I read in one of the newspapers that a member of the
American Commission in Berlin reasoned from the fact that
the Germans were crowding to theatres and spectacles that
they could not be hungry. There can be no question about
the hunger of the people of Moscow, but the theatres are
crowded, and there is such demand for seats that speculators
acquire tickets in the legitimate way and sell them illicitly
near the doors of the theatre to people who have not been
able to get in, charging, of course, double the price or even
more. Interest in the theatre, always keen in Moscow, seems
to me to have rather increased than decreased. There is a
School of Theatrical Production, with lectures on every
subject connected with the stage, from stage carpentry
upwards. A Theatrical Bulletin is published three times
weekly, containing the programmes of all the theatres and
occasional articles on theatrical subjects. I had been told
in Stockholm that the Moscow theatres were closed. The
following is an incomplete list of the plays and spectacles to
be seen at various theatres on February 13 and February 14,
copied from the Theatrical Bulletin of those dates. Just as it
would be interesting to know what French audiences
enjoyed at the time of the French revolution, so I think it
worth while to record the character of the entertainments at
present popular in Moscow.
Opera at the Great Theatre.--"Sadko" by Rimsky-Korsakov
and "Samson and Delilah" by Saint-Saens.
Small State Theatre.--"Besheny Dengi" by Ostrovsky and
"Starik" by Gorky.
Moscow Art Theatre.-- "The Cricket on the Hearth" by
Dickens and "The Death of Pazuchin" by Saltykov-Shtchedrin.