Yuri Lyubimov Юрий Любимов | |
|---|---|
 Lyubimov in 2007 | |
| Born | Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov (1917-09-30)30 September 1917 |
| Died | 5 October 2014(2014-10-05) (aged 97) |
| Occupation(s) | Stage actor,theatre director |
| Years active | 1935–2014 |
| Spouse | Katalin Lyubimova (1978-2014) |
| Awards |
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| Website | www.lyubimov.info (archived) |
Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov (Russian:Ю́рий Петро́вич Люби́мов; 30 September [O.S. 17 September] 1917 – 5 October 2014) was a Soviet and Russian stage actor and director associated with the internationally renownedTaganka Theatre,[1] which he founded in 1964.[2][3] He was one of the leading names in the Russian theatre world.[4]
Lyubimov was born inYaroslavl in 1917. His grandfather was akulak who fled toMoscow to escape arrest during thecollectivisation. Lyubimov's father, Pyotr Zakharovich, was a merchant, who worked for aScottish company, and his mother, Anna Alexandrovna, was a half-Russian and half-Gypsy schoolteacher. They moved to Moscow in 1922, where both were arrested. Lyubimov studied at the Institute for Energy in Moscow.[5]
He was a member ofMikhail Chekhov's Second Moscow Art Theater from 1934 to 1936. During the 1930s, he also metVsevolod Meyerhold, the avant-garde director. Lyubimov worked in the Song and Dance Ensemble of the NKVD, where he met and befriendedDmitri Shostakovich,Nikolai Erdman and many others.[6]
After service in theRed Army duringWorld War II, Lyubimov joined theVakhtangov Theatre (founded byYevgeny Vakhtangov). In 1953, he received theUSSR State Prize. Lyubimov started teaching in 1963 and formed the Taganka Theatre the following year. His celebrated production ofBertold Brecht'sThe Good Person of Setzuan withAnna Orochko's class at the Schukin Theatre Institute earned him the artistic directorship of the Taganka Theatre. With Meyerhold, Stanislavsky, Vakhtangov and Brecht as his spiritual guides, Lyubimov eschewed Soviet drama for the more imaginative worlds of poetry and narrative fiction, which he dramatized, and the classics, which he broke apart, reconstituted and presented from a pronounced critical perspective.[7] Under Lyubimov, the theatre rose to become the most popular inMoscow, withVladimir Vysotsky andAlla Demidova as the leading actors. In 1971Shakespeare'sHamlet became one of Lyubimov's highly successful and much acclaimed productions.[8] In 1976 he was awarded by theBITEF First Prize forHamlet.
In 1975 he directed the original production ofAl gran sole carico d'amore byLuigi Nono at theTeatro alla Scala (Nono himself and Lyubimov wrote the libretto).
Long a Soviet underground classic,Mikhail Bulgakov's novelThe Master and Margarita was finally brought to the Russian stage at the Taganka in 1977, in an adaptation by Lyubimov.[9]
According to B. Beumers, the major innovations Lyubimov brought to theatrical history are the creation of a new theatrical genre, the poetic theatre, in which all revolves around one metaphor, and the creation of a new form of dramatic material, which incorporates a historical and biographical context.[10] Lyubimov's performances — including the well-knownAntiworlds,Pugachev,Listen!, andComrade, believe, as well as newerBefore and After,Oberiuty, andHoney — were fed and filled with poetic energy. In another performance,Fallen and Living, Yuri Lyubimov andDavid Samoilov built on verses by Pavel Kogan, Semyon Gudzenko and other poets of the World War II generation.[11]
After Vysotsky's death in 1980, all of Lyubimov's productions were banned by the Communist authorities. In 1984, he was stripped of Soviet citizenship. Thereupon he worked abroad before returning to the Taganka Theatre in 1989. His staging ofEugene Onegin premiered in the Taganka on his 85th birthday to much critical acclaim.
While in the West he maintained a busy directing career. In the United States he directedCrime and Punishment atArena Stage andLulu at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. In 1983 he directedCrime and Punishment in London, winning theEvening Standard Award for Best Director, in 1985 he directedSt Matthew Passion atLa Scala. His effort to re-stage his famousThe Master and Margarita at theAmerican Repertory Theater failed to materialize because of a disagreement with the management of that company. In 1989, his Russian citizenship was restored.[12]
In June 2011, before a performance ofBertolt Brecht's playThe Good Person of Szechwan inCzech, the actors of Taganka refused to rehearse unless they were paid first. Lyubimov paid the money and left the theatre. "I've had enough of this disgrace, these humiliations, this lack of desire to work, this desire just for money", he said.[4] Lyubimov retired from the theatre the following week. Two leading actors of theatre,Dmitry Mezhevich and Alla Smirdan,[13] as well as some administrative assistants,[14] followed Lyubimov. His dramatization ofDostoevsky'sDemons premiered the next year.
In June 2013 Lyubimov stagedAlexander Borodin's operaPrince Igor at theBolshoi Theatre, which was warmly received by audiences and critics.[15] The newPrince Igor is shorter, with Lyubimov cutting out some parts of the opera. According toVassily Sinaisky, the Bolshoi chief conductor, such a new structure of the opera was conceived to make it more dynamic and intense.[16]
Lyubimov staged over 100 dramas and operas. "People tried to stick me with the label of political theater. But that's wrong. I was engaged in an aesthetic, in the expansion of the palette — what shades could be added in working with space and style," he says.[6] Leonardo Shapiro concludes that "Lyubimov is probably best known for his daring theatrical adaptations of poetry and novels and his successful (and sometimes unsuccessful) run-ins with Soviet Premiers and Ministers of Culture over forbidden material."[17]
As an actor, he performed in 37 plays and 17 films, and several remain classics.
Vladimir Vysotsky dedicated some of his famous songs (including "It's Not Evening Yet"[18]) to Yuri Lyubimov.
Lyubimov, a director who dominated Russian theatre for half a century, died at 97, after being admitted to the Botkin Clinic in Moscow with heart failure.[19]
In 2011 he was awarded a Special Prize by the Jury of the XIVEurope Theatre Prize, inSaint Petersburg. The prize organization stated:
There is a Special Prize for figures displaying particular commitment in combining their own cultural and/or political experience at the highest level with the European ideals and those of peace and coexistence between peoples (...) The Jury of the 14th edition unanimously awarded this to the legendary Russian director Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov for his unquestionable artistic stature and the crucial role that he and theTaganka Theatre played in the delicate phase ofperestroika marking the transition from theSoviet Union to contemporaryRussia.[20]
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