Koenigson actor biography

The Small Theater is preparing for the publication "Misanists of the life of Vladimir Kenigson." The history of this book is quite unusual. In the city, the artist began working on the book, but on November 17, dear friends!

After years, the work continued by Natalya Vladimirovna Kenigson. She dismantled the archive of her father: “For two years, he managed to write a lot - mainly about what happened to him from the very beginning - from birth as a person and as an actor. Natalya Vladimirovna actually acted as a compiler editor. She wrote the additions to the already existing texts of her father, and also turned to the friends and colleagues of Koenigson - in the book you will find the memoirs of Mikhail Tsarev, Vera Pashennaya, Elina Bystritskaya, Leonid Heyefets, Marlene Khutsiev, Vladimir Beilis and many others.

Natalia Vladimirovna Koenigson did not become in G. Labor was completed by theater expert Sergey Korobkov. Currently, the Maly Theater is preparing a text for the publication. Today we bring to your attention fragments of the chapter dedicated to the work of Vladimir Koenigson on the main role in the play "Wedding of Krechinsky" director Leonid Haifets, G. I was relatively young and never assumed that I would find myself in a situation where they would call me to the boss office and put a sheet of roles in front of me - without me they would determine the composition of the performers, as well as the artist with whom I should work.

I experienced a certain psychological shock, in a sense-a deep trauma. And so strong that he did not even look who was assigned to the role in my performance. I was invited to the production of the “Wedding of Krechinsky”, before that I remained an unemployed director for more than six months, I was not allowed to put me in Moscow, and now the Maly Theater neglected the circumstances that had developed around my name, called for something to straighten out in fate.

But I did not expect that the changes would be accompanied by such an unacceptable phenomenon. He went out into the corridor and read the distribution of roles. In a sense, to protest against the appointment was delirium, because the best and brilliant artists of the Maly Theater were collected in the company. Even some unfortunate Nelkin was determined by Vitaly Solomin: everything is by the highest level and discharge.

But in whose surname I literally rested my eyes and through what choice I could not cross - this is Vladimir Vladimirovich Kenigson. I imagined Krechinsky completely different. To be honest, Koenigson was old for me. Sukhovo-Kobylin has written-about forty years. And how much was Vladimir Vladimirovich, I did not know, I only understood that he was old.

Of course, I highlighted it. In general, I attributed Vladimir Vladimirovich to a rare type of “special” artists, saw him in the cinema, saw him playing a blue in the “optimistic tragedy” - anything, but where does Krechinsky? Krechinsky is a terrible thing. Behind the appearance of the frace hero, the abyss of cynicism is hidden. The story of this role knew one practice: an adventurer was hiding under the mask of the master.

The role was difficult. I thought about a modern solution. The case helped. Somehow I got to the trial of one major fraudster. I was struck by the main, as it seems to me, its line. Leonid Haifets: It turned out to be very interesting to work with Vladimir Vladimirovich and there was practically no friction between us, although I was afraid that his age would “interfere”, and realized that the understanding of the material, especially at first, did not coincide with us.

Koenigson gravitated to the traditional reading of the role, saw in the Kretschinsky sort of master, talking to a special velvet timbre. He referred to Yuryev - Krechinsky, continuously recalled Tairov and the Chamber Theater, where he played Nezkomov. Before the work began, Boris Ivanovich Ravensky invited me and asked the question that excited me: “How, Lenya, you are distributing roles?

Ravensky looked at me studying and said the phrase that remained in my memory for a lifetime: “Leonid, remember, if you pass Kenigson, you will not be scary in life.” Seeing my bewilderment, he explained: "Koenigson is the only person who could even speak Trotsky." Vladimir Vladimirovich turned out to be an amazingly sensitive and susceptible actor and immediately treated me very well - I saw this and understood it, since colossal problems with Ilyinsky were formed.

Koenigson trusted me in the process of rehearsals, and we worked inextricably. So inextricably, they practically did not interrupt communication, which did not often happen in my biography. Despite the fact that Ilyinsky played Rasplyuev still with Meyerhold, a return to this role was not mechanical for him, he rethought something, comprehended something, caused something original to life, as if he had never touched this role anywhere.

