Vaudeville is a genre from the world of drama that has characteristic, recognizable features. We can say with confidence that he is the “great-grandfather” of modern pop music. Firstly, this is a very musical play, full of dances and songs. Secondly, it's always a comedy.
Vaudeville is also a theatrical play created in this genre. Its plot is simple and easy. The conflict is built on a funny intrigue and is resolved with a happy ending.
Story
The origin of such an unusual word is curious. Historians claim that it was born in the fifteenth century in Normandy, near the Vir River. There lived poets who wrote folk songs, which were called val de Vire, translated as “Vir Valley”. Later the word changed to voix de ville (literally "provincial voice"). Finally, in French, the term took shape as vaudeville, which means “vaudeville.” This was the name of literary works in which events were presented through the prism of simple-minded, uncomplicated perception. Initially, these were just street joke songs performed by traveling artists. Only in the eighteenth century did playwrights appear who, focusing on the nature of these songs, began to compose plays with similar plots and in a similar style. Since the texts were poetic, music easily fell on them. However, the actors improvised a lot during the performance of plays; they did this most often in prose, and therefore playwrights also began to alternate poetic pieces of text with prose ones.
Vaudeville and operetta
Art critics say that from that moment on, vaudeville had a younger sister - operetta, which, however, very soon became extremely popular. Singing predominated in operetta, and talking in vaudeville. Specialization of form was followed by some difference in content. Vaudeville is not a satirical, but rather a humorous depiction of the life and morals of middle-class people. Comedy situations in it develop rapidly, violently and often grotesquely.
Features of the genre
One of characteristic features works of this genre are the constant appeals of the actor to the viewer during the action. Also, the specificity of vaudeville is the obligatory repetition of the same song verses. The peculiarities of vaudeville made it a welcome part of any benefit performance. An actor giving such a performance, after serious dramatic monologues, can please the audience by appearing in a completely different image. In addition, vaudeville is a great opportunity to demonstrate your vocal and dancing abilities.
Impact on cultural traditions
Vaudeville was very popular among residents in the era of its inception. different countries and continents, but in each culture he went his own way. In America, for example, music hall and other bright, amazing show programs grew out of it. In Russia, vaudeville gave birth to joke plays and comic opera. Some of the brilliant works of A.P. Chekhov (“The Proposal”, “Bear”, “Drama”, etc.) have completely vaudeville content.
An example of Russian vaudeville
“The Miller - a sorcerer, a deceiver and a matchmaker” - a sparkling comic play by Alexander Ablesimov in the spirit of vaudeville was first performed on stage in 1779. Two hundred years later, modern theaters are happy to stage it. The plot is extremely simple: the mother of the peasant woman Anyuta, born a noblewoman, but married to a peasant, does her best to prevent the wedding of her daughter, who has chosen a peasant boy as her husband. The girl’s father doesn’t want to take him as a son-in-law either. The cunning and enterprising miller Thaddeus is called upon to resolve the conflict. Since the village belief says that all millers are sorcerers, Thaddeus does not miss the opportunity to take advantage of this, believing that divination is nothing more than deception. He becomes a matchmaker and, finding his own “key” for everyone, successfully convinces Anyuta’s parents that they cannot find a better son-in-law. This funny sitcom has everything that the word "vaudeville" means.
What is "Vaudeville"? How to spell this word correctly. Concept and interpretation.
Vaudeville VAUDEVILLE. Vaudeville is a dramatic encounter in a comedic sense (see comedy). If in comedy the dramatic struggle should not be brutal, then this is even more applicable to vaudeville. Here, usually, a comedic violation of some very minor social norm is depicted, for example, the norm of hospitality, good neighborly relations, etc. Due to the insignificance of the violated norm, vaudeville is usually reduced to a sharp short collision - sometimes to one scene. V. Volkenshtein. life. This is Khmelnitsky’s operetta (beginning of the 19th century): “Greek Nonsense or Iphigenia in Tauris” and the later ones: “Orpheus in Hell”, “Beautiful Helen”, “Daughter of the Market”, “Songbirds”, “Geisha”, etc. After this differentiation of vaudeville, what remains behind it is first a humorous depiction of the life of the urban class in general, and then the middle and petty bureaucrats.
The ease of content of vaudeville was also facilitated by the fact that it was compiled on occasion for a benefit performance of an artist or actress, and it was staged for the most part after a serious drama or tragedy. This determined the insignificance of its volume, although not only three-act vaudevilles are known, but even five-act ones (Lensky’s vaudeville of 5 acts - “Lev Gurych Sinichkin or the Provincial Debutante”). The insignificance of vaudeville required a special condensation of the comic element compared to comedy. Therefore, the hyperbolic nature of the comic led to the rapid development of action. At first, vaudeville was written in verse, then poetry began to alternate with prose dialogues - with the indispensable repetition of the same couplets addressing the public; often the verses themselves were called vaudevilles. In later times, verses and music became optional.
