, Starving Artists in Petrograd -
Maintain Opera in Full Glory
Pittances Paid to Singers, Members of Ballet arid Famous Orchestra
Barely Buy Black Brea'd, Yet High Standard Is Cheer—fully Upheld
and Superb'l’en‘ormances Are Given—Tragedy of Situation Told
Frankly in Back Stage Interviews.
UCH has been written of late about the economic condition of
Russia and of the great famine that is killing hundreds of then-
; a
Little has been printed of how the arts are faring under
sands.
the Soviet rule. To-day is presented the observation of Sanford Grifl‘lth.
one of our special writers.
saw much that escaped other correspondents.
most interesting offered in months.
By SANFORD GRIFFITH.
- . m‘ci’dl CorrespOndcuce )
Pmmnan. Saturday.
l.\l)F.RELLA stepping for a night
. :t rf her rags. cinders and squalor
C ti: liccome an exquisite princess.
tied in ermines and brocade. experienced
but once “hat the little ballet girls of the
ex-lmperial Russian ballet relive every
night. Hm 9 highly cultivated orchids. pro-
letter] from hard realities of the struggle
for e‘a'lrl' ice, they now must elbow and
struggle i r food like everybody else in the
hungry. impoverished city of Petrograd.
They lea: scullery palace existences.
i saw V'ie opera "Czar-Sultana" at the
Petrogra i imperial Opera. The stage was
raciani With the variegated colors Rus-
eians lat-3 and was in harmony with the
highly iolored, half Oriental music.
The old king. loaded down with silks and
jewels. Watliiled aiross the stage, waving
an lflVllll'iZ hand to the many guests as-
remhlwi at his Wedding feast. Tables were
103.1941 drain with juicy roasts, exotic
fruits anti rieam cakes.
The build fluffy in swansdown and lace.
n Ito.) awn: 'Jr'mping flowers at the feet
1.’ TLE new :msreizns of the realm. The
whic- :n ‘lm house were transported into
anrther rill. What happy lives those
hues. and iii-ills ladies still seemed {0151!}
.r. tuner; thrrigravif
Wearing Superb Costumes, Actors
And Dancers Freeze and Starve
Jut behind the srenes I found a‘d'iwnut
tirture. l'rrmpters and stage bands stunt
about shivering in their overcoais. The
temperature on the stage was several dc-
grt-es below freezing. Dancing there in
hg‘nts an'l flimsy lace wrs about as not?
as a similar dance in a park on a cold day.
The little dancer Who raised her golden
goblet— “'Uml nf course—to toast the health
oi the monarch. of! the stage adm."ed
with a laugh that she had ne:er meted
champagne in her life. But this Wot)" l:
entirely superfluous, she hastened to ex-
plain, if only there were enough bread and
butter.
"I suppose we are bourgeois.“ a bal-
lerina who joined the conversation re
marked with a laugh, "because we‘flnd we
cannot dame and sing at our boat unless
we have butter and sugar to eat with our
black bread." She told me that she still
manages t'- get a little of both by selling
the last of her jewels and trinkets at the
public market. Her salary was just suf-
ficient to keep her shoes in repair.
Another ballerina whom i know. once
the spoiled child of Grand Dukes. the wife
.18 distinguished general. now goes to the
market herself to sell her old clothes. See
showed me callonsed bands—more sensitive
about them than she need to have been—
(uused. she said, by wood chopping and
by doing her own washing and housework.
One of the younger dancers. who had
made a little speech of greeting in English
when I visited the opera for the first time.
admitted that she had never ridden in a
carriage in her life. Sending her flowers
created something of a commotion. because
no one buys flowers in Petrograd now. No
one can buy flowers without arousing the
suspicious of the secret police of being a.
dangerous capitalist. indeed the outlay of
some 80,000 rubles seamed enormous there
—tbough it was but the equivalent , 9‘)
cents The little dancer was also _. l6-
what agitated, never having receive!
flowers before.
The singers and dancers cannot aflord
a carriage now. One of the lalleiimn was
brought to the theater every night by her
husband on a little child's sled. Another.
a great favorite, whip the snow was 1,
deep for her to walk the half mile to th-
theater was triumphantly borne fl
theater on a sleigh drawn by a to.
her admirers. The dancers agree that the
hardest part of their work is to trudge
long weary miles through .l-o now ".1058
the city four times each way tn .‘C-‘rt.
Salary of $6 a Mo it};
Is Often Bari/y in Arrears
The BaL'er of a hal‘wina translated into
real money was: :tlvut $6 a mou'h. l‘hh
. ,would hardly buy blafl: ‘nren'l e'ioiigl to
I" keep soul and bolv together over this
period. Other food they r-an only buy '07
disposing of some trinket at the market.
