Balancing the Books and Staging Operas under Duress: Bolshoi Theater Management, Wartime Economy and State Sponsorship in 1941–1945

The article examines the financial history of the Bolshoi within USSR’s mobilized wartime cultural industry as an example of a cultural institution highly placed in the Stalinist establishment and symbolic canon. It explores the income-outcome flows, personnel management, the impact of evacuation, notably on Bolshoi’s hard capital, and relations with supervising authorities. The theater’s perceived importance within the war effort conditioned unshakable financial support, a non-market protective environment, and lenient administrative treatment, contrasting with logistical and personnel challenges which the house only partly mastered. This relative stability stands in contrast with the absence of strong leadership, as the director’s position was kept vacant in stark difference to most European opera theaters. The shock of 1941–1942 was absorbed with internal adjustment measures and external subventions, and the Bolshoi’s budgets swelled towards the end of the war, indicating inflation and the house’s “most-favored-opera status”. The stable and conservative management still showed shortcomings, which the state chose not to punish. The opera’s symbolic and prestige capital trumped quantitative efficiency, creating a haven in the war economy.

Theater on the Move

This chapter traces the journey of the German Theater's founder, Ludwig Ney, from Europe to Paraguay and, ultimately, Argentina. Shifting to Jewish actors, the chapter then reconstructs three Jewish thespian refugees' flights to South America and explores how their work onstage both exposed them to Nazi persecution and facilitated their escapes to an unlikely reunion in Argentina. This discussion emphasizes the interdependency between actors and audiences at theaters in times of crisis, casting dramatic performances as a laboratory for testing survival strategies amid the rise of European fascism. Another focus is the evolution of theater management during the 1930s. Bereft of state subventions, stages were compelled to upend the tradition of cultural theater, adopting instead a market-based approach to repertoire and advertising similar to popular entertainment venues, like the cinema. This controversial model became the blueprint for the Free German Stage in Buenos Aires.

Development of Contemporary Russian Theater’s Communication Policy under New Institutional Conditions

Goal: Developing a model of contemporary theater’s communication policy through identification of its capabilities and application polyphony under conditions of institutional changes for successful positioning in the competitive market of culture and arts. Research problem: New institutional conditions demand that theatrical organizations promote their projects more efficiently, yet the applied communication tools prevent theaters from implementing their management tasks in full. Research relevance. The management activity of social and cultural organizations is currently transforming into entrepreneurial activity, which requires organizations to use innovative management and search for new, unconventional managerial approaches to their communications with the external environment. Markets of cultural services are becoming business markets to an ever greater degree as organizations are turning into business entities; so developing a model of theatrical organization’s communication policy under market conditions makes it possible to improve its attractiveness, reputation and attendance. Research method. To solve the set task, authors proposed applying a comprehensive approach that includes traditional and special research methods. We classify the following as traditional methods: systemic, comparative and logical analysis; written and verbal surveys of theatrical patrons and partners to identify the most efficient communications. Special methods include application of content analysis of online media, theaters’ websites and social media accounts, SWOT analysis to identify patrons’ preferences, and modeling. Research result is going to be the implementation of a comprehensive communication system in theater management, improving social, marketing and economic efficiency of theaters’ activity.

The Professor and the Sea Princess: Letters of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Nadezhda Zabela-Vrubel

This introductory chapter examines the rich correspondence between Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and the soprano Nadezhda Zabela-Vrubel, who was his muse between 1898 and 1904. This particular correspondence stands apart from the rest because of the strong currents of emotion running just below the surface. It was selected for this volume for two purposes: it has much to tell about how Rimsky-Korsakov dealt with the performers and theater management involved in productions of his operas, but it also gives a unique insight into the composer's inner world which he kept hidden under the surface of his respectable professorial existence. Indeed, the correspondence between Rimsky-Korsakov and Zabela-Vrubel should do much to humanize Rimsky-Korsakov, softening his image.

Ichikawa, Sadanji II (1880–1940)

Ichikawa, Sadanji was Japan’s most popular actor from the 1910s to the 1930s, and is unique in having contributed to the modernist movement in both kabuki and shingeki, Japan’s traditional and modern styles of theater. Born Takahashii Eijirō, son of Ichikawa Sadanji I, he first appeared on stage at the age of four and, by the age of eighteen, had assumed the stage names of Botan, Koyone, and Enshō, in tura. When Sadanji I died in 1904, he inherited not only Meiji-za, his father’s company and theater, but an enormous debt. Sadanji I was the last of the Meiji kabuki superstars who died in a two-year period, leaving his son without his fame and skills, and experiencing the coldness of the kabuki establishment. With the support of Kawakami Otojirō (1864–1911) and particularly Matsui Shōyō (1870–1933), however, he led Meiji-za through its difficulties and became Ichikawa Sadanji II in 1906. This period witnessed not only the decline of kabuki, but also the rise of shinpa. This, along with his experience of the kabuki establishment, whetted his interest for modern theater as well. In 1906–1907 he spent eight months traveling in Europe watching Western masterpieces, taking courses, and observing Western theater management. Inspired by the discoveries of this trip, upon his return he attempted a modernist reform at Meiji-za. The reform, which included allowing actresses to perform in kabuki and the elimination of the age-old tradition of providing catering services for spectators in the theater, proved to be too radical to be acceptable. This setback caused his modernist enthusiasm to be directed toward a different platform.