The ease of content of vaudeville was also facilitated by the fact that it was compiled on occasion for a benefit performance of an artist or actress, and it was staged for the most part after a serious drama or tragedy. This determined the insignificance of its volume, although not only three-act vaudevilles are known, but even five-act ones (Lensky’s vaudeville of 5 acts - “Lev Gurych Sinichkin or the Provincial Debutante”). The insignificance of vaudeville required a special condensation of the comic element compared to comedy. Therefore, the hyperbolic nature of the comic led to the rapid development of action. Our most remarkable vaudeville artists were Khmelnitsky, Shakhovskoy, Pisarev, Polevoy, Karatygin II and others. In the era of reforms, vaudeville lost its importance, giving way to operetta. In most cases, vaudevilles were translated plays, often from French, but foreign names were often remade into the Russian style. Chekhov wrote his jokes in vaudeville form: “The Bear” and “The Proposal.”
The ease of content of vaudeville was also facilitated by the fact that it was compiled on occasion for a benefit performance of an artist or actress, and it was staged for the most part after a serious drama or tragedy. This determined the insignificance of its volume, although not only three-act vaudevilles are known, but even five-act ones (Lensky’s vaudeville of 5 acts - “Lev Gurych Sinichkin or the Provincial Debutante”). The insignificance of vaudeville required a special condensation of the comic element compared to comedy. Therefore, the hyperbolic nature of the comic led to the rapid development of action. Iv. Lyskov.
The ease of content of vaudeville was also facilitated by the fact that it was compiled on occasion for a benefit performance of an artist or actress, and it was staged for the most part after a serious drama or tragedy. This determined the insignificance of its volume, although not only three-act vaudevilles are known, but even five-act ones (Lensky’s vaudeville of 5 acts - “Lev Gurych Sinichkin or the Provincial Debutante”). The insignificance of vaudeville required a special condensation of the comic element compared to comedy. Therefore, the hyperbolic nature of the comic led to the rapid development of action. Vaudeville
The ease of content of vaudeville was also facilitated by the fact that it was compiled on occasion for a benefit performance of an artist or actress, and it was staged for the most part after a serious drama or tragedy. This determined the insignificance of its volume, although not only three-act vaudevilles are known, but even five-act ones (Lensky’s vaudeville of 5 acts - “Lev Gurych Sinichkin or the Provincial Debutante”). The insignificance of vaudeville required a special condensation of the comic element compared to comedy. Therefore, the hyperbolic nature of the comic led to the rapid development of action.- VAUDEVILLE m. French. a dramatic spectacle with songs, singing, and opera and operetta are all set to music... Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary
The ease of content of vaudeville was also facilitated by the fact that it was compiled on occasion for a benefit performance of an artist or actress, and it was staged for the most part after a serious drama or tragedy. This determined the insignificance of its volume, although not only three-act vaudevilles are known, but even five-act ones (Lensky’s vaudeville of 5 acts - “Lev Gurych Sinichkin or the Provincial Debutante”). The insignificance of vaudeville required a special condensation of the comic element compared to comedy. Therefore, the hyperbolic nature of the comic led to the rapid development of action.- Franz. the word Vaudeville comes from the word vaux-de-Vire, i.e. the valley of the city of Vire in Normandy, the place of the river... Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron
- (French vaudeville) a light comedy play with verse songs and dances. Homeland of V. - France... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
- VAUDEVILLE, vaudeville, m. (French vaudeville) (theater). Comic play of a farcical nature, original. with... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
Vaudeville
- - m. 1. A short dramatic work of a light genre with entertaining intrigue, couplet songs... Efremova’s explanatory dictionary
- A short dramatic work of a light genre with entertaining intrigue, couplet songs and dances.
- outdated A humorous vaudeville song, humorous couplets.
Ushakov's Dictionary
Vaudeville
vaudeville, vaudeville, husband. (French vaudeville) ( theater.). A comic play of a farcical nature, original with singing couplets.
Ozhegov's Dictionary
VODEV AND LH [de], I, m. A short comic play, usually with singing.
| adj. vaudeville, oh, oh.
Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language (Alabugina)
Vaudeville
I, m.
A short comic play, usually with singing and dancing.
* Put on a vaudeville show. *
|| adj. vaudeville, oh, oh.