At a pinch some vvei‘e forced to accept the
attentions of members of :1ch BolShevik
bourgCOisie. the Recalled profiteers and
speculators. ,
The ballet was better off than others at
the opera, The orchestra, 150 musicians.
was still one of the foremost in Europe.
They played together as a single instru-
ment even without preliminary rehearsals.
For four years they have lived exclusively
61: black bread and imitation tea. Their
' galaxies-assure them food for five days a
who journeyed far
into Russia and
His article is one of the
month. The remainder they must earn by
playing in cafes or at manual labor. Sev-
eral have starved. the conductor told me.
Every few days one broke down and had
to renounce his playing for-a time. Some
twenty went to Germany and other country
districts in Russia where the farmers
would give food for music.
Opera singers were confronted with the
same food problem. Many of them had
not received their salaries for more than ,
two months owing to the slowing down of
the Soviet money printing presses. They
too pieced out their salaries by singing
elsewhere. Several of the younger ones
worked as (lockers along with the students
of the university when ships came in.
The chorus. people who have been sing-
ing together for years, still held together
and continued to rehearse, although no
longer receiving any regular wage from
the theater. It was a mystery how they
could live.
Scene shifters, seamstresses and the
whole army or little people employed about
a large theater still kept loyally to their
posts. although their wages were only
enough to keep them alive one week each
month.
Loyalty to Their Art
Keeps Performers in the Theaters
The scene shifters were holding a moot-
ing behind the scenes one evening I was
there to decide whether they would come
for an extra rehearsal the followm‘ day.
It was not a matter of striking. The whole
question was simply outside the theater,
whether they could give the time to come
again, in View of the fact that they must
earn their llring by other outside work.
They finally decided voluntarily to come.
because. as one explained. it was a new
production and they should do all in their
power to make it a norm "on though
it maint going hungry as day to do so.
There were originally ninety scene shifters,
but now than u:- only thirty. The other:
had migrated to the land.
The King in amines who sang Joyfully
on the stage drifted disoonnolately over to
chat «in: in. behind the scenes. He ex-
tlainod that his one overcoat. had just been
Lucien and be had no money to buy an-
c' 16:. I told him that he looked rosy and
we. fed and ought not to tvpoct much
sympathy. He explained that be had just
returned from the home of his parents
in a mountain village of the Caucasus.
Here he worked during tbu summer as a
shoemake;
The Moscow deerninezt theoretically
gives a billion rubles a year to the Petro-
grad opera. But a billion ruble Soviet
check or larg Government I 0 Us were
...-c-.:o 0. nu, ,tiaol as the German repara-
ticn w- , Also at the present
416?" —-.‘.‘; ruble this represented
..,., l.'9..l° real purchasing power. Even
part of this mum-y was delayed over two
monthsI ‘n MYTH». so that every one in
the theater was a creditor of the State.
But the opera functioned whether there
was money or cat. Several nights each
Week were Elven to labor organization-
gratis. Box office receipts in the depre-
‘ciated ruble Were sometimes not more than
$25 a night. although the. theater was fairly
full. The opera continued giving not only
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, , .9- .,...,
uni-“i1
ear-arr
W
Isadora Duncan, dancer, who has
started a revolutionary ballet school
in Moscow. In oval is the Moscow
Opera House.
old programs, but each year, including this
one, they have staged several new operas.
What little surplus money there has been
in the past has gone into new scenery.
This is the first year when they simply
could not put aside something for this
purpose.
The Cinderella contrast between appan
ent wealth on the stage and real poverty
behind the scenes was very striking here
at the Petrograd Opera. With the largest
wardrobe in Europe—containing more than
300,000 costumes—yet the artists who wear
them oftentimes have hardly a coat to their
backs.
The artists of the Merinslry Opera of
l‘etrograd have been disprovlng or trying
to disprove a fundamental law of physics
that a machine cannot run without fuel.
About three-fourths of them did not have
a living wage but continued to work.
Even on oil days when they were not on
the stage they came to the theater and
joined the spectators.
I asked Alexander Benoiet. the leading
artist and decorator of the theater, for the
real explanation of this persistence. He
mentioned a mutual friend. an artist of
international repute. and gave him as an
example of a man happy in his art, al‘
though at the same time slowly starving
to death. "We have discovered." he said.
"that we can eliminate almost all of the
material comfort: in our lives provided
we can keep our art. With enough neces-
sary black bread to keep our bodies heated
we can work on happily. We have proved
that this is much more to us than bread."
