizi

Oh, hurry up this ball! ..

I'm really tired of waiting ...

Mimi

The governor himself promised

Come.

Polina

That's right, with the adjutant!

Zizi

I suggest after in forfeits

Start a game!

Natalie

Behold tre bien!

Zizi, tell me, will tren go to me?

Zizi

Where is Shura?

Natalie

After tea

I didn't see her.

Zizi

She makes a secret

The costume itself is extraordinary.

Nadine

No, I saw her

I went for a walk ...

Mimi

Nadine

Yes. True, she galloped into the field

On horseback. In the Cossack Chekmen ...

Mimi

Childishness!

Natalie

I confess to me

She doesn't like all that much ...

Polina

Think - almost a bride!

Natalie

Sewing and handicrafts instead

She has a rapier and a saddle ...

Polina

In my opinion, from that all evil,

That she is an orphan ...

Natalie

Well then,

This reason is not a reason

For the folly!

Nadine

Here is the ringing

Raised from the empty too! ..

I think she's cute.

Nadine

Oh, how we sang together gloriously

(Singing)

Do, re, salt, mi, la! ..

Natalie

But all the same - alone, on horseback ...

Mimi

Although I do not consider it a sin

Love to walk, but, for example,

I will say - it's time to have a measure

In the fun of children ...

Natalie

Behold the bet!

She is seventeen years old now.

Mimi

No, she does not know decency! ..

Natalie

Have you seen what today

Did her uncle give her a necklace?

Tea, a few thousand rubles

It's worth it!

Mimi

Yes, from the grandmother

It was left to her as a testament.

They are poor, but this subject

More expensive than all our rags ...

Nadine

Yes! She calls with rags

Natalie

Girlish worries

They do not recognize! .. Isn't it true, you fool?

Polina

Oh no, our child, Shura! ..

Nadine

Child - yes! .. Polina, bouclie

Are these so? .. I'll tell you all,

That our Shura in the morning

Plays with dolls in the mezzanine.

I saw it today, getting up early ...

Beloved name is Svetlana,

And sings with her sensitively,

Sighs tenderly, tears pour ...

General laughter.

Zizi

To become Jeanne d "Ark dreams of a new one.

Mimi

And somehow I saw a mouse -

I only managed to scream out

And faint ...

Polina

Well, since the cow is b,

I understand...

Natalie

It's all the same!

It's strange to say the least

Jeanne was hardly afraid of mice.

General laughter.

Zizi

Not everyone can be brave ...

Natalie

I say - she's a girl!

Polina

But still, at least an Amazon

I would have put it on, or else chekmen!

Zizi

Shh! .. Here it is!

Shura runs in.

Shura

Oh, what a day!

Are you not stuffy here?

Open the windows! ..

(Opens the windows.)

Really boring

To sort through rags all day.

Mimi

Not everyone can ride across the fields!

Shura

There are enough horses for everyone in the stable!

And then you sit, as if in cotton ...

Go to the garden!

Natalie

Mont Ange, wait!

Well, sit there for a minute! ..

Shura

I plucked a forget-me-not in the forest.

Who loves this simple flower?

Zizi

Give me...

Shura

Take ... I'm tanned

Tell me, Zizi?

Zizi

It suits you.

Shura

In the spring it was whiter than chalk ...

Mimi

You are more on horseback,

So you will be blacker than arap.

Polina

How can you go without a hat!

Natalie

Childish is no longer a trace ...

You are now seventeen years old.

Shura

But still not one hundred and seventeen! ..

Enough of my uncle's notations, -

The head was swollen from them ...

(Sits down at the harpsichord.)

Let's dance better!

Some girls start dancing around.

Zizi

But how, Shurochka, is dressed

You will?

Nadine

Right, really shine

Zizi

Don't hide a secret!

Shura

I don't know myself ... Somehow ...

These costumes are tired of these! ..

(He stops playing.)

