Meddox, Michael

In 1766, Michael Meddox arrived in Russia at the highest invitation transmitted by the educator of the heir to the throne, N. I. Panin, through the English ambassador, Lord Macartney ^[1], to teach physics and mathematical sciences to Grand Duke Pavel Petrovich .

He was in charge of the museum of "mechanical and physical representations" in St. Petersburg. The main occupation of Michael Meddox was the manufacture of mechanical watches and other engineering wonders. The teaching path ended, and, having left Russia, he went with a museum to Madrid , and then to London , where he spent the next decade, after which he decided to go to Russia again.

By that time, Meddox had authority in Russia, gained through success at the Haymarket Theater in London . According to some reports, his profit for one theater season was £ 11,000, which is £ 2,500 more than David Garrick had a few years earlier.

After moving to Moscow, at first he acted as a magician and a balancer, entertaining the public of both capitals with "mechanical and physical representations", about which he printed advertisements in the St. Petersburg and Moscow Vedomosti.

With a bright head and golden hands, Medox made an outstanding work of watchmaking, similar to the cathedral tower clock. The well-known Moscow theater-goer Zhikharev characterized Meddoks as “an unusually intelligent person, an expert in his field and an excellent theater director who knew how to find and appreciate talents” ^[2] .

When the public theater was urgently created in Moscow by the High Command, the house of Count R.I. Vorontsov on Znamenka Street (the so-called Znamensky Theater) was hired for performances. During the plague of 1771 that raged in Moscow, the number of co-owners from the partnership of Moscow enterprises sharply decreased ( N.S. Titov , appointed head of the theater enterprise, refused even earlier - in 1769, J. Belmonty died, J. Chinti disappeared), and the main owner was the provincial prosecutor, Prince Pyotr Vasilyevich Urusov , who took over the Englishman Michael Meddox as a partnership in August 1776. In March 1776 , Prince Peter Vasilievich Urusov received the highest permission of Empress Catherine II "to contain ... all kinds of theatrical performances, as well as concerts, voxals and masquerades."

On the day of March 17 (old time) 1776, the Moscow Police Chancellery granted a ten-year privilege to public theater activity to the provincial prosecutor, Prince P.V. Urusov. He was allowed to stage public theater performances in Moscow, as well as concerts, “voxals” and masquerades ^[3] .

In February 1780, the Znamensky Theater burned down (on February 26, 1780, Moskovskiye Vedomosti reported: in the evening at the presentation of A. Sumarokov ’s play “Dmitry the Pretender” “a fire occurred due to the negligence of the lower servants”, and the Znamensky wooden theater burned to the ground in a few hours ^[3] ), and the desperate prince immediately left the enterprise, the owner of which was only Meddox ^[4] .

It was Meddox who built the theater’s stone building in the same 1780 (architect H.H. Rozberg ) - at the location on Petrovka Street (on the right bank of the Neglinka ) - called the Bolshoi Petrovsky Theater. A new three-story brick building with white stone details and under a back roof rose in five months and cost Meddoks 130 thousand rubles in silver, 50 thousand more than the estimate ^[2] . The theater had a stalls, three tiers of lodges and a gallery, accommodating about 1 thousand spectators, a “two-light masked room”, a “card room” and other special rooms; in 1788 a new round masquerade hall was added to the theater - “Rotunda” ^[4] . According to other sources, the hall accommodated 800 visitors: “The theater had four tiers with boxes and two spacious galleries. In the stalls, there were two rows with seats closed on each side. Luxuriously decorated lodges cost from three hundred to a thousand rubles and more. A ticket to the orchestra cost one ruble. The theater hall accommodated 800 spectators and the same number of people fit in galleries. ” ^[five]

The theater opened in December 1780, the first performance took place on December 30, 1780 ( January 10, 1781 ) - the solemn performance of the prologue “The Wanderers” A. O. Ablesimov was given to the music of the Russian composer E. Fomin and the ballet of the Austrian choreographer who came to Russia with the troupe of Hilferding Leopold Paradise "Magic school." The Moscow commander-in-chief, Prince Dolgorukov, liked the theater so much that he suggested that the police officers have respect and respect for Meddox and protect him from troubles. Dolgorukov also secured Meddox the continuation of the privilege for another ten years, that is, until 1796 ( Yearbook of the Imperial Theaters . St. Petersburg, 1904-1905. Issue XV. P.68). Initially, the troupe of Meddox at the Petrovsky Theater was small and consisted of 13 actors, 9 actresses, 4 dancers, 3 dancers with a choreographer and 13 musicians (Pylyaev M.I. Old Moscow. St. Petersburg, 1891. P.126) ^[6] .

