Description of the attraction
The St. Petersburg State Theater of Musical Comedy traces its history back to December 18, 1910, when the Palace Theater was opened on Italyanskaya Street, where operettas with the participation of famous actors of that time were performed with great success. There was a cabaret and restaurant on the ground floor.
9 years later, in 1920, the building was given to the troupe of the State Theater of Comic Opera, headed by K. Mardzhanov. A year later, the basement was rebuilt into a cabaret called Lame Joe, where after the performances the stars of the stage played comic performances every evening.
In 1929 the theater had a new neighbor - "Music Hall", the musical director of which was I. Dunaevsky, and the choreographer - K. Goleizovsky. L. Utesov, G. Bogdanova-Chesnokova performed on the stage of the Music Hall.
The Leningrad State Theater of Musical Comedy presented its first performance to the public on September 17, 1929. The most prominent art worker, director and actor of the operetta A. Feon became the artistic director.
In the mid-30s, the second generation of the troupe came to the Musical Comedy: V. Khristianova, A. German, K. Astafieva, E. Mikhailov, V. Svidersky, N. Boldyreva, A. Korolkevich, L. Kolesnikova, L. Taganskaya, I. Kedrov, A. Orlov. The performances were staged by E. Kaplan, V. Soloviev, P. Weisbrem. At the same time, operettas on contemporary themes began to be staged here, the authors of which were I. Dunaevsky, B. Alexandrov, N. Strelnikov.
In 1938, all the premises were given to the Leningrad Musical Comedy Theater, the first premiere of which was the staging of D. Aubert's comic opera "Black Domino".
The Leningrad Theater of Musical Comedy was the only theater that did not close during the siege of the city. All 900 days. The performances were being prepared in the shortest possible time, the actors did not pay attention to hunger and constant bombing. The actors gave 2 performances a day.
In 1941, the theater building was badly damaged when the house next to it was completely destroyed by a direct bomb hit. The last time the curtain was raised in the auditorium was on December 24th. Subsequent performances were staged on the stage of the Alexandrinsky Theater, the troupe of which was evacuated.
On the Road of Life, the actors of the musical theater went to the front. In the rear and on the front lines, they gave over a thousand concerts. Much attention was paid to the work on the creation of contemporary plays. The writers V. Vishnevskaya, V. Azarov, A. Kron, who were in the besieged city, wrote the libretto, and the composers V. Vitlin, L. Kruz and N. Minkh wrote the music to the operetta on the patriotic theme “The sea spreads wide”.
During the days of the siege, not a single performance was canceled, and there was not a single change of actors, despite the fact that, in addition to stage activities, the entire troupe was on duty in the MPO teams, hospitals, and helped to pull people out from under the rubble after the bombings.
During the blockade, the theater staff lost 64 people. The theater actors played in the frozen hall, fainted from hunger backstage, but were sold out. Leningraders took the queue for tickets from 5 o'clock in the morning. The performances in the besieged city were seen by over a million spectators.
In the post-war period, on the stage of the theater, along with the classics, were performed operettas by O. Feltsman, Y. Milyutin, V. Soloviev-Sedoy, I. Dunaevsky, A. Petrov, E. Zharkovsky.
From 1972 to 1988 the theater collective was headed by the honored art worker of the RSFSR V. Vorobyov. He helped the theater find a new creative direction. Operetta masters and young artists shone on the stage: V. Krivonos, V. Kostetsky, E. Driatskaya, B. Smolkin, T. Vasilyeva, E. Tilicheev, V. Kosobutskaya, A. Semak, E. Polosina. At this time, there were performances that have become classics: Truffaldino, Wedding with a General, Delo, Krechinsky's Wedding, and The Firebird.
In the 80s, the theater building was in dire need of renovation. For almost 10 years the troupe had to perform on different stages, in the Houses of Culture. Over the years, the theater has practically lost its audience. Only with the arrival of A. Belinsky as artistic director in 1995, the renovation was nevertheless made.
Now the theater is headed by the general director J. Schwarzkopf. The theater troupe is trying to revive the former glory of the Musical Comedy.
