The Boyar Hall

Sketches of decorations and costumes, items of property and requisite, as well the very costumes for such performances as Boris Godunov by A. Pushkin (1934, 1949, 1999), Tzar Feodor Joannovich by A. Tolstoy (1957) and The Great Czar by V. Soloviev (1945) are represented in this hall.

The first collection of historical costumes of the epoch of Ivan the Terrible and Boris Godunov had been created at the Alexandrinsky Theatre back in the end of the 1860s, when the first part of A. Tolstoy’s dramatic trilogy and Pushkin’s great tragedy got their first stage embodiment. The artist who had been creating them studied the details of the Russian tzars and tzarinas’ lives trying to be historically precise in recreation of the tzars’ and boyars’ garments. They exploited natural ancient fabrics which they artfully combined with imitational technologies used to stress glitter and luxury of the costumes. The costumes created were aimed at presenting characteristics of the epoch and the everyday life realities rather than to display individual features of the characters. They could be successfully used in other historical plays the action of which was taking place in the 16th-17th centuries’ Russia.

A significant amount of costumes had been added to the collection in the 1890s: those costumes were designed by Imperial Theatres’ artist Ye. Ponomarev, who had worked at implementation of A. Tolstoy’s tragedy Tzar Boris. New additions came to the collection in the 1900s, when director A. Sanin had been producing A. Ostrovsky’s play False Dmitry and Vasily Shuisky and when production of Boris Gogunov had been recurred.

This collection, slightly amended and tailored for particular actors, was used in 1934, when director B. Sushkevich and artist G. Rudi were producing Boris Gogunov. In 1946, the collection was significantly supplemented by costumes designed by V. Dmitriyev for the Great Czar after V. Soloviev’s play.

Historical costumes were changed and tailored from the old ones in the course of producing A. Tolstoy’s Tzar Feodor Joannovich and Boris Gogunov in 1946 and 1999. Of the costumes on display, the royal attires once worn by N. Cherkasov. N. Simonov and A. Borisov for creating characters of Ivan the Terrible, Boris Gogunov, and Tzar Fedor attract special attention.

The museum visitors have a unique opportunity to see the full version of the sketch series made by an outstanding theatre artist V. Dmitriyev for the Great Czar performance.