The troupe was served by I.I. and N.V. Caligraf , V.P. and A.A. Pomerantsevs , Y. E. Shusherin , P. Zlov , A.S. Sinyavsky , A.S. Sinyavskaya , her sisters nieces M. S. and W. S. Sinyavsky ^[4] , E. I. Zalyshkin , A. G. Ozhogin, and others; later moved from St. Petersburg I.F. Lapin , P.A. Plavilshchikov , S.N. and E.S. Sandunovs . As dancers, the first position was occupied by graduates of the Moscow Educational Home , who studied under Leopold Paradise : Arina Sobakina and Gavrila Raikov ^[7] . In addition, the theater gave performances of French, Italian, German troupes.

The troupe of the Petrovsky Theater gradually grew and consisted of both free actors and serfs ; sometimes landowners hired or sold whole troupes ^[4] . O. V. Bubnova provides interesting information:

Back in 1803 he leased to Medox, and in 1806 he sold his serf actor S. F. Mochalov N. N. Demidov to the Moscow Directorate ^[6] .

S.F. Mochalov is the father of the great Russian artist Pavel Stepanovich Mochalov .

It was a public theater open to all. Drama performances, operas and ballets took place at the Petrovsky Theater, in particular, the first Russian comic operas “Miller - Sorcerer, Deceiver and Matchmaker” by A. O. Ablesimov - M. M. Sokolovsky , “St. Petersburg Gostiny Dvor” M. A. Matinsky , “ Misfortune from the carriage ”by Y. B. Knyazhnin to the music of V. Pashkevich,“ The Mean ”by V. A. Pashkevich - the libretto by Y. Knyazhnin according to J. B. Moliere . The works of Katerino Kavos were performed, the comedies of Fonvizin were played (The Foreman, The Undergrowth ) - On May 14, 1783, The Undergrowth was staged on the stage of the Petrovsky Theater, censorship did not miss the play for a long time, and the theater had to make a lot of effort to get it staged ^{[ 6]} . For the theater, Medox was translated by German plays N. Sandunov , brother of the artist Sila Sandunov, lawyer, professor at Moscow University; there were plays by Voltaire , Sheridan , Goldoni , Lessing , Shakespeare , Beaumarchais , I. A. Krylov , A. P. Sumarokov , P. A. Plavilshchikov - who himself played on stage. The ballet troupe was replenished by students from the specially created ballet school of the Educational House, which in 1784 was transferred to Medox. A total of 425 dramatic, opera and ballet performances were performed at the Medox Theater ^{[3] [8]} . At the same time, we must not forget that the Petrovsky Theater was a private enterprise of Michael Meddox, with whom the Imperial Theaters , which existed at the expense of the imperial state treasury, began to compete. And besides, there were serf theaters of the Russian rich at their homes - the Sheremetev Theater, the Durasov Fortress Theater , etc.

Meddoks was the first in world theater practice to create an artistic council to address creative issues: accepting plays for the repertoire, distribution of roles between actors. Playwright S.N. Glinka :

“When the writers and translators brought their works to Medox, he invited the actors to a meeting: to accept the play or not. If acceptance by reading the proposed play was approved by a majority of votes, then the holder was removed, giving everyone a choice of his role. Then he returned to the meeting with a new question: at what time can the accepted play be learned? I didn’t reduce the period for this anywhere, but looking at the play, I didn’t add it. There were then in the Moscow theater near the orchestra stools occupied by, so to speak, jury lovers of the theater. Some of them had their own home theaters. The landlord invited them, and the composers, and translators to rehearsal. If the invited persons unanimously claimed that the play was successful, and that each of the actors delved into the soul of their role, then the main performance was appointed. Otherwise, it was postponed for a while. Repetition so wrecked the memory that the prompter was almost always not needed ” ^[8] .

