Kaplan E.I. (1895-1961), stage director

Categories / Art/Music, Theatre/Personalia
KAPLAN Emmanuil Iosifovich (1895, St. Petersburg - 1961, Leningrad), singer (tenor), stage director, teacher. Graduated from the Architecture Department of the Academy of Arts (1925), and from the Faculty of Vocal Studies of the Petrograd Conservatory (1923), where he studied under G.A. Bosse. In 1920 he joined the Mariinsky Theatre and the Maly Opera Theatre as a soloist. He sang the parts of Rudolf (La Boheme by G. Puccini), Lensky (P.I. Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin), Bomely (The Tsar's Bride by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov), and Truffaldino (Love for Three Oranges by S.S. Prokofiev). Kaplan was most appreciated in character parts, where he managed to perform with vivid colours, animation, and expressive inflections. He made his professional debut as a theatre director while staging and designing the production of C. Gounod's Faust at the Opera Studio of the Petrograd Conservatory (1923). This production was followed by his staging of W.A. Mozart's Bastien und Bastienne (1925), Rimsky-Korsakov's Kaschey the Immortal (1926), and A.S. Dargomyzhsky's Stone Guest (1927). He sometimes designed his own sets. His productions of Eugene Onegin (at the Opera and Ballet Theatre, 1928) and R. Wagner's Die Meistersinger (at the Maly Opera Theatre, 1932) offer an original critical interpretation of the characters and events. From 1930 to 1933, he was the Maly Opera Theatre's stage director, while directing performances at the Opera and Ballet Theatre at the same time. His productions of G. Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) (1958) and R. Wagner's Lohengrin (1962) were often revived. In 1934 he started the Opera Direction Department at the Leningrad Conservatory, of which he was a professor until 1952. He lived at 2 Teatralnaya Square. Kaplan was buried at Komarovskoe Cemetery.

Works: Life in Musical Theatre. Leningrad, 1969.

References: Слуцкая М. Д. Э. И. Каплан (1895-1962): Заметки к творч. биогр. // Музыкальный театр: Сб. науч. тр. СПб., 1991. С. 241-270. (Пробл. музыкознания; Вып. 6).

E. V. Tretyakova. Bosse G.A. (see Bosse Yu.A.)
Dargomyzhsky Alexander Sergeevich
Kaplan Emmanuil Iosifovich
Puccini Giacomo
Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolay Andreevich
Rossini Gioacchino
Tchaikovsky Peter Ilyich
Wagner Richard
Teatralnaya Square/Saint Petersburg, city, house 2
Жизнь в музыкальном театре. Л., 1969
Слуцкая М. Д. Э. И. Каплан (1895-1962): Заметки к творч. биографии // Музыкальный театр: Сб. науч. тр. СПб., 1991 Academy of Arts
Academy of Arts
Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory
Mariinsky Theatre
Mussorgsky Opera and Ballet Theatre
State Opera and Ballet Theatre of the St. Petersburg Conservatory
Komorovskoe Cemetery