Oh, if only ... Here in the last summer

The cousin was visiting. Tunic ever since

He stayed. In the mezzanine,

In the closet ... Clean out moths

And dress up! .. However, nonsense!

(Plays again.)

Mimi

It's time to decide.

Shura

I’ll make it too much.

There will be no congress soon.

I have long dreamed of seeing this production on stage, and on December 5 I succeeded.
"A long time ago" - this is the familiar to many "Hussar Ballad", or rather a production based on the original play written by Alexander Gladkov in 1940.
Yesterday's maiden Alexandra, now the brave cornet Azarov goes to war. Of course, the youngster is not allowed into a real battle, and the hussars scoff and call him mama's boy. It's a shame, it hurts. Shurochka would not be herself if she did not show everyone that she deserves to wear a uniform on an equal basis with men.
I must say that the scenery is minimal here. Huge symbolic decorations as the main background, a minimum of household items. The scenes are separated by a huge white curtain with an embroidered uniform pattern on it. The main action and atmosphere of 1812 is created by the actors. Looking at them, you do not notice the minimalism of the atmosphere. Because everyone is playing well. Each has its own character, its own background. If you talk about each, there is not enough space.
I will single out the most memorable ones.
The role of Shurochka in the production was performed by Maria Oamer. She performed superbly and very emotionally. I would like to note the voice of the actress, it is ideal for a girl who decided to portray a guy. Not sonorous, quite boyish, I believe that she was not suspected with such a voice. As for the character. Shurochka is full of mischief, spontaneity and at the same time serious and knows how to behave in society. After all, if you remember the age - 17 years, the time of girls' fun, dolls, balls and gradual entry into adulthood. The time when no longer a child, but little experience of life.
Yes, and the cousins \u200b\u200blaugh at Shurochka - he pretends to be the second Jeanne D'Arc, and she plays with dolls and is afraid of mice.
Farewell to home is a separate song. Here is not only "Svetlana's Lullaby", but also the throwing of a young girl, fears, pain from parting with her uncle, a moment of weakness when she is ready to turn back and abandon a fleeting impulse. And here we have a cornet Azarov, a savvy youth who "will give odds to other old warriors."
The role of Rzhevsky was played by Sergei Fedyushkin. His type does not look like the usual lieutenant. Nevertheless, during the performance I forgot about it. Sergei played the lieutenant with a soul. In each episode with Shurochka, a whole gamut of feelings was displayed on his face. He could hardly bear the company of a flirt, was angry at gossip, raged because of the stubbornness of the cornet.
I liked Davyd Vasiliev performed by Andrey Egorov. He got an excellent image of a commander, who has bad subordinates - sometimes they get drunk, then they arrange duels. No matter how he meets Azarov's cornet, he prevents a duel again. What is he for? :)
Vitaly Stremovsky has a colorful Kutuzov. A tired old man, a field marshal, a man accustomed to living according to certain laws, but who managed to retreat from them when required. How hilariously he tried to see the girl in the cornet and at the same time not seem crazy to the subordinate.
The performance was watched in one breath, and the songs familiar from childhood were very pleasant to hear again.

Culture, October 6, 2005

Natalia Kaminskaya

Only old men go to battle

"A long time ago" at the Theater of the Russian Army

The appearance of the musical comedy by Alexander Gladkov and Tikhon Khrennikov in the anniversary poster of TSATRA (the theater turns 75) is not only logical, but even symbolic. The performance, which was born on this stage in 1942, did not leave it for decades, became for TsATRA a kind of banner, battered in battles and therefore even more dear. The current chief director of the theater Boris Morozov, a student of Andrei Popov, the son of Alexei Dmitrievich Popov, who staged this comedy in the harsh war years, acted as a grateful "grandson". The second date is marked in the program as a dedication to the 60th anniversary of Victory, and here the theater could not have imagined it better. The play is patriotic without any discounts or exaggerations. Clean, transparent, well-written vaudeville reveals in this sense much more opportunities to infect and convince than the current strained search for a national idea.