Fedor Koni wrote about the Meddox Theater:

“Medox existed only in collections ... the entire repertoire of Medox was limited to thirty plays and seventy performances a year. The pieces were beautifully selected, excellently staged and excellently performed. When writers or translators delivered a play to the directorate, Medox composed an advisory committee of the main actors. If on this committee the majority of the votes decided to accept the play, the theater’s owner retired, leaving each actor, with general agreement, to choose a role for himself in terms of strength and talent. Then he again returned with the question: what time can the play be put on stage? The term defined by the artists, he never diminished, and sometimes even, looking at the play, increased it. That is why no one will remember that at the Theater of Medox some play was ill-coordinated, poorly distributed or inefficiently staged. Each artist appeared in his character, in a role that corresponded to his means and liked him. Each separately was excellent, the totality of the whole play is amazing ”(Pantheon of Russian and all European theaters. 1840. No. 2. P. 90-99) ^[6] .

Generations of Muscovites increasingly found “their own amusement in reading books, music, in the sight of a theater performance, rather than in chasing pigeons or harassing hares” ^{[3] [8]} .

The journal “ Yearbook of the Imperial Theaters ” (1915. - Issue 1. - pp. 12-20) contains an excerpt from the book of the German historian Johann Richter “Moscow”: the article “Moscow Theaters of the 18th century” (Translation and foreword by V. Pashkhalov ), where the author mentions Meddoks and his theater:

The Englishman Medox is an entrepreneur and conductor of the theater. He arrived in Moscow about twenty years ago as a magician. Without money, without knowledge of the local language, without acquaintance with the mores and inclinations of Muscovites, he ventured to rent a theater; and now, thanks to his perseverance, enterprise, perhaps happiness, favorable to the daredevils, his enterprise turned out to be successful. Soon he managed to find a solid loan and rebuild the theater. The building of this theater is one of the grandest buildings in Moscow, rich in already magnificent monuments of building art. In addition to the theater, it also contains concert and masquerade halls, and the latter is especially remarkable. It is of rare size, accommodates 1,500 people and cost the builder 80,000 rubles. The auditorium is also one of the largest in the world. In addition to four tiers of lodges, it has two more galleries. In the stalls, opposite the stage, stretch two rows of benches passing to the main entrance samago. There are armchairs on the sides and still there is a significant empty space. Some lodges are tastefully and ceremonially draped and decorated with mirrors and candelabra. ... Actors and actresses are not worshiped here as much as in Germany and other European countries; on the other hand, there is no prejudice against them that would exclude them from society or at least humiliate them in the eyes of certain classes, as is the case everywhere in Germany. ... I don’t know who is better: whether the German actor, who is being exalted to heaven, then cast down into the underworld, or the Russian actor of the middle hand ^[9] .// The spelling is preserved.

According to contemporaries, Meddox was an enlightened man who looked at the theater as a school; therefore, the repertoire of the Petrovsky Theater was serious; lighter plays were staged in his own Voxal ^[10] .

In April 1783, Meddoks acquired from the merchant Savva Yakovlev ("a college assessor and various manufactories of the landlord") for two thousand rubles a tenure in the "Taganskaya part" , where he arranged a voxal - a summer entertainment institution that worked from mid-May to September. Voxals arose in the homeland of M. Meddox in the middle of the 18th century in the image of a manor near London , where his master hosted balls, masquerades, theatrical performances and fireworks in nature. The Moscow voxal of Meddox was located in a garden with a pond and bosquets, where there were pavilions, orchestras and buffets ^[3] . The performances were held on the summer terrace right in the garden, in inclement weather a special light room opened (“indoor theater”). Usually small opera or dramatic comedies were played, after which a ball or masquerade was held, ending with dinner. In the evenings, the garden was lit with lanterns, and walks lasted until two in the morning, and the entrance to the garden cost one ruble (though the significance of that ruble was slightly higher than the current one). The same artists performed on the Voxal as on the stage of the Petrovsky Theater.

Nowadays, the memory of the “voxal” of Meddox is preserved in the names of the Bolshoi and Maly Vokzalny lanes located between Taganskaya and B. Alekseevskaya streets.

