Russia is marking the 173rd anniversary of the death in a duel of its greatest poet, Alexander Pushkin who is widely considered as the founder of the modern Russian literary language.
Almost two centuries on Pushkin and his legacy live on and the annual Pushkin theater festival that is opening today at the poet's family estate in Mikhailovskoye near Pskov offers a vivid testimony to the Russians' undying love for the man to whom this country owes its status of one of the world's leading literary powers. Half of the plays included in the program of this year's festival, already the 17th, are about distorted notions of what is good and what is bad. Like murder prompted by someone, jealous of another man's talent, like we see in Mozart and Salieri... Or one, driven mad by his insatiable thirst for money, like in The Queen of Spades... And, above all, the maniacal desire to become rich fast in his Covetous Knight, which is very apt today and is presented in two versions at this year's event. One such production is by St. Petersburg-based director and playwright Denis Shirko.
The way I see it, what The Covetous Knight is all about is two generations fighting for a place under the sun, Alexander says. This simply defies any moral categorization; it's hard to say whether this is good or bad....
What makes Alexander Pushkin's works so special and enduring is that they are always consonant with the realities of just about any period of time in history, including ours, and the floral tributes being brought to his monuments all across Russia are a telling testimony to this undying appreciation...
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