By the way, the "parade" of the performances of our drama theaters for the great date is more reminiscent of scattered sorties of partisan detachments. Thank God, we have forgotten how to trump on the occasion of the next state order, but we also have to work at the behest of our personal internal duty. Again, it’s not easy with the material: it’s not enough to take good military prose, you still need to have your own, today's attitude to what was written in a different era, in the harsh conditions of a different ideology.

Meanwhile, the army theater, unlike all the others, was charged with defending the Fatherland as a direct, "specialized" duty, and is still charged with it. Boris Morozov prefers to look for it in the events of ancient history, more or less distant in time from the changeable ideological moods. He puts on "The Sevastopol March", a play by Natalia Skorokhod based on "The Sevastopol Stories" by Leo Tolstoy. And the jubilee season opens with the heroic musical comedy of Tikhon Khrennikov, whose melodies, thanks to the "Hussar Ballad" still on the screen, are not known only to the deaf. The current performance "Once upon a time" is also not just a restoration with new performers of the legendary production, but a new stage version.

Really, what Tikhon Khrennikov composed is hard to spoil. That's just the beginning of the overture, and the desired light bliss is right there: you want to clap and sing along. And then - the first disappointment: instead of a live orchestra - a phonogram. Glamorous and breathless, it fills the monster hall with deafening decibel power, and is already deliberately scary for the vocal cords of the artists.

Well, it is - the microphones hidden in the folds of the actors' costumes help out only those, frankly speaking, a few who have what these microphones are designed to enhance, namely the voice. Looking ahead, I will say that only young Tatyana Morozova - Shura Azarova, Andrey Egorov - Davyd Vasiliev and Vladimir Mikhailovich Zeldin, who plays Kutuzov, sing "in spite of". The rest hit the notes. I ask the older generation: what about Larisa Golubkina, who sang Shura on this stage in the pre-microphone era and accompanied by a live orchestra, could you hear her? However, I know the answer in advance.

With phonograms in general, jokes are bad. Balancing with live voices is just one of many problems. There is also an arrangement (Ruben Zatikyan). Everything seems to be correct, but the feeling is as if instead of a landscape painted in oil, you were offered a large-format glossy photo. Or, if you like, they took fresh vegetables, froze them, then put them in the microwave and quickly threw them into the pan. The taste, as Arkady Raikin used to say, is specific.

Masterpiece arias like Louise Germont's song "I drink, everything is not enough for me ..." or the "French" hit "Once upon a time Henri the Fourth ..." are supported on all sides by auxiliary means. The voices are weak, which means that in the first case, it remains to take cutesy poses and sigh languidly, and in the second - to sing the three of us, with difficulty merging into the vigorous chorus "Lena-Lena-Boom-Boom ...".

For the first time you think about what a luxurious range of the actress-singer Tikhon Khrennikov was counting on when composing the famous lullaby "Moon Glades ...". Tatiana Morozova takes the top shortly, without cantilena. She generally does worse lyrical scenes in female guise. But she plays cornet infectious, temperamental, sometimes even over the edge. Alas, neither Lieutenant Rzhevsky - Vyacheslav Razbegaev, nor most of the brothers-hussars radiate the main vaudeville property - charm.

I just want to complain about the ill-fated gigantic dimensions of the big TSATRA stage, where the audience's eyes, ears, and even more so hearts can only be reached with a corresponding forced attack. However, witnesses of the previous edition of the comedy, which, incidentally, went on the same immense stage, note transparency and light breathing. In addition, as soon as Zeldin appears on the stage, playing Kutuzov not at the Borodino field, but on the contrary, in his apartments, where the field marshal in his years unsuccessfully tries to rest, vaudeville lightness, and trusting intonation, and watercolor irony appear.

