Theodore Komisarjevsky

Fyodor Fyodorovich Komissarzhevsky (Russian: Фёдор Фёдорович Комиссарже́вский; 23 May 1882 – 17 April 1954) or Theodore Komisarjevsky was a Russian, later British, theatrical director and designer. He began his career in Moscow, but had his greatest influence in London. He was noted for groundbreaking productions of plays by Chekhov and Shakespeare.

Komisarjevsky was born in Venice, the son of Fyodor Komissarzhevsky and his second wife, Lithuanian Princess Marie Kursevich. Fyodor was the principal tenor of the Imperial Opera in Saint Petersburg and the teacher of the influential theatre director Konstantin Stanislavsky. The actress Vera Komissarzhevskaya was Theodore's elder half-sister. He was educated at Saint Petersburg University and the Imperial Institute of Architecture.

In 1907, Komisarjevsky directed his first production, for his half-sister's theatre in Moscow. (She died in 1910, aged 45 years.) In the same year he founded a drama school in Moscow, adding a studio-theatre in her memory in 1914. During the rest of the Imperial era, and later under the Soviet régime, Komisarjevsky worked as a producer and director in Moscow until 1919, when, fearing arrest by the secret police, he escaped to Paris. On the advice of his fellow émigré Serge Diaghilev he went from there to London.Sir Thomas Beecham appointed him to direct the opera Prince Igor at Covent Garden, described by The Times as "outstanding … [a] magnificent production". Further operatic work followed in Paris (Die Walküre and Siegfried) and New York. Greatly disapproving of the short rehearsal time allotted to some of his operatic work, he became known for his insistence on adequate preparation. In June 1921 the tenor Vladimir Rosing presented a season of "Opera Intime" at the Aeolian Hall in London, directed by Komisarjevsky and conducted by Sir Adrian Boult.

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