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ArcheoBiblioBase: Archives in Russia: H-264

Last update of repository: 18 March 2020

Sankt-Peterburgskii gosudarstvennyi muzei teatral'nogo i muzykal'nogo iskusstva (SPbGMTiMI)


Otdel rukopisei i dokumentov
[Division of Manuscripts and Documents]

Website: https://theatremuseum.ru/page/otdel_r...

Opening hours: Tu 11:00–18:00 (by appointment)

Holdings

Total: 265 fonds; over 25,000 units; 1725–to present

The Division of Manuscripts and Documents holds predominantly manuscript materials on the history of the theater in Russia and other parts of the world. There is a considerable collection of manuscript materials relating to the activities of the major St. Petersburg theaters—the Imperial Alexandra (Aleksandrinskii), the Imperial Maria (Mariinskii), the Musorgskii Malyi Theater of Opera and Ballet (Malyi teatr opery i baleta im. M.P. Musorgskogo), the Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theater (Bol'shoi dramaticheskii teatr im. G.A. Tovstonogova), and the Komissarzhevskaia Theater (Teatr im. V.F. Komissarzhevskoi). Among the documents, which span the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, are official files of the Administration of Imperial Theaters; lists of repertory companies; scenarios for operas, ballets, operettas, and theater productions; company repertoires, draft programs, and play lists; notes and sketches made during rehearsals; and the personal papers of famous directors and performers.
        Much of the collection is made up of documents pertaining to the life and work of the performers, directors, ballet-masters, and composers who worked in the drama and music theaters of St. Petersburg. Most prominent among these are the fonds of N.A. Bromlei and B.M. Sushkevich, A.Ia. Vaganova, T.M. Vecheslova, E.A. Korchagina-Aleksandrovskaia, O.A. Spesivtseva, F.I. Chaliapin (Shaliapin), D.D. Shostakovich, E.I. Time, and Iu.M. Iur'ev. There are also manuscripts of books, and articles, as well as notes, memoirs, and correspondence. There are individual original autograph documents of Gioacchino Rossini, Maria Taglioni, Marius Petipa, A.P. Chekhov, A.A. Blok, Maksim (A.M.) Gor'kii, V.V. Maiakovskii, V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko, K.S. Stanislavskii, and S.M. Eisenstein (Eizenshtein), among many others.


Reference facilities:
Previous catalogues were made according to museum regulations—whereby materials were grouped by name, location, date, or subject matter—without respect to archival provenance, but in recent years the division has transferred to an archival system and has been rearranging materials into fonds according to their provenance. The division has working catalogues and card catalogues covering theater personalia, theater performances, as well as an index of facts and figures on Russian, Soviet, and foreign theater companies and theaters. A computer database is currently being established covering the fonds.


ABB ArcheoBiblioBase Archeo Biblio Base Patricia Kennedy Grimsted