Artists continue to go to the theater be-
cause. as one singer said simply. "our art
is all we have left. We come here to work
and come back again when we have noth-
ing to do because this gives us our only
illusion of happiness. The applause of the
people who crowd the theater warms us
where the steam pipes long since ceased
to wdrk." -
Little inconveniences which regularly
THE SOUTH NORWAIK EVENING SENTIKEL
the former Russian capital.
f
w
Group of the smaller pupils of the Petrograd ballet school out
for an airing between dancing lessons.
A recent picture direct from
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“rho-«‘2' o Mn yea-yuan... o madam-n
52K
3.5.x 3.-
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' - ' ,., as
me. m? museum
One of the youngest members of the famous ballet- school in
Petrograd, with a one time noted
Russian dancer (at right).
upset any prima donna in the world of
steam heat and of automobiles no longer
troubled the Petrogmd artist. These bad
all become part of daily routine. Indeed
in general they made light of their own
plight. There is as much laughter and
temperament at the Petrograd opera as
anywhere outside. They had no time for
mourning and did not seek sympathy.
But the Petrograd opera and ballet were
In very straltened circumstances. The
artists were determined to hold out over
the winter. There was. however, already
some talk of the necessity of closing down
for want of food. fuel and funds. Already
the Moscow opera is closing down. Until
now the Petrog'rnd Opera has continued
without outside help. There is no doubt
that the actors would gladly work even
though the theater brings them in nothing _
and must operate on a bankrupt bails.
Food. however. they must have. The
minimum below which they cannot go and
continue to work has already been reached-
Fortunately a branch of the American Re-
lief has been opened there. and it is now
possible to send food packages direct to
Petrograd from Amelia! Help of this sort
now would probably prevent the collapse of
the leading ballet school in Europe and
that of the opera and music conservatory.
It would also put heart into the artists
who have for the last four years been malt-g
ing a splendid human struggle.
a :=———‘—
G RAFT is the national indoor and out-
door sped in the llepubllc of Haiti.
Like football it In plans-d indoors
and played outdcors, and. as with our great-
est of ilien pastes. it Sometimes has its
fatalities. Ming m cairn-d in the days
heft Q the American occupation to the'graft-
crs; nothing too big or too lita- for them
to take toll from. The mtaem’s palecr.
the most imposing building in Haiti, the
Cathedral at E.‘.' an Prince. the native
women going to market no in the hills with
a few chickens or some fruit—~35 fumimed
pickint's for the grafteri high and low.
Lim-Rich-Qulck ‘» ’alilngford himself never
planner! and cf.-- .... .1 job :eater or so
long endurin. as famous "lighthouse
gait." Forty years ago a _ puitian conceived
the idea. that, properly ‘aof‘lf‘fd. there was
money in lighthouses. He went to the Gov-
ernment offic'als cnd proposed they should
givl him a: 1:12 to erect ’hree light-
houses 0:: the m of me great bay at
the head oi’ which wands Port as Prince. the
con-:wion to be for a period of twenty-five
years.
When this was granted he succeeded in
borrowing $40,000 from the Government to
build the lighthouses, Which was where the
Government graftev-s came in. They got,
according to report. $30,000 of this sum.
The concessiomaire built the three light-
houses and then it was agreed he should
charge 6 cents a ton on every bit of freight
passing through the Port au Prince Custom
House.
“'hen the lighthouse charges began com-
.aA.
mg in good the concessionalre went to Paris
to live. Before the original term of the
concession was ended he succeeded in get-
ting an extension of fifteen years. Mean-
while. in excesn of whatever unknown sums
he was paying the Government officials. be
cleaned 820,000 a year. Translated .into
l00.009 francs annually that meant pretty
good living in Paris before the war. All this
time he had never repaid a dollar of the
original loan or of interest on it.
A moral wave hit some one in a Govern-
ment office and a suit was brought against
the Haitian \Vallingford for the recovery of
the amount of the original loan with in-
terest. It is .still in the Haitian courts and
he has lost his forty years graft. For when
the terms of the concession lapsed last year
the Haitian Government took possession of
the lighthouses and is operating them.
Actually the American occupation is doing
this. which means that one more Haitian
grafting scheme has passed into history.
Up on the hillside back of Port au Prince
there is a hotel with stained glass windows.
In a land where glass windows are practi-
cally unknown this makes the structure con-
spicuous. To be told that the hotel has
stained glass windows because the cathedral
has such windows does not establish a clear
connection until the visitor learns that every
bit of the structure was stolen from the
material supposed to go line the mthedral.
.And nobody seems ’to mind the connection
at all. That the hotel was built from stolen
materials appears to be accepted as a mat.-
ter of course.