The work fascinated me so much that I happened to me infrequently the feeling of time and was not ready for the day of passing the performance. Obviously, the very interpretation of the role, as I imagined it, required efforts, and considerable.At the moment when the work was already nearing the end, I suddenly noticed that the distance between my Krechinsky and Poplyuev Igor Vladimirovich is not what was planned in the play, and this deformed the image of my hero.

No, not that Ravplyuev escaped from the power of Krechinsky, but the line of behavior of the characters was distorted, the tone itself was broken. Krechinsky is a smart person, domineering and lives and acts in his own free will. All this had to be found, to find intonations and a distance in the relations of Krechinsky and Rasplyuev. In short, Krechinsky had to regain his power that his author endowed.

He did this: I contributed to him. In the half -empty hall, I am alone with the stage, with characters, with actors. Koenigson’s character is not flat - voluminous. A scoundrel, but a living person, with romantic sincerity, charm, turning an adventurer into a poet of excitement. Natalia Kenigson: November of the year was remembered for a lifetime. At that time, we lived together, worries about a small child took a lot of time and what happened to the dad in the theater, I thought less than always.

Once, a strong-willed voice rang out in the silence of a darkened apartment: “Tomorrow is a run. It was pointless to ask or answer. I realized: it's bad. This first run made a sad impression on me. I can’t even explain why. We talked until night. Father listened - we knew how to understand each other. He knew that I could not deceive him and we must move on. Something turned over in him that evening, and at the next run the role went like clockwork.

Fedor Chekhankov: I remember his first way out-in some long fur coat and snow-white shirt. Koenigson's attention to form and gesture was hypertrophied, and it seemed to me that he spoke somehow especially-not a household speech, but a kind of beautiful, without a scream on stage. The strongest emotional moments have always been born from the inside, everything was in full swing in it, but he never switched to pathos or increased tone if it was not determined by the internal temperament.

Haifets very highly appreciated Koenigson's talent and put them among the most famous artists of the Maly Theater. Natalia Staroselskaya: Leonid Haifets read the “Crechinsky’s wedding” as a tragedy of a person strong, talented, but free from morality. All absorbed the player's passion. Savva Dungulov: I was interested in Krechinsky performed by Koenigson because a person who was doing what he was doing appeared before us.

He without hesitation turns to deception, but he has his own justification: he responds to deception. High -flight adventurer. It is difficult to deny it. The theater did not go along this path. Of course, everything related to money in the fate of Krechinsky remained. Nevertheless, the main accent turned out to be different. Krechinsky, the nature, undoubtedly, outstanding, could not subordinate all his aspirations to money.

He is from that kind of people for whom money means a lot, but who cannot be guided in life only with money. What is more important to him than money? The process of mastering money itself. The process of gaining money is so captured by Kretschinsky that money is losing its independent value. In fact, if the hero of the play took possession of the money and this all ends, this does not so much enrich the play as it impoverishes.

It is interesting when everything does not end with money! We must pay tribute to the performance to Leonid Haifetz for his perseverance to realize such an interpretation of the Sukhovo-Kobylin play. How did I see Koenigson in the role of Krechinsky? To answer this question, it makes sense to turn to the author’s remark: “Mikhail Vasilievich Krechinsky is a prominent man, the right and remarkable physiognomy, dense buckwheat; The mustache does not wear; about forty years.

" The sixty -three -year -old Koenigson played the forty -year -old Kretschinsky temperament, telling the gait and gestures of his hero a certain wingedness, and this was fascinating. There was no arbitrariness in this - everything that he found turned out to be necessary for the despotism of Krechinsky to rule his mind and will, and convey the actor the essence of the image through the energy of movement.

The process of gaining a golden body turned out to be the key to comprehending character. Koenigson gains grace that distinguishes a high -rush adventurer. Its plastic and manners hypnotize the environment, helps compose an adventure. Koenigson seemed to grab his hero by the hand and accurately tells the viewer: “Agree - Shelma! .. You will not say anything - shelma! Moreover: Koenigson's gaze, facing Krechinsky.