However, financial affairs were gradually getting worse. As always in such cases, it happens with talented people, envious people have formed, and those who want to join others created. A lot of effort went into court with Baron E. Vanzhura, who reached the Tsar’s court with his projects for the construction of other theaters. The new mayor, General-General A. A. Prozorovsky, is taking steps to completely remove Meddox from business. He charges Meddox with the fact that the building of the Petrovsky Theater was built in violation of the approved plan. Prozorovsky also did not like the repertoire of the theater. The theater actually came under the jurisdiction of Prozorovsky ^[6] . In December 1789, Meddox was forced to transfer his institutions to the Board of Trustees of the Orphanage because of financial difficulties. In 1801, the Petrovsky Theater with all the property belonged to the Moscow Educational Home and the imperial treasury, and Meddoks was assigned a lifetime pension of 3 thousand rubles ^{[4] [8]} .

The Petrovsky Theater of Meddox has stood for 25 years - on October 8 (Old St. October 22), 1805, the building burned down just before the start of the performance of Ferdinand Cauer’s opera.

October 22, 1805, before the start of the performance of the opera The Dnieper Mermaid , “at four o’clock in the afternoon due to wardrobe master Karl Felker, who was with two candles in the wardrobe, went out and left them there with fire, a fire broke out, from which the whole theater burned down” .

From the village of Vsekhsyatsky on the Petersburg road (now the Sokol metro area) S.P. Zhikharev saw a huge glow of fire over Moscow. “For a long, long time we were at a loss that it could burn so hot until the postman traveling from Moscow explained that the Petrovsky Theater was on fire and, in spite of all the efforts of the fire brigade, it was unlikely to be able to defend it” ^[8] .

Огонь удивительным образом пощадил маленький домик рядом с театром, в котором проживал со своей семьей Майкл Меддокс.

О последних годах труппы Меддокса — «Московская антреприза Михаила Медокса», автор Вячеслав Зверев:

После пожара труппа Медокса выступала в доме князя Волконского на Самотеке , затем в манеже Пашкова дома на Моховой , где 10 февраля 1806 г. состоялось её последнее выступление. На следующий день она перешла в казенное управление и сделалась Императорской московской российской труппой, для которой спустя два года архитектор К. Росси построил деревянный Арбатский театр в самом начале нынешнего Гоголевского бульвара . Красивый удобный театр самоотверженно работал во время войны 1812 г. и тогда же сгорел дотла. В балетной труппе до 1812 неоднократно сменялись второстепенные балетмейстеры. После изгнания французов из Москвы балетную школу и труппу возглавил ученик Шарля Дидло балетмейстер А. П. Глушковский , перенёсший на московскую сцену петербургский репертуар и подготовивший московскую балетную труппу ^[11] . Пятнадцать лет стояло пепелище Медоксова театра. Зимой его заносило снегом, весной и летом обгорелый остов высился над топким болотом. После Отечественной войны учредили Комиссию для строений , которая занялась планировкой и застройкой послепожарной Москвы. Строптивую Неглинку заключили в трубу, чем значительно осушили прилегающую местность и занялись её благоустройством. Комиссия составила план театральной площади с новым зданием театра, которое проектировал и строил московский «архитектор по фасадной части» О. И. Бове . Он использовал фундамент и три стены Медоксова театра, поместив среди них сцену нового строения и развернув его фасадом на площадь. В недрах нового театрального зала сохранились остатки стен бывшей «машкередной залы» ^[3] .

Сцена современного Большого театра занимает то самое место в Москве, где поставил свой театр Меддокс.

При том, что Меддокс был загружен работой антрепренера, он не забывал про механические увлечения. Особенно интересны придуманные и изготовленные часы «Храм Славы», которые изначально предназначались автором Екатерине II, которая относилась к нему очень трепетно. Работу над созданием этих часов Меддокс начал в 1793, а окончил только в 1806 году. 13-летний труд Меддокса не достиг первоначально поставленной цели, поскольку часы были изготовлены уже после смерти императрицы. Ныне этот экспонат хранится в Оружейной палате в Кремле. ^[12] .