* Vaudeville situation. *
Dictionary of musical terms
Vaudeville
(from fr. vaudeville) - a type of light comedy with couplets sung to music. It was widespread in France in the second half of the 18th century. Appeared in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century. A. Verstovsky, A. Alyabyev and others wrote music for vaudevilles. At the end of the 19th century. Vaudeville is being replaced by musical comedy and operetta. Nowadays, vaudeville is rare (“Lev Gurych Sinichkin” by A. Kolker, text by V. Dykhovichny and A. Slobodsky).
Lexicon of Jazz
Vaudeville
Vaudeville
In the modern sense, it is a kind of everyday comedy with musical numbers, couplets, dances, pantomimes and stunt scenes. In the USA, the so-called American volleyball (and as its variety - Negro vaudeville), the specifics of which are associated with the national characteristic features of the plot and music, with an appeal to local folklore and everyday material, as well as with the influences of minstrel theater (see minstrel show).
encyclopedic Dictionary
Vaudeville
(French vaudeville, from vau de Vire - the valley of the Vire River in Normandy, where folk vaudevir songs were widespread in the 15th century),
- view "sitcom" with couplet songs, romances and dances. Originated in France; from the beginning 19th century received pan-European distribution. The heyday of Russian vaudeville - 1820 - 40s. (A. A. Shakhovskoy, D. T. Lensky, P. A. Karatygin, F. A. Koni, N. A. Nekrasov, etc.). Classics of the genre - E. Scribe, E. M. Labiche.
- The final verse song in a vaudeville play.
Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language
Vaudeville
French - vaudeville (comedy with songs and couplets).
This word, French in origin, appeared in Russian in the modern meaning of “a dramatic work of the comedy genre with the singing of funny couplets” in the 18th century.
The original meaning of the word is “ folk song"- known in the language since the 16th century.
According to scientists, French word, which served as the basis for the borrowing, was formed from a proper name: a Norman locality called de Vire, which became famous for its cheerful songs and their performers.
Derivative: vaudeville.
Terminological dictionary-thesaurus on literary criticism
Vaudeville
(French vaudeville) is a type of comedy, a light, entertaining play of everyday content, based on entertaining intrigue and combining witty dialogue with music and dancing, funny couplet songs.
RB: types and genres of literature
Type: comedy
Persian: E. Labiche, V. Shakhovskoy, E. Scribe, D. Lensky
* Vaudeville is the younger brother of comedy, a good-natured and good-natured merry fellow who does not pretend to make deep generalizations or serious thoughts. In the old days, vaudeville included verses and dances performed during the action by universal actors. Later, vaudeville freed itself from dancing and singing and transformed into a one-act (rarely more) joke play. An example of such vaudevilles is Chekhov's Bear, Proposal, Anniversary (S.S. Narovchatov). *
Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron
Vaudeville
Franz. the word Vaudeville comes from the word vaux-de-Vire, i.e. the valley of the city of Vire in Normandy, the birthplace of the national poet Olivier Basselin, who here first began to compose humorous songs called vaudevilles, and later vaudevilles. In the XV and XVI centuries. These vaudeville songs, composed by unknown authors in a satirical and humorous spirit about various events in political life, became very popular in France and were sung by wandering singers, among other things, on the Pont Neuf bridge in Paris (hence they were often called pon-neuves). Sometimes, however, V. did not have a satirical content and was a simple cheerful drinking song. As the best composers of V. songs in the 18th century. Piron, Panhard and Collet are known, who published them in the Almanach des Muses. In 1792-1793 two books appeared: “Constitution en vaudevilles” (Merchant) and “La République en vaudevilles”, in which the new institutions were depicted in a humorous manner.
The transformation of vaudeville songs into a special kind of dramatic works did not occur earlier than the 18th century. The entrepreneurs of the fair theaters sometimes inserted suitable songs into the plays. Since 1712, Lesage, Fuselier and Dorneval began to compose plays with vaudevilles; Lesage published a collection: "Thé âtre de la Foire ou l"Opéra Comique, contenant les meilleures pièces, qui ont été représentées aux foires de Saint Germain et de Saint Laurent avec une table de tous les vaudevilles et autres airs etc." (Paris, 1721-37). In 1753, Vade made the first attempt to specially commission music for the play “Les Troqueurs” he composed. Sedin, Ansom, Favard and others followed his example; they wrote music for them Grétry, Philidor, Monsigny, etc. Little by little new music replaced the motives of old vaudevilles; plays of a transitional type began to appear, which were not quite correctly named comic operas (probably on behalf of the Opéra-comique theater, where they were first given). As the spoken part in these plays increased and the action began to be interrupted only by interpolated couplets, this new genre dramatic works resulted in that unique form, which was preserved without significant changes by modern V. In 1792, when the freedom of theaters was proclaimed, a special vaudeville stage was opened in Paris, which was called T héâtre Vaudeville. Among the vaudeville artists whose works were successful during the era of the first empire and restoration, let us name Dupaty, Desaugiers, Bayard, Melville and the famous Scribe, who is considered the creator of the newest formation of vaudeville; Labiche later became famous in the same genre. V. remains to this day a unique product of French esprit, bearing the imprint of the light, elegant Parisian life with its beautiful, cheerful sensuality and subtle, unsparing witty phrase.
