Dramatic-style readings from Pushkin’s works in English and Russian, with an illustrated introduction in English and a musical interlude
The Pushkin Club will devote an evening to the theme of people confronting statues – and vice-versa – in Pushkin’s work. This will be explored with reference to three of Pushkin's masterworks: The Stone Guest (1830), The Bronze Horseman (1833) and The Tale of the Golden Cockerel (1834). (Strictly speaking, of course, the Golden Cockerel concerns a sculpture rather than a statue.)
The Evening will be introduced by David Brummell. In his short illustrated talk he will explain the significance of the three works, with an emphasis on the fate of those who dare to confront certain statues – as well as on the richness of Pushkin’s multi-layered symbolism.
This will be followed by a musical overture – an arrangement of the Queen of Shamakhan aria from Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Golden Cockerel – played by Julian Milone (violin) and Nadia Giliova (piano).
Lucy Daniels (a former Co-Chairman of the Pushkin Club), Olegar Fedoro, Adrian Kealey, Antony Wood and David Brummell will then read excerpts from the three Pushkin works in English translation. In the case of The Stone Guest and The Tale of the Golden Cockerel, these will be theatrical-style readings similar to those heard in the performance of A Feast during the Plague on 14 July.
Cast list:
The Stone Guest
Leporello – David Brummell
Don Juan – Adrian Kealey
Doña Anna – Lucy Daniels
Comendador – Olegar Fedoro
The Bronze Horseman
Antony Wood
Alla Gelich (Russian original)
The Tale of the Golden Cockerel
Narrator – Lucy Daniels
Tsar Dadon – Olegar Fedoro
Astrologer – David Brummell
Alla Gelich (Russian original)
The translations are all by Antony Wood. Those from The Bronze Horseman and The Tale of the Golden Cockerel come from Alexander Pushkin: Selected Poetry, Penguin Classics 2020 (published on 23 April 2020), and the Pushkin Club are grateful to Penguin Classics for their permission to use these translations, as we are to Antony Wood for his permission to use the two extracts from his translation of The Stone Guest.