Konrad and Alexandra (PDF) - Rolf Gross

daughter. His wife had left him no peace.Vladimir reported that Tamara had not been as successful in finding herself a position in Jordania’s government as shehad expected in her youthful naïveté. She had little other income besides what her father sent her. Because of the warthe sizable royalties from the French publisher of his novel reached him only occasionally. Deflated, Tamara gave in andmoved to Etzeri, where her mother received her and little Asmat with open arms."I am relieved," said Vladimir. "I now know that both will be in good hands and far away from a possible Turkish attack onTiflis in these final months of the war."Alexandra, distraught by his vision of a Turkish offensive on Tbilisi, asked what he meant by the "last months of the war?"Did he really think that the war was going to come to a sudden end? And with uncurtailed glee in her eyes, did he believethe Russian empire would collapse?"Both," Vladimir said dryly, but refused to elaborate.Food became scarce and rationed in St. Petersburg. The supply lines for the city collapsed, the dispirited peasantsneglected their fields or sold their produce on the rapidly growing black market. Otto and Elisabeth spent long hoursstanding in line at the bakeries and food stores and often all they could find were cabbage and turnips. Hunger becametheir daily companion. Alexandra discovered that Otto occasionally snatched butter and cottage cheese from the pantry.Since she did not catch him red-handed, she decided to overlook it, he was hungry. Yet compared to the many refugeesthey were lucky, they had a roof over their head, and Alexandra and Konrad brought home meat, butter, milk, and soapwhen once a week the government distributed food to the physicians and the members of the Academy.The winter of 1916-1917 turned the food shortages into famine. Naked chaos broke out in St. Petersburg. Bands ofragged children led by deserters roamed the streets in broad daylight searching for food or attacking and robbing people.It became dangerous to walk alone. Shots echoed through the streets at night. The police and the army, diminished bydesertion, were powerless. Everywhere cries rose demanding the resignation of the Emperor and his ruling clique.People left the city in droves.One morning Vladimir arrived at the Rost’s apartment highly agitated. "Tonight is the première of Masquerade at theAlexandrinsky Theatre, ‘the show to end all shows.’ For five years Meyerhold has worked on a production of Lermontov’sPrincess Ligovskaya. He finally got it together, an impossible staging of an equally impossible melodrama. You have tosee it to believe what he has done. This is Fasching 1917, Russian style. The performance is sold out, these three ticketswere given to me by a friend."Tired and exhausted from her hospital work, Alexandra protested. "Tomorrow the world is going to come to an end andtonight the rich and powerful amuse themselves. Day and night I patch up maimed men from the front. Don’t you haveany shame left?""But Alexandra, you don’t understand, this is Carnival, the world will dance to the Devil’s tune. Meyerhold, inspired byWagner’s ghost, has staged the Götterdämmerung of Tsarist Russia. Meyerhold is a seer, Theiresias and Cassandra inone. This is the revolutionary theater. The production is already a legend. You absolutely must see it!"The police were out in force. While groups of workers, carrying banners demanding bread and the resignation of theEmperor, marched through the back streets, Nevsky Prospect and Alexandrinskaya Square were crowded by thecarriages of the rich and powerful. The theater was packed to the last seat. Everyone noticed the presence of theEmperor and Empress in the Imperial loge, an unexpected honor for the iconoclast director.They sat in the third row of the parquet, at arm’s length from the stage. Golovin’s set, in gold, red, and black, the colors ofImperial Russia, was designed as an extension of the auditorium and so was the production, forcing audience and castinto a macabre reflection of each other. Meyerhold had invited the high society of St. Petersburg to attend their ownfuneral service.Meyerhold used Glinka’s lethargic Valse Fantastique to turn Lermontov’s, never-before-performed, youthful melodrama—a jealous Prince Arbenin poisons his adulterous wife—into a modern reflection of morbid Russian upper-society. Arbeninwas played by Yuriev, an outstanding but controversial dancer and actor.The first act, a decadent gambling house, was followed by a bal aux masques in which an army of extras danced tomerry music before the delighted eyes of the audience. The lavish set and the colorful costumes fused with the musicinto one grand tapestry. Meyerhold had choreographed every step, every gesture of the corps de ballet with a precisionnever seen before. In the middle of the act the dance changed into a military parade: like automata the dancers marchedacross stage with the mechanical exactitude of the organized masses of the coming age. Nobody seemed to notice. Theact ended in raging applause.The laughs and bravos died as Arbenin and his wife rushed to their dénouement. Shocked silence descended on thejaded audience during the last act. Meyerhold had engaged an authentic Russian church choir to sing the eerily solemnOrthodox Requiem for the Dead.When the curtain fell the people sat stunned. Into the silence a single hysterical voice from the audience—was itMeyerhold’s design or spontaneous?—intoned "Gospodin promilyu…" The confession of sins and prayer for salvation.Only then did applause break out in seemingly unending waves. Yuriev, Golovin, Meyerhold, and the cast had to appearagain and again. A standing ovation, baskets of flowers and laurel wreaths piled up on stage.195