Lenskii, Dmitrii

Lenskii, Dmitrii Timofeevich 

(pseudonym of D. T. Vorob’ev). Born 1805 in Moscow; died there Dec. 9 (21), 1860. Russian writer and actor. Son of a merchant.

Lenskii made his stage debut in 1824. He was the first Moscow actor to play the part of Khlestakov (in The Inspector-General by Gogol), which he gave a broad comic interpretation. In his Operas and Vaudevilles, Translations From French (parts 1–4; 1835–36), Lenskii embroidered themes borrowed from French plays with details of everyday life of the Russian merchant, the petit bourgeois, and the provincial actor. His comic skits lacked depth but were distinguished by effective stagecraft and skillful use of the devices of low comedy.

Lenskii’s best skits—for example, “Lev Gurych Sinichkin, or The Provincial Debutante” (staged in 1839)—for a long time were a part of the basic repertoire of the Russian theater. He was also the librettist of A. N. Verstovskii’s opera Gromoboi.

WORKS

Vodevili. [Introduction by M. Paushkin.] Moscow, 1937.
“Lev Gurych Sinichkin.” In the collection Russkii vodevil’. Leningrad-Moscow, 1959.

REFERENCE

Istoriia russkoi literatury XIX v.: Bibliograficheskii ukazatel’. Moscow-Leningrad, 1962.