Alexander Sumarokov

Alexander Sumarokov (1717–1777) was a Russian poet and playwright who helped establish Russian classicist drama through tragedies, comedies, and opera librettos.

Russian classicism: An eighteenth-century Russian movement that adapted European classicist ideals to literature and the arts. Sumarokov became a leading dramatist as Russian classicism took shape.
Khorev: A tragedy by Alexander Sumarokov, first performed in 1749 and based on an early Russian legendary setting. This early tragedy demonstrates his adaptation of classicist drama to Russian material.
Fyodor Volkov: A Russian actor and theatre founder who organized the first permanent Russian public theatre in Yaroslavl. Volkov’s troupe performed Sumarokov’s plays and helped bring them to the stage.
Russian Academy: An eighteenth-century Russian scholarly institution devoted to language, literature, and education. Sumarokov became its first director, linking his literary career to language policy.
Nikolay Karamzin: A Russian writer and historian who helped shape literary sentimentalism and prose style in the late eighteenth century. Karamzin’s later sentimentalist writing differs from Sumarokov’s classicist dramatic program.
French neoclassical theatre: A theatrical tradition shaped by classical models, formal rules, and influential French dramatists. Its conventions supplied models for Sumarokov’s tragedies and comedies.
Sinav and Truvor: A tragedy by Alexander Sumarokov about rival brothers and the founding of Novgorod. Its legendary subject gives political conflict a Russian historical frame.
Hermann Raupach: A German composer active in Russia who composed music for Russian theatrical works. Raupach set Sumarokov’s opera librettos to music.
Russian literary language: The standardized written form of Russian developed through literary, scholarly, and administrative use. His writing contributed to the development of Russian literary style and poetic diction.
Denis Fonvizin: An eighteenth-century Russian playwright known for comedies satirizing education and social hierarchy. Fonvizin’s socially pointed comedy developed after Sumarokov’s foundational theatrical work.

Linked from 3 pages

Gavrila DerzhavinRelated: His generation established literary conventions that Derzhavin inherited and stretched.