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The Damnation of Faust has been steadily moving up on my list of books to read. So many Tashmere Send a noteboard - 26/07/2010 05:42:41 PM
of the classics make reference to it.

Berlioz is an homage to Hector Berlioz, who wrote The Damnation of Faust. Ringing any bells?

Also, understand that Bulgakov was writing for and working at the Moscow Artistic Academic Theatre (MXAT in Russian) and had to deal with Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko. By the 1930s they hated each other and as soon as one of them warmed up to Bulgakov, the other decided to hate him. Nemirovich-Danchenko was usually out of the country (in India even, at one point) and so it was difficult for Bulgakov at the theatre. Many of the Variete personages are based on people he knew. He hated both Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko as egotistical, self-absorbed people absorbed with their own celebrity.

Rimsky is, I believe, Nemirovich-Danchenko. The rest should be clear after that.



Did he have a problem with Rimsky-Korsokov? Why would he use that name for someone that he hated?

*Edit* Please don't answer that. The first line of chapter XVI just gave me the clue I needed. I think I get it.
This message last edited by Tashmere on 26/07/2010 at 06:14:04 PM
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