Alexander Sumarokov
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Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Петро́вич Сумаро́ков; 25 November 1717 [O.S. 14 November], Moscow – 12 October 1777 [O.S. 1 October], Moscow) was a Russian poet and playwright who single-handedly created classical theatre in Russia, thus assisting Mikhail Lomonosov to inaugurate the reign of classicism in Russian literature.
Life and works
Born of a family of Muscovite gentry, Sumarokov was educated at the Cadet School in St. Petersburg, where he acquired an intimate familiarity with French polite learning. Neither an aristocratic dilettante like
Sumarokov wrote much and regularly, chiefly in those literary genres neglected by
Sumarokov's non-dramatic work is by no means negligible. His fables are the first attempt in a genre that was destined to flourish in Russia with particular vigor. His satires, in which he occasionally imitates the manner of popular poetry, are racy and witty attacks against the government clerks and officers of law. His songs, of all his writings, still attract readers of poetry. They are remarkable for a prodigious metrical inventiveness and a genuine gift of melody. In subject matter they are entirely within the pale of classical, conventional love poetry.
Sumarokov's literary criticism is usually carping and superficial. But it nonetheless did much to inculcate on the Russian public the canons of classical taste. He was a loyal follower of Voltaire, with whom he prided himself on having exchanged several letters. Amanda Ewington has argued that Sumarokov was not only influenced by Voltaire as such but accessed a wide variety of European influences, from Shakespeare to Lope de Vega, through the conduit of Voltaire. [3] Vain and self-conscious, Sumarokov considered himself a Russian Racine and Voltaire in one. In personal relations he was irritable, touchy, and often petty. But his exacting touchiness contributed, almost as much as did Lomonosov's calm dignity, to raise the profession of the pen and to give it a definite place in society.
His daughter Ekaterina, an 18th-century poet, is often considered to be the first Russian woman writer,[4] as she, together with Elizaveta Kheraskova and Alexandra Rzhevskaia were the first women to see their works printed in Russian journals.[5]
Opera libretti
The first opera written in
The second opera set to a Russian text was Альцеста (Altsesta – Alceste, 1758, libretto by Alexander Sumarokov) by German composer Hermann Raupach (1728–1778) also serving to the Russian Court.
References
This article incorporates text from
Notes
- ^ Riasanovsky, Nicholas V. (2000). A History of Russia (6th ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 292.
- ISBN 0-8101-1679-0.
- ISBN 978-0-8101-2696-1.
- ISBN 1584654317.
- ISBN 1139433156.