That whole hillside in fact is dotted with
monuments to graft. Over a narrow water-
course that.Cut's down one of its slopes in _ 7
' Copyright. 1922. by ”the New ,York herald.
.«c
a.
Is DevelOped to aHigh
a short bridge for which an approprladoa
of 816,000 was made. While the contrac-
tor was building it he put up four houses
on either side of the road at the ends of the
abutment: “to anchor the bridge," as it was
explained. The houSes were built out of
the contractor's graft and be is still col-
lecting the rents from them.
While the President's palace was building
the Chief of Police of Port au Prince. who
was a favorite of the Haitian chief executive
at the time. extracted enough material to
build himself a very good looking house of
brownish yellow bricks up on the hillside.
When he had this material assembled be
rounded up all the house building mechanics
in Port au Prince and put them in Jail on
various charges. Then he sent them up to
the hillside to build his house.
Later he fell out of favor with the Presi—
dent and was killed by his orders. Since the
widow of the Chief of Police told this tale
to the present lessee of the house it has the
ring of truth, No one. however. disturbs
her. in possession of the house or its rent.
Standing on the shore at the Mole St.
Nicholas, where Columbus first landed in
Haiti, is a barrel of cement. It is probably
the costliest thing of its kind in the wrld.
for it represents 315.000. Some ago
a Haitian Government was struck with the
idea of building a real mote at that spot.
and apprOpi-iated $15,000 for the purpose.
A “favorite son" was intrusted with the
task of building the mole, and with what
was given him of the appropriation. for of
course the officials had to “get theira.’ he
went to’ Paris to prepare the plans fer the
structure.
When he had spent all the share of the
. 1
A t . H . to
money he had received be came back from
Paris, bought the barrel of cement. and bad
it sent to the Mole St. Nicholas. The fate of
the plans he was supposed to prepare in the
City of Light is shrouded in mystery. But
Haiti has the barrel of cement.
In the days before 1915 the graft of the
Generals commanding the revolutionary
"armies" was 'carried out with neatnas.
dispatch and diplomacy. At the outset o.’ a
campaign they would come into a seaport
town and hold up the foreign merchants for
sums ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 for in:
maintenance of the “armies." giving re-
ceipts on the Custom House for the sums
exacted. If no mrxDGy was forthcoming.
which was rarely the case. they would throw
a cordon of “iroops” around the block on
which the mcrchunt’s store st00d and de-
clare a dangerous n-volutlonary lived in one
of the houses it was never in the mer-
chant's store buildin: of course—whom none
of the people could have intercourse with.
The point of this uas that no one could go
into the merchant's store and his trade
would disappear as long as the troops re-
mained on guard.
A recalcitrant always "came acrosa" It
was an accepted part of the game that .he
merchants. In turn should beat the Custom
House in turning in the General! "receipts"
by the use of faulty scales and juggling
with invoices. That the foreigners could
'do a little grafting of their own is borne
witness to by the fact that in one specific
case of blackmail of this kind a German
flrrn made 850.090 out of a forced contri-
bution of 810.000 to a revolutionary Gen-
eral‘s graft.
_ Dancer,Busz'
FRIDAY. FEB. 10. -'..2
h/iissDuncai~:,
.-
In h'loscow
.57...
.i a - . ;
4.4 ' I)r,/(.,(,y.. v.1.
.x2--'\" ‘1 ‘ 1' ‘1,
155 lSADOilA Iii‘XCAX ' n
N/I over the .\-\"\'i"{ Kathie; r l
of hunting In ti».- ‘r.c;~c " ‘~ -
tiling lier “one and only lTLlf art 4f _.. '-
ing' with the "one and on?) ideal (.
ment." She has Leer: :ini. ;ai - i-)
live in for hirsdi and a ;a:*t ;.:- .r
one for her school.
Under the lug}: ,rn-ie ' v
sky. Minister of FZLv 3"» st» .4» a
gurgiuiar 1» rii .'..L;::.'« Ll ir . :u i
Upera at Most-'1' re. .' ; 'i
‘vlutionary mus.- 'i. conzrtrt..~': '- ' . an
Liz'ersary (f the Eels-hell‘s re». .-: . . 9
now hoprs to law her dream 'au - ‘
her own natural aided r'f 3 r ' 'l
ready 1.343 latic- Ric's-"ow rhiixir _ ens» ’ r
her instru- tion. There :s r 'u3't :r .1 .~..
puts her whole snui inzu t : ~.—~ .,—. — r:
them.