What is the use of repeating for the hundredth time: it is more difficult to play vaudeville than a psychological drama, and even more so an epic canvas. What is the distance between the average idea of \u200b\u200bhow to "represent" in a sitcom, and the real possession of this airy, graceful technique - the distance is more than the parameters of the stage of the Theater of the Russian Army.

Yes, and the hussars are tense these days. They, dear to the Russian heart, are not only mentics, shako and aiguillettes, very colorfully played in the scenery of Vladimir Arefiev and the costumes of Alena Sidorina. And not a mustache with sideburns. And, damn it, the personal charm of their carriers.

The audience gave four ovations at the premiere. Two went to Vladimir Zeldin - at the first exit and at the end, when it was announced that the artist had been on the TsATRA stage for 60 years. Two - to Tikhon Khrennikov, who was sitting in the stalls: before the curtain was raised and after it was closed.

By and large, the "only news" of the new "A long time ago" remained the talents of the composer and artist. The audience sang Khrennikov's tunes for a long time, spreading across Victory Square towards the trolleybuses and the metro.

Kommersant, October 14, 2005

Hussar grouse

"A long time ago" at the Theater of the Russian Army

The Theater of the Russian Army has returned to its repertoire the musical comedy by Alexander Gladkov to the music of Tikhon Khrennikov "Once upon a time", better known to the audience based on the film by Eldar Ryazanov "The Hussar Ballad". MARINA SHIMADINA plunged into a historical excursion.

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Victory and the 75th anniversary of the Russian Army Theater, the director resumed the legendary performance "Once upon a time" on its stage. The musical comedy by Alexander Gladkov and Tikhon Khrennikov was staged at the Theater of the then Red Army in 1942. And this light, mischievous little thing, almost a vaudeville dedicated to the events of the war of 1812, during the Great Patriotic War looked like an incredibly patriotic, uplifting and acutely topical thing. One can imagine how in 1942 the words of Shurochka Azarova, who dreamed of giving her life for her homeland, responded in the hall, or how Kutuzov's exit, confident of the victory of the Russian army, was perceived. Today the story of a cornet girl is hardly capable of uniting the audience in a patriotic impulse. And this is not what the director was most likely striving for, restoring the old comedy. His "Once upon a time" is not so much about military battles and the glory of Russian weapons, although this is what the Theater of the Russian Army is supposed to take care of by status, but about the old, naive and artless Soviet theater.

As soon as the red velvet curtain opens, which itself is a wild theatrical rudiment in today's times, the audience gasps. Such splendidly naive scenography as in Vladimir Arefiev's, with guns and sabers crossed over the stage, huge symbolic shako, aiguillettes and front doors from scratch, can hardly be found in any Moscow theater. As well as such a crystal old-fashioned production. The director did not include in this 60-year-old comedy a single modern word or any kind of joke, not a single today's paint, which somehow would indicate the distance between the time the play was created and our days. No, Boris Morozov is not trying to find some new perspective in looking at the play, he seems to trust the past more than the present, and puts the play with the symbolic title "Once upon a time" in the same way as it could theoretically be put on those legendary time.

