A month in the country

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A month in the country ( Russian Месяц в деревне , Mesjaz w derewne), comedy in 5 acts, is a play by Ivan Turgenev , published in 1855.

people

Natalja ( Olga Knipper ) and Rakitin ( Stanislawski ), Moscow 1909
  • Natalia Petrovna, wife of the wealthy landowner Arkadi Islayev, 29 years old
  • Mikhail Alexandrovich Rakitin , neighbor and friend of the family, in love with Natalja, 30 years old
  • Aleksei Nikolajewitsch Beljajew , student and teacher of Natalja's son Kolja, 21 years old
  • Arkadi Sergeitsch Islajew , a wealthy landlord, Natalja's husband, 36 years old
  • Kolya , son of Islaev, 10 years old
  • Vera Alexandrovna, called Werotschka, Natalja's ward, 17 years old
  • Anna Semjenowna Islajewa, Arkadi's mother, 58 years old
  • Lisaveta Bogdanovna, partner, 37 years old
  • Adam Schaaf , Kolja's German teacher and educator, 45 years old
  • Ignati Iljitsch Schpigelski , family doctor
  • Afanasi Iwanowitsch Bolschinzow , an elderly landowner, neighbor
  • Matwei , servant
  • Katja , maid

content

The play takes place on the estate of the wealthy landowner Islayev. Islayev has hired the student Aleksei Belyaev to teach his ten-year-old son for the summer. The presence of the charming young man completely disrupts the boring country life and the well-established habits of the residents - especially the female ones. Natalya, who has so far banished marital boredom behind her husband's back by flirting with her educated but rather reserved admirer Rakitin, suddenly ignites with passion for the young man, who in his innocence does not notice anything at first. Her seventeen-year-old foster daughter Vera, called Veruschka, who still likes to take part in the children's games Kolya and Belyaev, also falls in love with him, and the housemaid Katya makes him look good too.

Bolshintsov, an aging, clumsy and clumsy neighbor, has chosen the young Vera as a suitable wife. The family doctor, Dr. Shpigelsky, who looks with pleasure at the emerging entanglements and confusions of feelings. For himself, he has targeted the elderly Islayev governess as a possible spouse. When Natalya learns of Bolshintsov's marriage intentions through Rakitin and informs her foster daughter about it in a quasi sisterly conversation, Vera reacts completely horrified. Natalya has to realize that they are both in love with the same man. She reacts with jealousy that she cannot control. Rakitin, whom she asks for advice, advises her to send the young man away as quickly as possible.

Gradually, the husband begins to worry about his wife's emotional fluctuations and suspects Rakitin as the cause of her irritation. In the meantime, Natalya has allowed Belyaev to come to her and, to his amazement, makes him serious about his relationship with Vera. In a conversation, Vera explains to the unsuspecting Belyaev how much the landlady is in love with him and how jealous she is of Vera. Natalya surprises the two of them, wants to nod and send Vera away as usual, but has to hear from her foster daughter that jealousy is the real reason for her reaction. Natalya loses her composure and straight out makes a declaration of love to the astonished Belyaev, who is very much in love with her. At that moment, Rakitin joins them, closely followed by Natalya's husband, who now astutely sees in Rakitin the cause of his wife's nervous excitement.

Islayev's mother also worries about the inexplicable behavior of her daughter-in-law. She admonishes her son to take matters more seriously. Islayev now asks Rakitin for an interview, in which he explains that he loves Natalya, but that he no longer wants to stay on the estate and will leave. The two men say goodbye in friendship. Vera, who realizes that Belyaev does not love her, accepts her elderly applicant's marriage proposal.

Belyaev also leaves the house without saying goodbye to Natalya. He only sends her a farewell letter through Vera. Islayev believes his wife's depression is a reaction to Rakitin's upcoming departure. But when Rakitin suggests that the student Bedjaev is the real reason for Natalya's gloomy mood, he reacts confused and completely incomprehensible. Only Dr. Shpigelsky, who has been awarded a troika for his services as a matchmaker .

Publication and performance history

Turgenev wrote a first version of the piece with the title "Student" during a stay in France between 1848 and 1850 and a revised version - with the new title "Dwe schenschtschiny" (Two women) - after his return to Russia, both of were banned from Russian censorship.

The play was published in a heavily revised version in the St. Petersburg literary magazine Sovremennik founded by Alexander Pushkin .

Production design for the Stanislavsky production, Moscow 1909

Premiered was A Month in the Country on 13 January 1872 the Moscow Maly Theater at a charity event in honor of the actress Ekaterina Vasilyeva (1829-1877), but without great success with the public. Vasilyeva herself played her dream role, the Natalya Petrovna. The St. Petersburg performance of the piece in 1879 brought Turgenev the success he had hoped for.

In 1909 Konstantin Stanislavski staged the play at the Moscow Art Theater , he himself played the role of Rakitin, Olga Leonardowna Knipper the Natalya.

The linguistically dusted adaptation by the Englishman Patrick Marber with the changed name Three Days in the Country (not to be confused with the Tolstoy story Three Days in the Country ) is by far the most frequently staged in the 21st century.

reception

Opera

The American composer Lee Hoiby composed an opera in two acts entitled Natalia Petrovna based on the play . The premiere took place in 1964 at the New York City Opera . A revised version of the opera entitled A Month in the Country (op. 24) premiered in Boston in 1981 .

cinemamovies
Television films

German translations

  • A month in the country. Bern: Francke 1943
  • A month in the country . Comedy in five acts. Translated into German by Xaver Schaffgotsch. Vienna, Munich, Basel: Desch 1960.
  • A month in the country . Comedy in five acts. Ed. U. trans. by Peter Urban . Frankfurt / M .: Publishing House of the Authors 1981. (Theater Library. 28.) ISBN 3-88661-028-4
  • A month in the country . Translated by Kurt Seeger. Nachw. By Hans Walter Poll. Stuttgart: Reclam 2000. (Reclams Universal-Bibliothek. 7685.) ISBN 978-3-150-07685-9
  • A month in the country. Mesjac v derevne. German by Ulrike Zemme . Reinbek b. Hamburg: Rowohlt Theater Verl.

literature

  • Peter Thiergen: 'A month in the country.' In: The Russian Drama. Edited by B. Zelinsky. 1986. pp. 88-102.
  • Manfred Grunert : Mesjay v derevne . In: Kindlers Literature Lexicon. 3. completely rework. Ed. By Heinz Ludwig Arnold. Weimar: Metzler 2009. ISBN 978-3-476-04000-8
  • Joseph Gregor . The actor leader . Vol. 4. Stuttgart: Hiersemann 1956. pp. 253-255.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Proscenium Publications program note for the Yvonne Arnaud Theater. Guildford revival. 1994.
  2. ↑ Drei Tage auf dem Land, German by John Birke , Rowohlt-Theaterverlag, accessed May 31, 2019
  3. ↑ Three days in the country - National Theater Weimar - Juliane Kann stages Marber's Turgeniew adaptation as a satirical hidden object , nachtkritik.de of May 30, 2019, accessed May 31, 2019
  4. ↑ About a comical tragedy: The protagonists sweat, the audience laughs , faustkultur.de, accessed May 31, 2019
  5. ^ Obituary, Schott Music / EAM. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
  6. ↑ Lee Hoiby.A Month, score vocal in the Country. Retrieved December 12, 2015.
  7. ↑ Steven Osggod: Lee Hoiby, A Month in the Country. Retrieved December 12, 2015.