Asenkova V.N., (1817-1841), actress

Categories / Art/Music, Theatre/Personalia
ASENKOVA Varvara Nikolaevna (1817 - 1841, St. Petersburg), actress. Studied at the Petersburg Drama School (1828-30) and in a private boarding school, graduating from neither one. In 1835 she was trained by I.I. Sosnitsky, making her debut at the Alexandrinsky Theatre as a vaudeville actress, and in 1836 she became a member of the troupe, playing ingenue and travesty characters. Smart, spontaneous and charming, Asenkova combined grace and modesty, naivety and coquetry in her acting. Musical talent, refinement, and a moving musical voice all contributed to her early popularity as Roxalana in C.-S. Favart's Les Trois Sultanes, or Soliman the Second (1835), Mina in E. Scribe's Lorgnette, or Nothing Pains Like the Truth (1835), Katenka in N.A. Korovkin's The Rare Father (1838), and Lyubochka in D.T. Lensky's A Suiter from Kharkov, or The House Overlooking Two Streets (1840). She was also favored and able to perform many male roles, such as Cherubin in Beaumarchais's The Marriage of Figaro (1835), Cadet Lelev in V.I. Orlov's Hussars' Stop, or Return Like for Like (1835), and Hussar Lazov in G.A. Pasynkov's The Military, or Russian Guests (1939). Played the part of Marya Antonovna in the first production of The Inspector General (1836) and Sofia in Woe from Wit (1839). In her late period, she resorted more often to dramatic roles, which with her interpretation were marked with by poetry and emotional intensity: Ophelia in Hamlet (1837), Cordelia in King Lear (1838) by W. Shakespeare, the miller's daughter in Alexander Pushkin's The Mermaid (1838) and others. She appeared in many dramas staged by N.A. Polevoy. N. A. Nekrasov devoted some poetry to Asenkova. Buried at Smolenskoe Cemetery. In 1936, her remains and monument (destroyed by a bomb in 1943, reconstructed with slight modifications in 1955) were moved to the Necropolis of Artists.

References: Брянский А. М. Варвара Николаевна Асенкова, 1817-1841. Л., 1947; Родина Т. М. Варвара Николаевна Асенкова, 1817-1841. М., 1952.

A. A. Kirillov. Asenkova Varvara Nikolaevna
Beaumarchais Pierre Augustin
Favart C.-S.
Korovkin N.A.
Lensky (born Vorobyev) Dmitry Timofeevich
Nekrasov Nikolay Alexeevich
Orlov V.I.
Pasynkov G.A.
Polevoy Nikolay Alexeevich
Pushkin Alexander Sergeevich
Scribe Eugene
Shakespeare William
Sosnitsky Ivan Ivanovich
Брянский А. М. Варвара Николаевна Асенкова, 1817-1841. Л., 1947
Родина Т. М. Варвара Николаевна Асенкова, 1817-1841. М., 1952 Alexandrinsky Theatre
Necropolis of Artists