Ru
EnA. Selitsky
Grigory Valiano: materials for a biography. Between the province and the capital (1875–1878). Article two
The creative path of the theatrical figure Grigory St. Valliano (1830–1888) splits into two approximately equal stages. The first of them (1864–1875), when he headed an enterprise in Rostov-on-Don, is internally intact. A few years after the creation of the troupe, the repertoire was reoriented mainly to operetta. The enterprise has become a phenomenon of no local scale: According to the historian of the genre, Valliano created in 1869 «the first purely operetta theater in Russia». Having gone bankrupt, he was forced to leave Rostov. The second period of his artistic biography is marked by sharp turns, which in turn splits into several segments. For some time, Valliano, like the vast majority of his colleagues in the profession, moved between cities and theaters, and served in Moscow for several years with Mikhail Lentovsky, the largest Russian entrepreneur. Valliano spent his last theatrical season back in the provinces.
The first destination of Valliano after Rostov was St. Petersburg, the enterprise of Vasily Egarev, who owned the best entertainment establishments of the capital and the surrounding area. Participation in such an undertaking was supposed to attract with its mass character and attitude to the spectacular spectacle, which he gravitated towards in the Rostov years. A year later, Valliano created and headed his own business – a Russian troupe in the building of the Berg Theater. The troupe turned out to be weak and did not last long. He spent the 1877/78 season again in the province, in the city of Nikolaev, in the troupe of Mikhail Maksimov, where he not only played on stage, but also directed.
The relatively short time interval – between leaving Rostov and coming to Lentovsky – is of particular interest, because it is not similar to either the previous or subsequent periods. This publication is dedicated to him, the second in a series of articles that recreate and comprehend the creative path of Valliano in the context of the theatrical life of those decades.
Key words
the history of operetta in Russia, Vasily Egarev, St. Petersburg, Nikolaev.
For citation
Selitsky A. Grigory Valiano: materials for a biography. Between the province and the capital (1875–1878). Article two. In: South-Russian Musical Anthology. 2024. No. 2. Pp. 5–9.
