Rybakov, Konstantin Nikolaevich

Konstantin Rybakov was born in the family of actors Nikolay Khrisanfovich and Paulina Gerasimovna Rybakov. He also studied acting professionalism. He made his debut in Vladikavkaz in 1871 and from that time played with his father in many cities of the province and in Moscow. After the death of his father in 1876 and until 1881, he continued his acting work in provincial enterprises. In 1881 ( Nelidov gives the date in 1883 - possibly erroneously) was invited to Moscow to the Maly Theater , where he worked until the end of his life - 30 years. Starting an acting career with heroic and romantic roles, he switched to household. A special influence on his work was made by the plays of Ostrovsky , which brought with them innovative theatrical ideas for those times. Among other things, the new aesthetics consisted in transferring the main idea of ​​staging from one main character of the play to the whole composition of characters, where each carried his “own truth” and his own experiences, formed into a single ensemble of all the performers of the performance. At various times, all 48 plays of Ostrovsky were performed at the Maly Theater. Of Rybakov’s regular partners, Glyceria Fedotov should be named, who was among Ostrovsky’s adherents.

Among the roles of Rybakov in the plays of Ostrovsky: Bulanov ( “Forest” , 1876), Kudryash ( “The Storm” ), Gromilov - 1st performer ( “Talents and admirers” , 1881), Neznamov ( “Guilty without guilt” , 1884, role written by Ostrovsky specifically for Rybakov), Bolshov ( “We’ll Consider Our People” ), Cornflowers ( “Mad Money” ), Krutitsky (“ For Every Sage Is Pretty Simplicity ”), Pribitkov ( “Last Victim” ), Yusov ( “Profitable Place” ), Knurov ( "Dowry" ); Unlucky ( “Forest” ). Especially need to say about this role Rybakov:

Neschastlivtsev, we should not forget, written off the artist ’s father , and when Rybakov uttered the words “Nikolai Khrisanfych Rybakov himself approached me” in the above-mentioned play, etc., now, as they say, “shook with applause”, and with the artist, not waiting for applause, when he finished the replica, tears flowed from his eyes. ( KONSTANTIN NIKOLAEVICH RYBAKOV )

Among other roles: Skalozub, Gorich, Chatsky and then Famusov ( “Woe from Wit” by Griboyedov ); Zvezdintsev ( “The Fruits of Enlightenment” by L. Tolstoy ), Nelkin (1882 “ The Case ” by A. V. Sukhovo-Kobylin , in 1900 - Varravin), Revyakin (“Kruchin” by Shpazhinsky ); Strawberry and Mayor ( Gogol's " Inspector "); Oltin («Old temper» Sumbatov ).

His colleagues on the theater highly appreciated his decency and dignity. From the memoirs of V. A. Nelidov (the book “Theater Moscow. Forty Years of Moscow Theaters”, edition M. “Mainland”, 2002 ):

The benefit system has not been canceled yet, Prince Sumbatov-Uzhin, having finished his play “Sunset”, offered it to Rybakov’s benefit performance, indicating that there is a winning role for the prince there.
I, as now, remember the lovely evening at Prince Sumbatov, when the author himself read his play and, without stopping, listened to K. N. Rybakov, A. A. Fedotov, planned by its director, and myself. We liked the play very much, and the author read it so masterfully, and especially the end, that when he fell silent, there was that minute silence that is more indicative of any success.
Finally, everyone spoke and showered with praise. “Well, what is your role, Kostya?” The author asked Rybakov. “Very good,” was the answer. But Rybakov suddenly subsided. We went to the table, had dinner, changed our impressions, and Rybakov was somehow absent. Began to pester him, what's the matter. He finally states: "The prince is an excellent role, but I will not play it, this is the role of Lensky , he will play better, and I will take another one." When they began to prove to him that the other role was much paler, he rested on his: "Lensky is better than me." Then he immediately cheered up and everything went "like clockwork." The moment of regret and the feat of the sacrifice is complete.
It is literally the same, but without a sign, without a second of hesitation, it happened with the “Treason” of the same author, when Rybakov again preferred Lensky to himself. What are the flowers that he never fade away, sprouted by him by himself at his grave, at the Vagankovsky cemetery, where in 1915 as a result of an annual illness (complete paralysis) his ashes were lowered after 32 years of service in the Maly Theater, where he was invited by a young artist from the province in 1883 Rybakov. <...> Ideal Strawberries in the "Inspector" and in make-up, and in the internal image of a "pig in yarmulke", the eerie Skalozub in his "Woe from Wit", rotten "fruit of enlightenment", from head to toe barin Zvezdintsev, Russian Othello, Oltin in Sambatov's Old Hardening, who has learned the power of capital, who begins to impudent the bourgeois in Sumbatov's Gentleman, the gallery of Ostrovsky’s types, all this found in Rybakov a worthy “that Maly theater” performer. <...> Rybakov’s one-sidedness boils down to the stage embodiment of Russian images, Russian psychology, Russian world perception.

As a true supporter of the Maly Theater, Rybakov did not accept the aesthetic innovations of Stanislavsky and the Moscow Art Theater. He always remained faithful to his Maly theater. “He always maintained his brightly individual manner of speaking and did not try to change his majestic, but under old age and fat, figure. Despite this, in each role he knew how to be different, and the viewer, by no means always understanding what this “internal reincarnation” revealed, perceived it with certainty. In separate strokes, with the extraordinary savings he used, he knew how to reveal something significant in each role. ... Wonderful was his hand game, - in each role he found some gesture explaining the main thing in a reproducible image: his Zvezdintsev rubs his helpless soft hands, and you clearly feel that this white-haired bariner will never allow himself anything make them; hopeless sweep of the hand at the words of Goricz "Now, brother, I am not the one" immediately introduces into the family drama of this character "Woe from mind", and Gorodnichy's hand clenching into a fist or the majestically-wide gesture of Neschastlivtsev, hiding the arms of the "armpit" of Love Tortsov - genuinely artistic details that are found by an attentive and intelligent observer of life. If at the beginning of his scenic journey he could not help but be hampered by the fact that he was the son of the famous Nikolai Khrisanfovich Rybakov, the most popular tragedian of the province who followed in Mochalov’s footsteps, if his ten-year service on the provincial scene could not but impose his imprint on his game (Rybakov said that Fedotov’s help and advice helped him, “starting from the beginning“, to achieve a different manner), he gradually managed to develop himself into a first-class actor, typical just for the Maly Theater, with a bright personality inherent to him alone. ” (See Biographer Ia Rybakov Konstantin Nikolaevich ).

He taught dramatic art in the music and drama school of the Moscow Philharmonic Society (by: Biographical Dictionary ).

At the end of his life he was seriously ill, overwhelmed by paralysis. He was buried at the Vagankovskoye cemetery .

Konstantin Nikolaevich Rybakov devoted memories and survey articles, wrote about him:

• MF Lenin in the book Fifty Years in the Theater, M., 1957;
• V. Nelidov in the book “Theater Moscow. Forty years of Moscow theaters. M. "Mainland", 2002;
• Zograf N. G. “Small theater in the late XIX - early XX century” // K. N. Rybakov as a Mayor ;
• Andrei Belkin, article "The acting dynasty of the Rybakovs" "Tambov life", 01.09.2006;
• A. A. Yablochkina "75 years in the theater." Outstanding masters of the Russian theater. Maksheev, Fishermen, Sadowski.

• Konstantin Nikolaevich Rybakov on the site of the Maly Theater : biography and portrait
• Biography of Konstantin Nikolayevich Rybakov .