Genius loci: how the shadows of architect Trezzini and poet Pushkin met at 12 Moika Embankment
Yesterday's evening in the Concert Hall of the Memorial Apartment Museum of A. S. Pushkin was that rare event which is usually called total immersion in theatrical circles. Here, at 12 Moika Embankment, something incredible happened: the city's architectural chronicle merged with a living theatrical nerve. The Organizing Committee of the International Golden Trezzini Awards initiated an evening that erased the boundaries between dry historicism and searing poetry.
The introductory remarks by the President of the All-Russian Pushkin Museum, Sergey Nekrasov, which followed the greetings from the Museum Director, Olga Korneva, and the founder of the Golden Trezzini Awards, Pavel Chernyakov, gave the evening an unexpected historical perspective. For the first time for a wide audience, a striking detail was voiced: long before the construction of Princess Volkonskaya's house, where poet Alexander Pushkin rented an apartment, Domenico Trezzini—the first architect of Saint Petersburg—lived on this very plot of land. This fact, known to specialists, is almost unacknowledged outside scientific circles. Meanwhile, it allows one to look at the significance of this place completely differently: Pushkin spent the last months of his life where, a century before him, the early appearance of the city was taking shape. This unique synthesis—when the history of architecture becomes not just a backdrop, but a prologue to the stage action—created an atmosphere of almost mystical anticipation.
When Danil Lavrenov took the stage, the packed hall fell silent. A solo performance is the most difficult genre, the aerobatics of acting mastery. In our time, when the viewer's attention is corrupted by special effects and fast-paced editing, holding the hall alone for an hour is a task with an asterisk, as they say. But Lavrenov and his Egyptian Nights succeeded: he did not flirt with the audience, but seemed to conduct a dialogue with the shadow of Pushkin himself. His intonational palette, his ability to work with pauses and gaze, conquered the audience from the very first minutes. In the artist's physicality, the social, subtle constraint of Charsky alternated with the expressive, jagged gestures of his antagonist, the Italian improviser. Maintaining almost sculptural precision, Lavrenov showed how a turn of the head can constitute a complete mise-en-scène.
Director Dmitry Pavlov structured the performance on the principle of minimalism (quite Pushkinian in spirit!), using only the most necessary movements and sounds and practically zero props. Two chairs and a ceramic vase helped bring to life the multilayered atmosphere of the Pushkin era, becoming now the setting of a cheap tavern, now the decor of an aristocratic St. Petersburg salon, now the ancient artifacts surrounding the heroine of the improviser's poem, Queen Cleopatra.
The short text of Egyptian Nights—Pushkin's unfinished, strange work—was heard and felt by every viewer. The images of Charsky, a St. Petersburg socialite who is conscious of his high poetic gift but painfully hides it behind a mask of social indifference, and the wandering Italian improviser performed by Danil Lavrenov clashed and intertwined. The artist's voice now dropped to a confidential whisper, now soared to the heights of tragic, yet completely organic pathos. Sometimes it seemed as if the author himself in the next room had set aside his pen and was listening to how his characters came to life.
The performance ended with a sincere ovation. The audience, which included theater-goers, officials, museum directors, architects, cultural figures, and diplomats, called the artist for a bow three times. This evening became proof that St. Petersburg is alive as long as our memory is alive and as long as there are masters capable of animating the classics and making our hearts beat in unison with eternity.
The Organizing Committee of the Golden Trezzini Awards expresses its gratitude to the All-Russian Pushkin Museum and the Director of the Museum, Olga Alexandrovna Korneva, for their professional partnership in preparing and hosting the evening. Special appreciation goes to the President of the Museum, Sergey Mikhailovich Nekrasov, for his meaningful participation and historical commentary, which expanded the perception of the event and emphasized the connection between architectural heritage and literary tradition in the space at 12 Moika.
And of course, the organizers cordially thank the esteemed viewers. The evening would not have taken place without your trust and warm, attentive, truly St. Petersburg reception!
Photo: Elik Yafarov