В ежедневной газете «Вестник Московской Политехнической выставки» (№ 62, от 1 июля 1872 года) один из потомков Майкла — Константин Медокс — дал весьма подробное описание внешнего вида и действия часов Меддокса. Ещё одно известное описание часов было составлено по материалам, дошедшим от самого Майкла Меддокса.

«Храм Славы» — большие бронзовые позолоченные часы с тремя позолоченными колоннами, установленными над музыкальным ящиком. Каждая колонна заканчивается фигурой орлицы с распростёртыми крыльями на орленком в гнезде. Через каждые пять минут из клюва орлицы падает жемчужина в раскрытый клюв орленка. На мраморном ступенчатом основании высятся четыре чернобронзовые фигуры женщин, изображающие части света — Европу, Азию, Африку и Америку. Колонны соединены между собой гирляндами роз и других цветов из чеканной и золоченой бронзы. Между колоннами высится фигура античного героя Геркулеса с палицей. На «древесном» пне укреплен большой круг, изображающий сияние Солнца, и на нём белый циферблат часов «Храм Славы». На циферблате находится надпись — «Михаил Медокс, Москва». Эти часы являются исключительно сложным автоматом, основанном на взаимодействии самых различных механизмов, предназначенных для воспроизводства удивительных сцен, а также музыкальных номеров. Когда часы показывают и бьют три, шесть, девять или двенадцать раз, то куранты начинают играть, затем раздается органная музыка, после чего поднимается занавес и нашему взору открывается во всем своем величии «Храм Славы» и вид на ландшафт с водопадом, что с шумом свергается с утесов. Виден пьедестал, на котором установлена винтовая пирамида, и два лебедя, плавающие внутри пирамиды; в середине же пьедестала — звезда. Затем появляются фигуры в освещении лучезарного Солнца под аккомпанемент органной музыки. Каждая фигура символически изображает одно из славных событий времен Екатерины II. ^[12]

Потомки Меддокса проживали в России. Один из них стал комендантом Варшавы, другой изобрел шкалу косоглазия, которой пользуются до сих пор. Ещё один сын Роман стал известным на всю Россию авантюристом и «оскорбителем царскаго величества». 16 января 1826 года Медоксам дана грамота на потомственное дворянство. Фамилия Медокс указом Правительствующего сената по департаменту герольдии от 9-го Октября 1867 года утверждена в потомственном дворянском достоинстве ^[13] .

У Майкла Меддокса было не два сына и не одна дочь, а 6 сыновей и столько же дочерей, из коих Василий в 1831 году умер в Варшаве, состоя в чине полковника по особым поручениям, при Фельдмаршале графе Паскевиче-Эриванском князе Варшавском. Павел, в чине штабс-ротмистра, служил адъютантом при дежурном генерале действующей армии. Иван служил гражданским чиновником военнаго ведомства; Александр и Георгий, будучи болезненными, умерли не служа; а Роман, как видно из записки о составлении Кавказско-горскаго ополчения в 1812 году, помещенной в журнале «Русская Старина» за 1879 год, в чине корнета был адъютантом у атамана Донских казаков графа Платова. Дочери Меддокса вышли замуж: за капитан-лейтенанта Кожина, штабс-капитана Замятнина, поручиков Гаевскаго и Степанова и надворнаго советника Иванова. И сыновья, и дочери — все теперь покойники. ^[14]

Меддокс был женат на немке дворянского сословия и имел одиннадцать детей. Потомки его живут в Москве и Самаре. ^[15]

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• А. А. Васькин . От Волхонки до Знаменки. — М. , 2008.
• Н. А. Анисимова . Тайна господина Медокса, или Повесть о старом московском театре — М. : «Русский импульс», 2015.

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• Михаил Георгиевич Медокс
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• Медокс Михаил Георгиевич
• Самозванец Медокс. (Для истории русского театра) // Русский архив, 1886. — Кн. 2. — Вып. 5. — С. 157—160. — Под псевдонимом: Ярославский старожил.
• Покровский театр / Л. М. Старикова, М. П. Рахманова // Москва: Энциклопедия / гл. ed. S. O. Schmidt ; comp .: M.I. Andreev, V.M. Karev. - M .: Big Russian Encyclopedia , 1997 .-- 976 p. - 100,000 copies. - ISBN 5-85270-277-3 .