Of course, today few remember exactly what that famous production by Alexei Popov looked like, which lasted in the theater's repertoire for several decades. But the film "The Hussar Ballad" with Larisa Golubkina and Yuri Yakovlev, based on the same play, has been seen by everyone. And no matter how much Svetlana's lullaby and couplets about King Henri the Fourth sang to us from the screen, this light, funny and unassuming tape never gets boring. The performance of the Theater of the Russian Army, unfortunately, lacks the charm of the film. Even those who have never seen the original will easily understand that this is not a careful restoration, but a rather crude stylization. And it's not that the director didn't try, it's just that modern actors, by their very nature, are not able to repeat the drawing of a role sixty years ago. They try to portray a vaudeville lightness and ease, but it turns out to be a rather crude and flat farce. And their sweeping, conventionally elevated manner of playing with exaggerated, deliberate gestures and feigned emotions resembles children's Christmas trees. The only one who manages to revive their role and give it volume is Tatyana Morozova, who plays the main character. Although a weak voice brings the actress down to Svetlana's lullaby, the audience is clearly delighted by her instant transformations from a cutesy lady into a dashing cornet and back, her cunning, crafty game with Lieutenant Rzhevsky amuses her and is touched by her sincere ardor in conversation with Kutuzov. However, only the field marshal performed by Vladimir Zeldin gets a standing ovation from the audience. And although the renowned artist in his only scene does not demonstrate any special acting miracles, he simply plays an old, tired, but still fit commander who wants to quickly get rid of the stubborn girl and relax before the parade, in his person the audience applauds that old theater, which even for one evening today no one can do it.

From the history of the play

When my brother and I were little, my mother read aloud to us over two winters "Children of Captain Grant" and "War and Peace." The luminosity of the child's imagination is such that afterwards it often seemed to me that I remember 1812; not a book, not a novel, but exactly 1812 with people, colors, sounds - I remember, I see, I hear, as something really happened in my life. Therefore, when in the fall of 1940 I decided to write a play about 1812, somehow in my imagination they combined into one old impressions of Captain Grant's Children and War and Peace, and I realized that I wanted to write a very funny play.<…> In the process of work I had my own "working epigraph". It appeared on the title page of the play, but when it went to the distribution department and to print, I removed it. This epigraph is two lines from the poems of Denis Davydov: "Roskoschev, merry crowd, in a living and fraternal willfulness!" - as it seemed to me, surprisingly accurately expressed the spirit of "Once upon a time", her painting, harmony, but the war began and re-emphasized the direction of the play.

At first the play was called "The Pets of Glory."

Performance of the play

• - Tashkent, Theater of the Revolution (Shurochka Azarova - Maria Babanova);

• November 7 - besieged Leningrad (under the name "Pets of Glory"), Nikolai Akimov's Theater (Shurochka Azarova - Elena Yunger);

• evacuation (Sverdlovsk), Red Army Theater; director - Alexey Popov, composer - Tikhon Khrennikov. Shurochka Azarova - Love Dobrzhanskaya;

• - Theater of the Soviet Army. Director - Alexey Popov. Composer - Tikhon Khrennikov (starring Larisa Golubkina);

• April 3 - Leningrad, Theater of Opera and Ballet. Kirov. Ballet "Hussar Ballad". (Choreographers - Oleg Vinogradov and Dmitry Bryantsev);

• - Theater of the Soviet Army. Stage Director - Boris Morozov. Composer - Tikhon Khrennikov (starring Tatyana Morozova);

Plot

VB Shklovsky made a mistake in the very first lines in his article calling on the memoirists to be precise. Comparing my script "The Hussar Ballad", written after "Once upon a time," with the recollections of the cavalry girl Nadezhda Durova, he expressed a preference for the “truth” of these recollections over the “fiction” of the script. Meanwhile, there are few in Russian memoir books such inaccurate and full of inventions as the memoirs of Durova. This is described in detail in the special work of S.A. Vengerov in the fifth volume of Pushkin's Brogauz edition, where I send those who wish for verification. It is strange that VB did not know about this when he was well-read. Or maybe he just forgot. In any case, Durova's book cannot be classified as a "documentary genre", and, most likely, here VB fell victim to the tradition of opposing "literature of fiction" to "literature of fact."

and adds:

