The Moscow Private Opera, founded, sponsored, and directed by Savva Mamontov (18411918), was one of Russias most important theatrical institutions at the dawn of the age of modernism. It presented the Moscow premieres of Lohengrin, La Boh?me, and Khovanshchina, among others; launched the career of Feodor Chaliapin; gave Sergei Rachmaninov his first conducting job; employed Vasily Polenov, Victor Vasnetsov, Valentin Serov, Konstantin Korovin, and Mikhail Vrubel as set designers; and served as a model for Diaghilevs Ballets Russes. Part commercial enterprise, part experimental studio, Mamontovs company revolutionized opera directing and design, and trained a generation of opera singers. Drawing on a wealth of unpublished primary sources and evidence from art and theater history, Olga Haldey paints a fascinating portrait of a railway tycoon turned artiste and his pioneering opera company.
Haldey's fresh account of Mamontov's vital role in the creation of the modern Russian theater is striking for its originality, the depth of its research and analysis, and the detail it provides.
This is a valuable and long overdue work that enriches an ignored but greatly influential artistic enterprise drawn from the era's greatest artistic figures, and sponsored and set together in dynamic collaborations by the ingenuity and tastes of Savva Mamontov.
This fine, rigorously researched book should please anyone interested in the development of the arts in Russia. Opera NewsMarch 1, 2011Mamontovs Private Opera is a fascinating and detailed presentationusing existing primary source materialsof the power and influence that one man had on both Russian music history and international music history at the turn of the twentieth century.[Haldey's] research will be appreciated not only by historians of Russian music and theater, but also by readers interested in Russian culture of the Silver Age.
Olga Haldey is Assistant Professor of Musicology at the University of Maryland,l£)
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