Date: 20.03.2014
March 6th was the 85th anniversary of a famous poet, novelist and essayist, winner of numerous State and foreign prizes, Fazil Iskander. Fazil Iskander was a modern philosopher, a man of wisdom who contemplated the fight between good and evil, the time, the moral image of people in power. He was a man who reminded that “the soul must work”. He was the one who reminded us that the falling could be done faster than rising – “a man is more successful at becoming worse than better”. “My insane goal to help a human to get better spiritually may not be achieved. The craziness of the ideal is to make a human happy”, - he said.
His major books were written in an original genre and were full of satire - his first novel “Sozvezdie Kozlotura” and the novel that had long been prohibited “Sandro iz Chegema”, childhood-themed epos “Chika”, short novel and paroemia “Kroliki I Udavy”, dialogue-novel “Dumayushchii o Rossii I Amerikatents”, “Chelovek i ego okrestnosti”, “Stoyanka cheloveka”. His last big prose – “Sofichka” – covered the idea of a Home as a stronghold of morality, conscience and honor. Iskander’s characters live their lives in theater and cinema. The play “Privet ot Tsyurupy” by Sergey Kokovin based on the prose of Iskander had a success in the Satire Theater, the premiere play “Shirokolobii” based on the novel “Sandro iz Chegema” was staged in 2013 in Khabarovsk. The films “Piry Valtasara ili Noch so Stalinym”, “Vory v Zakone”, “Malenky gigant bolshogo seksa” attempted to adapt inimitable texts by Iskander to the world of cinema. Our exhibition helped get to know the originals – the prose and poetry by Fazil Iskander, to get familiar with him through the eyes of his friends, fans and colleagues.
March 12th was the 125th anniversary of Vaslav Nijinsky (1889-1950), the legendary ballet-dancer and choreographer, soloist of Mariinsky Theater, who left the imperial stage for joining the Ballets Russes started by Sergei Diaghilev. He was known as the most talented dancer from the whole group – “the dance god”, “the legend of the Russian ballet”. Charlie Chaplin spoke in glowing terms of him: “I have met few geniuses in my life and one of them was Nijinsky. He enchanted, he was divine, his mysterious gloominess seemed to come from the other worlds. His every movement was a poem, every jump – a flight to the land of fantasy”.
The exhibition presented the most interesting and relevant publications dedicated to Nijinsky. “The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky” attracted much interest as an example of unique existential prose. It is impossible to cover the life of Nijinsky without the memoirs of his wife Romola, his sister Bronislava who also danced for Diaghilev company, T. Karsavina who danced with Nijinsky in such ballets as “Giselle”, “The Firebird”, “Petrushka”, “Scheherazade” and the memoirs by M. Fokin. The book by Richard Buckle “Vaslav Nijinsky. Innovator and Lover” is based on wide and unique documentary material. The research made by the Professor of the Columbia University L. Garafola “Diaghilev’s Russian Ballet” - one of the chapters was dedicated to innovative choreographer Nijinsky whose ballet “The Rite of Spring” became the synonym for the idea of modernism. Another publication that deserves special attention was the book by George Balanchine “101 Stories of the Great Ballets” with detailed librettos and stories of creation of classic ballets with Nijinsky “Le Spectre de la Rose” and “Petrushka” and also the ballet staged by Maurice Béjart “Nijinski, clown de Dieu”.
March 18th was the 170th anniversary of one of the greatest representatives of the Russian music culture – the composer, teacher, founder of Fairy Opera genre – Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908). It was Rimsky-Korsakov who became the first figure to start with the acquisition of the Russian music abroad. Thanks to his operas “The Maid of Pskov”, “The Tsar’s Bride”, “The Snow Maiden”, “Sadko”, The Golden Cockerel”, “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”, Mozart and Salieri” the whole world became familiar with the Russian history and the richest Russian literature.
The exhibition presented “My Musical Life” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the book he had been writing for 30 years. This work, many times reprinted, is well known to all music professionals and music lovers. Other books on display were “The pages of life of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov” and “Guide to Rimsky-Korsakov’s Operas” and biographic research made by music experts of a few generations. There were also books for family reading, such as a wonderful album “N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov” – an exciting illustrated story of his life and work, the book by S. Laevsky “A Start in Life” describing the childhood of the great composer, and in the framework of the series “For a young music lover” the story by E. Guliants about the opera “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”. The publication “25 Opera Masterpieces” dedicated to the most popular world operas, with three of them by Rimsky-Korsakov - “The Snow Maiden”, “The Tsar’s Bride” and “The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya”. A true pearl of the exhibition is a lifetime publication of libretto for his opera “The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya” dated 1927.
