Dyur N.O. (1807-1839), actor

Categories / Art/Music, Theatre/Personalia
DYUR Nikolay Osipovich (1807 - 1839, St. Petersburg), actor. After receiving training in ballet and drama at the Theatre College in St. Petersburg in 1829, he joined the Russian court drama company. As a student he danced solo parts in ballet and appeared in operas at the same time as he had a musical ear and good voice. Working in the drama company, he first played minor parts in tragedies and melodramas. He became renowned as a vaudeville actor singing and dancing in a masterly fashion. Most of his vaudeville characters were comical old men and young rascals. He was a particular success in roles that involved a disguise and required skilful transformation. His contemporaries described Dyur's performance as invariably cheerful, easy, and natural and recognised his ability to create an image based on a single characteristic and his ironic attitude towards characters and events. Among his best roles were Jovial in Solicitor Under the Table and Ducret in Two Fathers - Two Merchants, both plays by D. T. Lensky, Freitag in Hussar Girl and Makar Gubkin in Student, Actor, Chorister, and Thickster, both by F. A Koni, etc. He appeared as Molchalin and Khlestakov in the first productions of A. S. Griboedov's Woe from Wit in 1830 and N. V. Gogol's Inspector General in 1836 at the Alexandrinsky Theatre, as well as Khvataykin in V. V. Kapnist's Talebearer where he followed the vaudeville tradition in his interpretation of characters. He set some popular verses to music and issued three Musical Albums of Vaudeville Songs in St. Petersburg in 1834-39 and six musical pieces. He was buried at Smolenskoe Cemetery, his remains and monument moved to Necropolis of Artists in 1936.

Reference: Кони Ф. Николай Осипович Дюр, императорский российский проидворный актер // Репертуар Русского театра. СПб., 1839. Т. 2. С. 1-24 2-й паг.

A. A. Kirillov. Dyur Nikolay Osipovich
Gogol Nikolay Vasilievich
Griboedov Alexander Sergeevich
Kapnist Vasily Vasilievich
Koni Fedor Alexeevich
Lensky (born Vorobyev) Dmitry Timofeevich
Кони Ф. Николай Осипович Дюр, императорский российский проидворный актер // Репертуар Русского театра. СПб., 1839 Theatre College
Alexandrinsky Theatre
Necropolis of Artists