There is no hie-r.» .‘vvr burp" ~
tries." Miss Duncan ‘ Led l’ '.c ~ ' v
a large Given in ti‘m : of a ‘arge ' l
in her palace. Ec‘r LAT; more 5;: if. s
(miliuut‘d. "fin-aria Eti't‘r arrq‘g. «- i_v
art though in a :42? 'd‘.“
{human should Wall “.3 aha ‘r "'l«i.‘»'-”
the degree 0: l-ntrguls li~=,’-el..5t.'n-er 'Ll
side. having :..:c‘ ac {may iear» ir 1:.»
midst of midc‘e (has comforts *rrsarz' out
missing them very acutrly 7.1.1?
A: enthusiastic Tovaris‘. and next i1
Soviet Russia. Miss Duncan -: l. ‘icpss to
achieve where others have failed—tr are”
art and communism together. 'l’rclv. »..lll’
-—the Soviet abbreviation for prfiiviara )
culture—was the name which laufui‘in-
sky had given his department. ll. lull
hoped to glorify the revolution tf'.‘".;"
radical art. At first the output of future?
plaster casts and bright red and yvlluw
pictures was large. and every one agreed
that they Were modern enough. indeed too
modern. in the opinion of most Russian
tritics. to be called either art or proletarian
But there v-ere not enough {‘irriie'ar‘an
artists who could do things the
understood. Consequently Prolet‘ruii mil
dying a natural death until Miss Du .-.l
came and attemptcd to put new life-1" t.
v,rv'
5".”
Isadora Points Russia
Toward iVorship of Ape?)
Cameran‘e Dunc-an feels that he: turzmr
dances are in themselves revolutionary—a
revolt against the formal Russian ballet.
Worse than czarisn: in her (epinion~':iid,
therefore. ts r-resemin; them un‘nsngel
fore the Russian public. prereiwi and
concluded by callmg upon her pu;:1~ or!
the public present to chart the Inwriira-
[inhale Not only the ballet—in the v; ..i ‘l
of most travelers one 0i the few rem. ' .r .7
bright spot:- iu drab ilursia to-day—es'ht .-.i
be abolished, declared .‘tiuss ‘ 'gt
aim most of the more essentially r..' " .l
Russian peasant dances. Ste
Russian children dancing 3 simple :. r. _
with handkerchief dropping and the: ~ r1
of thing symbolizing country
and found it nefarious in that sits
him '.i
551:. . A, ~:
(v.4- :—v,: in
servience to the Car. With ; .
gesture she told the little Mouji's (is.
through an'interpreter that they = ..
make the same uplift. and think of A?
In no country could she have found =il h
willing pupils as in Russia Some of them
splash five miles. across the muddy .‘ir-w ovr
streets to her studio. They gather :r. the
big. cold room. themselves blue with raid
and underfeeding. but latched)" eager all
of them to become great dance-s.
Combining art and 0&5:
seems. however. an liar-(sail:- '.
rode Duncan found it exec-4...:
bemoan of the absence of ::e Icarr‘asgary
material facilities. A hembxz scrum.
meat could not otter much u: the We: of
comforts beyond mutiny. Rue I was
there the dancing school this closed for a
week for want of wood. After desperate
and implorlng appeals some hrs sent—oi
“one poor little stick." as Miss Duncan
moaned. holding it up in dcapair.
I attended the revolutionary anniversary
performance Miss Duncan gave early in
November. dancing Tchaikowsky and the
Internationale at the cx-lmperial Opera.~
All seats were free. distributed among good
Communists. among the trade unions and
to‘ the Red army. The remainder of the
Red army was mobilized to prevent the
eager crowds from forcing the doors at
this much heralded first appearance. '
Imperial Ballet’s Protests Against
The Duncan Way of Dancing
Mise Duncan's dancing Was a far fem
castration of her traditional method. 'mh
supreme “SIBSY added. At each pause ‘be
Internationale was sung. This was a}: as
followed by applause. so that it was s- 2;»;
times dificult to divide the honors Mine» .1
homage for Miss Duncan’s dancing and
general revolutionary ardor. Some of the
people found Duncan simplicity a happy
contrast to ballet complexity. True. the
ballet protested in a meeting the following
day. but here again there may have been
some jealousy. Also it seems that the
loading was organized by a former hostess
of Miss Duncan, who bears her a grudt‘o
for broken porcelain.
Miss Duncan shows great energy .2
given a free hand by Lunachcrsiiy.
consequently may make something cut
her school. The only real obstacles \vl.
may prove disastrous are the dllfif'di.‘
Miss Duncan is having to get the mitfifi‘.
of bourgeois comforts necessary to can
on a school of proletarian art. Miss Du
can may also discover that when art and
politics are mixed art always suffers.
K:
Norwalk Chronicler