Vaudeville in Russia. The first beginnings of Russian vaudeville are usually seen in the comic opera with Ablesimov’s couplets “The Miller, the Sorcerer, the Deceiver and the Matchmaker,” given for the first time on January 20, 1779 and which went through many performances thanks to the couplets in the folk-sentimental spirit and Sokolovsky’s music. But in essence, The Miller is much closer in texture to a comic opera. The first Russian vaudeville should be recognized as “The Cossack the Poet,” composed by Prince A. A. Shakhovsky with music by Kavos (1812). Shakhovsky’s original vaudevilles should also include: “Fedor Grigorievich Volkov”, “Lomonosov” (1814), “Meeting of the Uninvited” (1815), “Two Teachers” (1819), “News on Parnassus, or the Triumph of the Muses”. The last of them was written by Shakhovsky to ridicule the writers of empty theatrical plays, who arrogantly dream of becoming, along with classical writers, earning the respect of posterity. The play disputes Vaudeville’s rights to a place on Parnassus, where he somehow climbed along with Melodrama and the Journal, and ridicules “equivocations, couplets, jokes and funny trifles” with which “quick vaudevilles” will never get into the Temple of Immortality. All Shakhovsky’s arrows are directed against his happy rival in the field of vaudeville, N.I. Khmelnitsky, and against the latter’s witty “New Prank, or Theatrical Battle,” which was then given with great success. Khmelnitsky had previously written several successful vaudevilles: “You Can’t Outrun Your Betrothed,” “Grandma’s Parrot” (1819), “Actors Between Each Other, or the Debut of Actress Troepolskaya,” “Quarantine” (1822) and others, mostly with music by Maurer . At the same time, attempts at original Russian V. were made by M. N. Zagoskin (“Makaryevskaya Fair” and “Lebedyanskaya Fair”) and R. M. Zotov (“Adventure at the Station”). The most witty vaudeville performer and coupletist of the 20s and 30s is undoubtedly A.I. Pisarev. His vaudevilles, although mostly translated, enjoyed great success, mainly due to the wit of the couplets, which often touched on the topic of the day and ridiculed the features and phenomena of modern reality. “Teacher and Student”, “Calif’s Fun”, “Shepherdess”, “Five Years at Two O’Clock”, “The Old Sorceress, or That’s What Women Love”, “Three Tens”, “Magic Nose”, “Two Notes”, “ Uncle for Rent", "The Petitioner" (1824), "The Troublemaker", "Thirty Thousand People" (1825), "A Means for Marrying Daughters", "Meeting of Stagecoaches" and others did not leave the repertoire for a long time and enjoyed enormous success. The music for these vaudevilles was written by Verstovsky, Alyabyev and F. E. Scholz, which, of course, increased the interest of these plays and their success among the public. Pisarev represents a transition to vaudeville acts of the second era in the history of Russian V., embracing the 30s, 40s and 50s. of our century. In this era, V. reaches its greatest flourishing, gaining predominant importance in the repertoire and enjoying the constant and unchanging love of the public, who shared Repetilov’s opinion that only “V. is a thing, and the rest is all gil.” Vaudevilles have already completely moved away from the forms of comic opera and show a great desire for originality, reproducing the comic phenomena of modern, mainly metropolitan life. Types of bureaucratic and generally bourgeois people, comic phenomena of family and city life with the most confusing intrigue, constant misunderstandings (quiproquo), a lot of funny sayings in speeches are brought onto the stage characters, witticisms and puns, which were especially abundant in the couplets. The couplets were put into the mouths of almost all the actors and often represented an appeal to the public, especially the almost inevitable final couplets, in which the actors addressed the audience with a request on behalf of the author for a favorable reception of the acted work. V.'s music has become significantly simplified compared to comic operas; the couplets were composed for the most part on popular motifs from operas and operettas, playful in nature and easy to perform. In general, the musical side of vaudeville fades into the background. Many of the verses, which were beyond the power of actors deprived of voice and hearing, were not sung, but spoken to the music, and this genre of recitation gained a prominent place in Russian vaudeville thanks to some highly talented vaudeville performers. Of the numerous Russian vaudeville actors of this era, let us name first of all Fyodor Alekseevich Koni. The most successful of his vaudevilles were: “There are devils in still waters” (1842), “The Dead Husband” (1835), “The Hussar