Stepan Gedeonov
Stepan Gedeonov | |
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Uvarov Prize (1876) |
Stepan Alexandrovich Gedeonov (
In 1863 Gedeonov was elected the honourable member of the
Reportedly not keen on the Russian drama, Gedeonov (as the head of the Imperial Theatres) did little to foster its development. He strongly supported, though, Italian opera and was instrumental in getting several prominent Italian singers to perform in the Russian capital.[1]
Gedeonov had at least one musical project of his own,
Vasilisa Melentyeva, the play that Gedeonov wrote later in his life, suffered a somewhat similar fate. Dissatisfied with his own effort, he passed the text to Alexander Ostrovsky, and the latter used the plot to write the completely new play of the same title.[1]
Gedeonov authored one original play, The Death of Lyapunov (Смерть Ляпунова, 1845) which was produced by Alexandrinsky Theatre and had considerable success, running for 18 performances in its first season. Later, as the director of the Imperial Theatres, Gedeonov refused to give the permission for it to be produced, describing it as his 'childish fallacy'.[2]
References
- ^ a b c d Гедеонов Степан Александрович at the Russian Biographical Dictionary
- ^ Гедеонов Степан Александрович at the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary