Latest news with #Konstantin
Indian Express
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
From ‘The Seagull' to ‘The Cherry Orchard': 4 Anton Chekhov plays that changed the face of theatre
(Written by Taniya Chopra) 'Shakespeare was a bad writer, and I consider your plays even worse,' Russian author Leo Tolstoy is said to have told his contemporary Anton Chekhov. Tolstoy was not the only one, many other great writers and critics were of like mind. They were quick to dismiss Chekhov because his plays lacked a traditional plot and nothing grand happened in them. What they failed to realise, however, was that was the beauty of his plays. Chekhov, ultimately, proved the naysayers wrong and demonstrated that drama does not always need action, just truth. Silence speaks loudly in Chekhovian plays. His characters are flawed beings, and the most powerful moments in his plays are not shouts or slams, but what is left unsaid. The Seagull 'If at any time you should have need of my life, come and take it.' If heartbreaks and quiet longings are your jam, then The Seagull is just the play for you. Widely considered Chekov's most dramatic play, it is the story of Konstantin, a writer, who wants his talents to be recognised by his mother, Irina Arkadina, a famous actress. Irina's lover, Boris Trigorin, a successful writer, soon begins an affair with Nina, an aspiring actress whom Konstantin loves. What follows is a storm of sorrow and unrequited love. Dreams of characters wither and their love slips away, and the pain of being left behind never quite fades. Set on a country estate, it shows the frustration of characters stuck in monotonous routines, who long for something more. The professor and his young wife,Yelena, visit the countryside, where Sonya, his daughter from a previous marriage, manages the family farm along with her Uncle Vanya. Amid the quiet routine of country life, Yelena becomes the focus of affection from two men, each carrying their own dreams and desires. Throughout the play, the characters face the pain of wasted years. Their silent screams can be heard through the script. Chekhov doesn't offer any resolution in this play, just the crushing weight of endurance. 'We shall live through the long procession of days before us, and through the long evenings; we shall patiently bear the trials that fate imposes on us' The play delves into the lives of three sisters – Olga, Masha and Irina – who yearn to return to their former life in Moscow after being stuck in a provincial town. The sisters bear the burden of unfulfilled dreams and the monotony of their existence. This play of Chekhov captures the subtle beauty and the silent ache of time passing away. The sisters hold on to ideals of love and a brighter future, but as each act passes, that future drifts further away. They keep waiting for life to begin, not realising it is already slipping by. It forces us to dwell on the question: if we spend our entire lives waiting for happiness, will we recognise it when it does? A reflection on memory and the end of an era. Chekhov's final play was written just a year before his death in 1904. The play is about an aristocratic family struggling to come to terms with the loss of their estate, and with it, their beloved cherry orchard. One needs to read in between the lines to know that Chekhov is actually talking about late 19th century Russia, which is on the brink of transformation. Throughout the play, characters try to deal with personal disappointments and the loss of their estate. Each character responds to change differently, some resist it, others embrace it. The cherry orchard stands as a bittersweet reminder of the past, a fading reminder of their ways of life of old Russia. The Cherry Orchard is not just a farewell to a family estate, it's Chekov's farewell to theatre. 'The distant sound is heard, as if from the sky, of a breaking string, dying away sadly. Silence follows it, and only the sound is heard, some way away in the orchard, of the axe falling on the trees. Curtain falls' (The writer is an intern with
Business Insider
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Business Insider
Africa's spiritual link with Russia seems to be transforming into a real topic
There is no denying Russia's expanding ties in Africa, particularly in the areas of trade and military cooperation. However, in the past few months, the spiritual relationship between both parties has been discussed more than once. Russian Orthodox Church priests from Africa emphasized the growing spiritual ties between Africa and Russia. The priests mentioned that more Africans are showing interest in Orthodoxy and noted the hospitality and warmth they felt in Russia. The spiritual connection may lead to increased collaboration between Russia and Africa in various areas. In a recent turn of events, several African priests of the Russian Orthodox Church spoke on the subject of spirituality between Africa and Russia, asserting that "Russia is a new spiritual heart of Christianity.' The priests who relayed their sentiments to Sputnik are currently in the Euroasian country for spiritual training. Metropolitan Konstantin (Ostrovsky), the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church's African Exarchate, invited the priests to come to Russia, where they shared their insights. What the African priests said "With time, more and more Africans are taking an interest in Orthodoxy. In the past, we only followed Orthodoxy in form, not in substance," a priest from Cameroon, Hermogene Eloundou, stated. "Before coming to Russia, the image we had of the country, shaped by the media and all that, was completely false. That image collapsed once we arrived. In reality, we encountered a strong people, a courageous people, an honest and faithful people. A people who actually make you want to be Christian," Nicolas N'cho from Cote d'Ivoire stated. "The people are kind and hospitable. Everywhere we've gone, we've felt that warmth—that humanity. We were received with open arms, and we truly feel at home here," Angolan priest, Seraphin Lumanadio, also highlighted. This burgeoning spiritual connection might also serve as a foundation for more extensive collaboration between Russia and Africa. As Orthodox Christianity spreads throughout African countries, the impact of Russian clergy, customs, and theological teachings may develop in line with economic and geopolitical cooperation. The growing religious relationship is not one-way. In December 2024, at the VTB Russia Calling! Investment Forum in Moscow, President Vladimir Putin explicitly recognized this spiritual affinity. Putin's comment on Russia's spiritual link with Africa The Russian president stated that he feels there is a spiritual link between Russia and Africa, indicating the Kremlin's support for the growing religious alliance. "Africa may geographically seem like a rather distant continent, but it is spiritually close to us," the Russian head of state relayed.