Girl” (1836), “Titular Councilors in Home Life” (1837), “St. Petersburg Apartments” ( 1840), “Trouble from the heart and grief from the mind” (1851), “Don’t fall in love without memory, don’t marry without reason,” “Student, artist, choir member and swindler,” etc. Dimitry Timofeevich Lensky ( real name- Vorobyov) from 1828 to 1854 published more than 100 plays, mainly vaudevilles, translated and borrowed from French. The ability to adapt French originals to Russian morals and types, the liveliness of scenes, resourcefulness and wit in the speeches and couplets of the characters - these are distinctive features Lensky's vaudevilles; some of them have not left the repertoire to this day. Having made his debut with the unsuccessful play “Matchmaker Out of Place” (1829), he quickly gained success with his further vaudevilles: “The Solicitor Under the Table” (1834), “Two Fathers and Two Merchants” (1838), “That’s how the pills go - whatever you put in your mouth, thank you.” ", "Lev Gurych Sinichkin", "Kharkov groom, or a house on two streets", "In people there is an angel, not a wife - Satan is at home with her husband", etc. Pyotr Andreevich Karatygin 2nd, although he followed the French originals that were fashionable in his time , but he introduced into his vaudevilles, more than all other vaudeville artists, the Russian everyday coloring of derived types and characters, drawn exclusively from St. Petersburg life. Resourceful in witticisms and inventive in puns, Karatygin, like Lensky, brought Russian vaudeville to purely French gaiety and liveliness, often touching on various issues of public life that interested modern society. Thus, his first V., given in 1830: “Familiar Strangers,” brought F. Bulgarin and N. Polevoy to the stage under the names of Sarkasmov and Baklushin, who were constantly at odds with each other. "Borrowed Wives" (1834), "Wife and Umbrella" (1835), "Official for special assignments " (1837) drew the public's attention to the young author, and V. "Box of the 1st tier at Taglioni's performance" (1838) enjoyed enormous success. "The First of July in Peterhof" (1840), "Bakery" (1843), "Natural school" were the best of his original vaudevilles. Karatygin's translated vaudevilles, such as "The Leg" (1840), "Vitsmundir" (1845), "School Teacher", "Eccentric" were no less successful, and to some extent still are, -deceased", "Adventure on the Waters", "House on the Petersburg Side, etc. Pyotr Ivanovich Grigoriev 1st, a contemporary and stage comrade of Karatygin, became famous for his special genre of vaudeville with cross-dressing, adapted to the stage abilities of contemporary performers of these roles. "Makar Alekseevich Gubkin", "Comedy with an Uncle" (1841) and "The Daughter of a Russian Actor" received great fame and are still being performed. "Skladchina" (1843), "Polka in St. Petersburg" (1844), in which a dance that had just become fashionable was performed on stage, "Wife or Cards" (1845), "Another Comedy with Uncle", "Andrei Stepanych Buka" (1847) and “Salon pour la coupe des cheveux” (1847), often performed jointly by actors of Russian, French and German troupes, and other originals by V. Grigoriev did not leave the posters; his translated vaudevilles, for example: “There are many wives”, “Love pranks”, “Orphan Susanna” and others. also enjoyed considerable success. Pavel Stepanovich Fedorov made his debut with the unsuccessful original vaudevilles “Peace with the Turks” (1880), “The Reluctant Marquis” (1834); had greater success with “I Want to Be an Actress,” “The Archivist” (1837) and “Enough” (1849); V. became famous for his translations: “Confusion” (1840), “One Hundred Thousand” (1845), “Az and Firth”, “We See a Mote in Someone Else’s Eye”, etc. Nikolai Ivanovich Kulikov wrote several original vaudevilles, which are still popular still today, such as: “Vaudeville with dressing up”, “Gypsy” (1849), “Crow in Peacock Feathers” (1853), and translated ones, for example. “The Enchanted Prince, or the Transmigration of Souls” (1845), “The Troubled Girl”, “The Recruit in Love”, etc. Count Vladimir Aleksandrovich Sollogub gave several vaudevilles on the topic of the day, such as: “Bouquet, or St. Petersburg flower rage” (1845), “Fashionable Treatment” (1847), as well as the one given now by V. “Trouble from a Tender Heart” (1850). Of the other works of this era, which have enjoyed success to this day, V. Korovkin deserves mention: “Novices in Love”, “His Excellency” (1839), “Father, of which there are few”; Solovyov: “We don’t keep what we have, we cry when we lose it” (1843); Yakovlevsky - "Black Day on the Black River" (1846), "Uncle's Tailcoat and Auntie's Bonnet" (1849), and Onyx - "December 1st", "Oh, the French