Vera Komissarzhevskaya

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vera Fyodorovna Komissarzhevskaya (Russian: Вера Федоровна Комиссаржевская, November 8, 1864, St. Petersburg - February 23, 1910, Tashkent) was the most celebrated Russian actress at the turn of the twentieth century.

Komissarzhevskaya's sculpture on her grave on Tikhvin Cemetery in Saint Petersburg

Vera Komissarzhevskaya was the daughter of Fyodor Komissarzhevsky, a high-profile tenor of the Mariinsky Theatre, and sister of Theodore Komisarjevsky, a famous theatrical director. At the age of 19 she married Count Muravyov but preferred to keep her stage name after the marriage. Since 1896, she worked in the Alexandrine Theatre of St Petersburg. Her greatest triumph was the role of Nina Zarechnaya in the premiere of Chekhov's The Seagull in 1896.

In 1904, Komissarzhevskaya established her own theatre, which proved immensely popular with the Russian aristocracy in promoting the ideas of Russian Symbolism. The theatre was directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold in 1906, but his idiosyncratic approach led to Komissarzhevskaya's rupture with him the following year.

Vera's death of smallpox during a tour in Central Asia shocked many of her admirers and occasioned some poignant lyrics from Alexander Blok. One of major St Petersburg theatres still bears her name.

There was a biographical film about her, Ya - aktrisa ("I am an actress"), released in the USSR in 1980, starring Natalia Saiko as Komissarzhevskaya.