Serfdom, Society, and the Arts in Imperial Russia: The Pleasure and the PowerSerf-era and provincial Russia heralded the spectacular turn in cultural history that began in the 1860s. Examining the role of arts and artists in society’s value system, Richard Stites explores this shift in a groundbreaking history of visual and performing arts in the last decades of serfdom. Provincial town and manor house engaged the culture of Moscow and St. Petersburg while thousands of serfs and ex-serfs created or performed. Mikhail Glinka raised Russian music to new levels and Anton Rubinstein struggled to found a conservatory. Long before the itinerants, painters explored town and country in genre scenes of everyday life. Serf actors on loan from their masters brought naturalistic acting from provincial theaters to the imperial stages. Stites’s richly detailed book offers new perspectives on the origins of Russia’s nineteenth-century artistic prowess. |
Contents
1 | |
11 | |
51 | |
Part III Empire of Performance | 127 |
Part IV Pictures at an Exhibition | 281 |
Part V Finale and Overture | 381 |
Other editions - View all
Serfdom, Society, and the Arts in Imperial Russia: The Pleasure and the Power Richard Stites No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
Academy acting actors Alexander amateur appeared artists Arzamas audience became called capital century character classes classical composer concert Country court critics cultural decades drama early Europe European fair figures first foreign formed freedom French genre gentry Glinka Imperial Theaters Italy kind landowner landscape late later lived master merchants Mikhail Moscow musicians natural Nicholas nineteenth noble noted offered official opera orchestra original owners painters painting passim peasant performance Petersburg piano play popular portrait professional provincial pupils remained role Rubinstein Russian salon scenes serf serfdom servants served Shchepkin shows social society sometimes Soviet space stage story style talent teatr theater theatrical tion took town troupe Tsar turned University Vospominaniya women young Zapiski