Language". V. of this era owes his success most of all to the talented play of Asenkova, Duras and especially A.E. Martynov, who created a whole gallery of types full of inimitable comedy: Sinichkin, Buka, Karlusha ("The Baker"), Pavel Pavlovich ("What We Have, we don’t store"), etc. The third era of V., the 60s, already represents the fall of this genre. At first, although there are still imitations of previous models and belated translations from French, such as: “Simple and well-mannered”, “Weak string”, “Mutual teaching”, “The need for invention is cunning”, “Mitya”, “The lordly arrogance and Pansies” eyes", "Boarder", "Old Mathematician", "Darlings scold - only amuse themselves", etc., but then V. begins to move into either an operetta or a one-act comedy. “Russian romances in the faces” and “Russian songs in the faces” by Kulikov, “Opressed Innocence”, “The Lovely Stranger” are still quite close to vaudeville, and “Autumn Evening in the Village”, “Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire”, “A Means to Drive Out red tape", "Flash at the Hearth", "Which of the Two", "Carefree", "On the Sands" by Trofimov, "Engagement in Galernaya Harbor" by Shchigrov (Shchiglev) and others, are increasingly losing the character of V. and merging with everyday descriptive comedies, scenes and skits of anecdotal content. The operetta, which appeared in the 60s, dealt an incurable blow to playful vaudeville, absorbing its musical seasoning, without which it would inevitably merge with light comedy and farce comedy, as has happened in our modern repertoire.
Vaudeville (French vaudeville) is a comedy play with verse songs and dances. The name comes from the French “val de Vire” - Vire Valley. Vir is a river in Normandy. IN XVII century In France, songs known as “Chanson de val de Vire” became widespread. They are attributed to the folk poets of the 15th century - Olivier Basselin and Le Goux.
But most likely this is just a collective designation for a special genre of a simple, simple, humorous song folk character, light in melodic composition, mockingly satirical in content, and in origin connected with the villages of the Vir Valley. This can explain the further transformation of the name itself - from “val de Vire” to “voix de ville” (“voices of the city”).
In the second half of the 17th century, small theatrical plays appeared in France, introducing these songs during the action and from them they themselves received the name “vaudeville”. And in 1792, even a special “Théâtre de Vaudeville” - “Vaudeville Theater” was founded in Paris. Of the French vaudeville actors, Scribe and Labiche are especially famous.
In Russia, the prototype of vaudeville was a small comic opera of the late 17th century, which remained in the repertoire of the Russian theater by the beginning of the 19th century. These include - “Sbitenshchik” by Knyazhnin, Nikolaev - “Guardian-Professor” and “Misfortune from the Carriage”, Levshin - “Imaginary Widowers”, Matinsky - “St. Petersburg Gostiny Dvor”, Krylova - “Coffee Shop”, etc.
The opera by V. Ablesimov, “The Miller-Sorcerer, the Deceiver and the Matchmaker” (1779), was a particular success. “This play,” says the “Dramatic Dictionary” of 1787, “aroused so much attention from the public that it was played many times in a row... Not only from national audiences, but also foreigners were quite curious.”
In Pushkin’s “Count Nulin” the definition of vaudeville is also associated with the concept of aria, opera:
"...Would you like to listen
A charming vaudeville?" and the Count
The next stage in the development of vaudeville is “a little comedy with music,” as Bulgarin defines it. This vovedil has become especially widespread since about the 20s of the last century. Bulgarin considers Shakhovsky’s “The Cossack Poet” and “Lomonosov” to be typical examples of such vaudeville.
“The Cossack poet,” F. Wigel writes in his Notes, “is especially notable for the fact that he was the first to appear on stage under the real name of vaudeville. From him came this endless chain of these light works.”
Among the noble-guard youth early XIX centuries, it was considered a sign of “good form” to compose a vaudeville for a benefit performance of this or that actor or actress. And for the beneficiary this was beneficial, because it also implied some “propaganda” on the part of the author for the upcoming benefit collection. Later, even Nekrasov “sinned” with several vaudeville acts under the pseudonym N. Perepelsky (“You can’t hide an awl in a sack, you can’t keep a girl in a sack”, “Feoklist Onufrievich Bob, or a husband is out of his element”, “This is what it means to fall in love with an actress”, "Actor" and "Granny's Parrots").
