The Stone Guest is a poetic
dramaDrama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a collective...
by Alexander Pushkin based on the
SpanishSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
legend of
Don JuanDon Juan or Don Giovanni is a legendary, fictional libertine whose story has been told many times by many authors. El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra, by Tirso de Molina, is a play set in the fourteenth century that was published in Spain around 1630...
.
The Stone Guest was written in 1830 as part of his four short plays known as the
The Little Tragedies.
The Stone Guest is based on the familiar
Don JuanDon Juan or Don Giovanni is a legendary, fictional libertine whose story has been told many times by many authors. El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra, by Tirso de Molina, is a play set in the fourteenth century that was published in Spain around 1630...
legend, but while most traditional adaptations present it as
farcicalA farce is a comedy written for the stage or film which aims to entertain the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include sexual innuendo and word play, and a fast-paced...
and
comedicComedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in Ancient Greece...
, Pushkin's "little tragedy" is indeed a romantic
tragedyTragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that, paradoxically, offers its audience pleasure...
.
Discussion
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The Stone Guest is a poetic
dramaDrama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a collective...
by Alexander Pushkin based on the
SpanishSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
legend of
Don JuanDon Juan or Don Giovanni is a legendary, fictional libertine whose story has been told many times by many authors. El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra, by Tirso de Molina, is a play set in the fourteenth century that was published in Spain around 1630...
.
The Stone Guest was written in 1830 as part of his four short plays known as the
The Little Tragedies.
The Stone Guest is based on the familiar
Don JuanDon Juan or Don Giovanni is a legendary, fictional libertine whose story has been told many times by many authors. El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra, by Tirso de Molina, is a play set in the fourteenth century that was published in Spain around 1630...
legend, but while most traditional adaptations present it as
farcicalA farce is a comedy written for the stage or film which aims to entertain the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include sexual innuendo and word play, and a fast-paced...
and
comedicComedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in Ancient Greece...
, Pushkin's "little tragedy" is indeed a romantic
tragedyTragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that, paradoxically, offers its audience pleasure...
. Save for the
duelAs practiced from the 11th to 20th centuries in Western societies, a duel is an engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with their combat doctrines. In the modern application, the term is applied to aerial warfare between fighter pilots...
, there is little action, and though written in the form of a play, it is agreed by scholars that it was never meant for the stage.
Pushkin's play was written in 1830, after he saw the premiere of Russian-language version of
MozartWolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as...
's
Don GiovanniDon Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered in the Estates Theatre in Prague on October 29, 1787...
. Pushkin borrowed certain elements from
da PonteLorenzo Da Ponte was an Venetian librettist and poet.- Life :...
's libretto, but made the story his own, focusing more on the tragic romantic elements than on the farcial ones.
Adaptations
- 1872 - The Stone Guest
The Stone Guest is an opera in three acts by Alexander Dargomyzhsky. The libretto was taken almost verbatim from Alexander Pushkin's like-named play in blank verse , with slight changes in wording and the interpolation of two songs indicated in the play...
, opera by Alexander DargomyzhskyAlexander Sergeyevich Dargomyzhsky was a 19th century Russian composer. He bridged the gap in Russian opera composition between Mikhail Glinka and the later generation of The Five and Tchaikovsky....
.
External links
«Каменный гость» avaialble at
Russian Virtual Library