However, the book by Durova has a glimpse of Pushkin's praise. He published it in his Sovremennik and wrote about it with an elegant enthusiasm. It seems to me that Durova is not forgotten not so much because of her book, but because of these lines from Pushkin. After them, the book itself is disappointing. In any case, it happened to me. True, between Pushkin and Durova I read articles by Vengerov and Veresaev (in the book "Pushkin's Companions"). They describe how N. A. Durova, who aroused great interest in St. Petersburg on her first visit, after the publication of her memoirs, later disappointed everyone - she turned out to be stupid, primitive, intrusive, untrue. They tried to get rid of her, did not invite her anywhere, her new compositions disappointed. The end of her life was sad. She lived out her life alone in Elabuga, wore a man's dress as an old woman, smoked a pipe; when she went out into the street, the boys teased her and threw various rubbish after her. In the heroine of the dashing, major hussar comedy, the real Durova was clearly not suitable. I had no choice but to embark on the path of fiction, because even at the beginning of my work, I understood that the novelty and originality of the play, if I succeed, would not be in accordance with its plot to the facts, but in the emotional mood, inner fervor, plot mischief and romantic temperament.<…>
Would anyone believe me if I confess that I did not have the patience to read Nadezhda Durova's "Notes of a Cavalry Girl" to the end? What is there - to finish reading: turned over a few pages and threw. And already after “A long time ago” had been on stage in dozens of theaters in the country for many years, I sometimes suddenly felt uncomfortable and told myself that I still need to read this book. But again I could not find the willingness and patience. If you take into account my greed for all kinds of memories, then this alone is the assessment of the book. But maybe this is where the main secret of good luck is: I was not tied in writing the play by anything other than falling in love with the era - Denis Davydov, Burtsev, Lunin, Figner, Nikolai Rostov ... But I borrowed only the general lines of fate and the details of everyday life and customs, and invented all the characters. That is, he did exactly what Rostan did in Cyrano. Why is Cyrano stronger than Eaglet? The freedom of fiction and the boldness of colors. We talked about this with the clever old woman T. L. Shchepkina-Kupernik, who presented me with her translations of Rostand with a flattering inscription, where I was called "the Russian Rostand." It was at the beginning of the winter of 1942, in an empty, cold and dark military Moscow ...

Authorship problem

Already at the first staging of the play in 1942, it was noticed that A.K. Gladkov evaded all requests to introduce even the most insignificant alterations into the text of the play. "In our theater, then in Sverdlovsk, in 1942, during rehearsals, everyone had the opinion that Gladkov did not write the play." Subsequently, Gladkov did not publish a single poem, which was strange for the author of such a talented play and increased suspicions.

When screening the play () E. A. Ryazanov asked Gladkov to finish writing a few small episodes, he promised to do this and disappeared for several months. Long persuasions did not lead to anything, except for new promises, and Ryazanov had to finish writing poetry for the text of the script himself. In his book, Ryazanov suggests that "Gladkov received this play in prison from a man who was never released." However, this version has no direct confirmation.

Literature

• Ryazanov E.A. Unsummed results. M .: Vagrius, 2005.640 p. ISBN 5-7027-0509-2.

Links

• Gladkov A.K. A long time ago. (Text of the play)

Notes

Categories:

• Literary works alphabetically
• Plays of the XX century
• Plays of the USSR
• Plays of 1940
• Plays in Russian
• Patriotic War of 1812

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See what "A long time ago (play)" is in other dictionaries:

- (film almanac), Georgian SSR, 1971. Long ago (play) a play by Alexander Gladkov (1940), based on which E. Ryazanov's film "The Hussar Ballad" (1962) was filmed ... Wikipedia

Cunning in love La discreta enamorada Genre: Comedy

Genre comedy musical film ... Wikipedia

Years in XX century literature. 1940 in literature. 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 ← XIX century 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 ... Wikipedia

Hussar ballad Genre comedy musical film Director Eldar Ryazanov Scriptwriter Alexander Gladkov Eldar Ryazanov ... Wikipedia

This term has other meanings, see Epiphora. Epiphora (from other Greek ἐπιφορά bringing, adding) is a rhetorical figure, consisting in the repetition of the same words at the end of adjacent segments of speech. Often an epiphora ... ... Wikipedia