Vaudevilles were usually translated from French. “Adaptation of French vaudevilles to Russian customs was limited mainly to the replacement of French names with Russian ones. N.V. Gogol wrote in his notebook in 1835: “But what happened now when a real Russian, and even somewhat stern and distinguished by his unique national character, with his heavy figure, began to imitate the shuffling of the petimeter, and our corpulent, but a shrewd and intelligent merchant with a wide beard, who knows nothing on his foot except a heavy boot, would instead put on a narrow shoe and stockings à jour, and, even better, would leave the other one in the boot and become the first pair in the French quadrille . But our national vaudevilles are almost the same.”
Belinsky’s verdict on Russian vaudevilles is just as harsh: “Firstly, they are basically adaptations of French vaudevilles, therefore, the couplets, witticisms, funny situations, the beginning and the denouement - everything is ready, you just know how to use it. So what happens? This lightness, naturalness, liveliness, which involuntarily captivated and delighted our imagination in French vaudeville, this wit, these sweet nonsense, this coquetry of talent, this play of the mind, these grimaces of fantasy, in a word, all this disappears in the Russian copy, and only heaviness remains , awkwardness, unnaturalness, tension, two or three puns, two or three equivocations, and nothing more.”
Secular vaudeville theatergoers usually cooked up very simple recipe. Griboyedov’s Repetilov (“Woe from Wit”) also spoke about him:
"...six of us, lo and behold, they're turning out a vaudeville act,
The other six put music to music,
Others clap when they give it..."
There are indications that Pushkin, meeting the requests of some friends, paid tribute to the custom of the then high-society dandies, although the texts of Pushkin’s vaudeville couplets have not been established with certainty.
Usually vaudeville poems were such that, with all condescension, they can only be called rhyming.
The passion for vaudeville was truly enormous. For October 1840 in St. Petersburg Alexandrinsky Theater Only 25 performances were staged, of which almost every one, in addition to the main play, included one or two vaudevilles, but ten performances were also composed exclusively of vaudevilles. Herzen, looking forward to the arrival of M. S. Shchepkin in London, recalls (in a letter to M. K. Reichel) not his big roles, but a vaudeville chorus:
"Chuk-chuk, Tetyana,
Chernobrov Kokhan."
Shchepkin himself played in vaudeville quite willingly. They occupied a very prominent place in his repertoire. Going on tour to St. Petersburg in 1834, he sent Sosnitsky his repertoire, where, along with “Woe from Wit,” there are a lot of vaudevilles.
From about the 1840s. in vaudeville, an element of topicality and polemic begins to noticeably emerge, either in the text or in the form of acting gags and couplets, and this is a great success among the public. Of course, topicality in Nicholas’s times could not go beyond the limits of purely literary or theatrical anger (and then carefully), everything else was “strictly prohibited.” In Lensky’s vaudeville, for example, “In people, an angel is not a wife, at home with her husband it is Satan,” the Wimp sings:
Here, for example, is an analysis of Polevoy’s Play - Both the author and the actor won’t understand a word here...
Particular success fell on Lensky’s five-act vaudeville “Lev Gurych Sinichkin or the Provincial Debutante,” adapted from the French play “The Father of the Debutante.” It remained in the theater repertoire until the beginning of the 20th century, although, of course, it was already devoid of any topicality (of which there was a lot in it), but it still did not lose its significance as a picture of the theatrical morals of that time. In the 1840s, another special genre of vaudeville “with dressing up” appeared. In them, the young actress Asenkova, praised by Nekrasov, was a resounding success. The most popular vaudeville authors were: Shakhovskoy, Khmelnitsky (his vaudeville “Castles in the Air” lasted until late XIX century), Pisarev, Koni, Fedorov, Grigoriev, Soloviev, Karatygin (author of “Vitsmundir”), Lensky and others.
The penetration of operetta into Russia from France in the late 1860s weakened the passion for vaudeville, especially since all sorts of political impromptu (of course, within the limits of very vigilant censorship), ad-libs and especially topical (in the same vaudeville type) couplets were widely practiced in operetta. Operetta was unimaginable at that time without such couplets. But nevertheless, vaudeville remains in the repertoire of the Russian theater for quite a long time. Its noticeable decline begins only in the eighties of the 19th century.
The film performance of the E. Vakhtangov Theater “An Evening of Old Russian Vaudevilles” was staged by Evgeny Simonov in 1978. It was based on two vaudevilles: “Give Me the Old Woman” by Vasily Savinov and “The Hussar Girl” by Fyodor Koni.
Inheriting the Vakhtangov tradition of the holiday theatre, Simonov in his work entered the territory of the imperial theaters of the 19th century, taking on popular translated plays, which progressive cultural figures, including V. Belinsky and K. Stanislavsky, fought so ardently in their time.
“An Evening of Old Russian Vaudevilles” is a kind of dedication to an old genre, light, theatrical, slightly naive. The action of the play takes place on the stage of a lurid provincial theater, decorated with gilding, stucco, plump cupids and antique railings, around which garden roses are entwined (Artist - Igor Morozov).
In this setting, the action of two stories unfolds, told to the audience by Lev Gurych Sinichkin (Grigory Abrikosov) and his daughter Lisa (Lyudmila Drebneva) - the heroes of Alexander Lensky's vaudeville. The reverent couple of provincial actors reverently introduces the audience to the theatrical traditions of Russian vaudeville, listing their illustrious predecessors Mikhail Shchepkin and Vasily Zhivokini, specially focusing on Boris Shchukin and Ruben Simonov. The Sinichkins act as hosts of the “concert”, at which other heroes of the production perform solos.
On the stage, the brilliant Vakhtangov players are fooling around and playing pranks all evening: Yuri Yakovlev, Vasily Lanovoy, Lyudmila Maksakova, Yuri Volyntsev and many others. At the time of filming the performance, they were all in excellent creative shape. You can see how Yuri Yakovlev enjoys playing the role of provincial entrepreneur Login Pusternak, who avoids meeting a girl he once seduced. A velvet suit, a cane, a dandy mustache, as a reminder of the stormy hussar youth - his Pusternak is a parody of his own Stiva Oblonsky. The aged red tape is looking for an actress to play the role of the old woman, and along the way he sings simple couplets, like: “Moments are pleasure for me, the rest is bullshit.”
The role of Praskovya Petrovna Kletkina is a benefit role, as if specially created for Lyudmila Maksakova. The actress transforms herself into several characters at once: first she enthusiastically plays an amusing, humming old woman, then she plays a German governess who hires herself as an actress for Pusternak. Charming her former lover, she performs a gypsy dance, which is immediately replaced by a French cancan. Then she involves Pusternak in new game and he, together with her, performs ballet steps in a naive pastoral.
As a result, the entrepreneur not only finds a brilliant actress, but also a former lover.
The second vaudeville production of “The Hussar Girl” by Fyodor Koni is also not distinguished by the complexity of the plot and the elaboration of the images.
“The Hussar Girl” is a simple story about Captain Roland, who gave up a child saved during the war to be raised without knowing whether it was a boy or a girl. Upon retiring, the warrior hopes to see his son, but instead of an heir, a beautiful girl dressed in a hussar uniform is waiting for him.
In Simonov's production, the role of the gallant captain is played by Vasily Lanovoi, who has spent his entire life specializing in the roles of people from the military class. Military bearing, passion and courage—the usual traits of Lanovoy’s characters in “The Hussar Girl”—are complemented by acting hooliganism, improvisation and irony. Lanovoy in the role of Roland unexpectedly transforms into a wonderful vaudeville actor. He sings, dances beautifully, he is light and graceful.
Lanovoy’s main partner is Yuri Volyntsev, who deliciously plays the cowardly teacher Karl Lerman. The work of two young heroines, actresses Irina Kalistratova and Olga Gavrilyuk, who faithfully serve the Vakhtangov Theater to this day, is interesting. Musical, lively and flexible, they twist the intrigue of the plot with special passion. As befits a French comedy, the vaudeville “The Hussar Girl” ends with two weddings.
And the performance itself is filled with the soulful singing of Sinichkin and Lisa, who confess their love to His Majesty the theater. The vaudeville genre, popular in the 19th century, combines performance and operetta, and is still loved by actors and the public.
Despite its simple plot close to a sitcom, unpretentious dialogues, great acting - it refers us to the public theater, the comedy of masks, accessible to the common viewer, but invariably requiring virtuosity from the performer. Inheriting the tradition of “Princess Turandot,” the Vakhtangov Theater’s production of “An Evening of Old Russian Vaudevilles” challenges the Russian psychological school and theatrical routine. Using the usual tools of the school of performance, playfully, outstanding masters this evening put on the masks of bad provincial actors and act out stories “on the theater,” doffing their hat to the old-fashioned tradition and remembering their eminent predecessors.