New York Times
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
A Dark Fairy Tale of a Young Princess and Her Horrible Husband
For too long, Queen Victoria's ghost has been allowed to claim the nickname 'Grandmama of Europe,' owing to the countless descendants who became queens, princes, dukes and czarinas. But according to Helen Rappaport, in her serious but sprightly 'The Rebel Romanov, ' that honorific should really go to Victoria's own grandmama, Auguste of Saxe-Coburg. Auguste, a duchess from a cash-strapped German principality, is the reason both Victoria and her husband, Albert, who was also her first cousin, exist and therefore, Elizabeth and Philip (both Victoria's great-great-grandchildren). At one point, this ducal Mrs. Bennet even tried to fob a daughter off on Napoleon. But it's another of Auguste's daughters, Juliane, who is the subject of Rappaport's latest book. Initially, Julie, as she was known, promised to be Auguste's greatest matchmaking triumph. At 14, Julie married Grand Duke Konstantin of Russia at the bidding of his grandmother, Catherine the Great. This was in the late 18th century, but even then, courtiers remarked with distaste at what the author calls 'trafficking in princesses' north to Russia. Actual wine flowed from fountains during the couple's 1796 wedding festivities, and if all went according to plan, Konstantin and Julie would rule over Constantinople — once Catherine took it. But Julie's new husband was, to mix regimes, a rotten Fabergé egg. Even Empress Catherine described Konstantin as 'a Fury' and 'a little Vulcan.' Parsing the euphemistic language of the day, Rappaport presents a truly frightening portrait of a marriage. When the military-obsessed Konstantin wasn't drilling his human toy soldiers, throwing kittens in ovens or shooting rats out of cannons, he was terrorizing Julie. Rappaport quotes one account in which Konstantin, knowing his wife's fear of mice, released a box of them into a room and locked Julie inside, laughing 'most heartily at his spouse's hoppings and jumpings, and screams and entreaties,' while letting his officers peep through the keyhole. He 'dropped' Julie into a huge blue Chinese vase and fired his pistol at it 'to his wife's utter terror.' References are made to Konstantin's violent outbursts, philandering, cruelty — and the venereal diseases he likely spread to his already sickly young wife. So it comes as a relief when, five years after their marriage, Julie leaves Russia for her native Germany. But it's also the point at which her story loses steam. From a narrative standpoint, it's hard to compete with the glittering grotesquerie of the imperial Russian court. Take, for example, Catherine the Great's lying in state. Her body had been ineptly embalmed and 'soon appeared quite disfigured: Her hands, eyes and the lower parts of her face were black, blue and yellow' and 'all the riches that covered her corpse served only to augment the horror it inspired.' Back home in Germany, the financially stressed Saxe-Coburgs worried about the cost of boarding their errant daughter and her eight-carriage-long entourage. In a letter to her financial adviser, Auguste described Julie as 'the catastrophe from the north.' Rappaport spends mercifully little time explaining the ever-shifting alliances and reconfigurations of various German principalities. The same cannot be said for the ink she devotes to tracking Julie's geographic progressions from spa to spa over decades. Julie lived a long life as a princess in self-imposed exile, bearing several children, likely by men she employed as managers-cum-father figures, although details are murky. She loved music, amassing a sophisticated and varied collection of scores, and developed the romantic gardens at her estate in Switzerland. While a pall of scandal and sadness hung about Julie and her household, the Saxe-Coburgs remained a tight-knit bunch. Queen Victoria harbored a fascination with her intriguing aunt and, while the two met only a couple of times, Victoria adorned her residences with pictures of Julie and her siblings. She commissioned a portrait of Julie at age 68, which she described as 'an indescribably like and beautiful picture of Aunt Julia.' That portrait hangs today at Highgrove, King Charles's country house, and is said to be 'a particular favorite' of his. Another, of Julie as a teenager, hangs in William and Kate's Kensington Palace apartments. Aunt Julie is all around. And yet her voice is barely audible. We learn of Julie's physical whereabouts as a perma-health-spa guest, but Rappaport fails to breach her inner world. Few letters of Julie's survive (she was a dedicated letter-burner, as were her relatives), and those that do 'are largely unrevealing,' Rappaport writes, 'full of stream-of-consciousness chatter that switches constantly from French to German and back again, about family weddings, birthdays and deaths.' Julie supposedly kept a diary in Russia, but it has never been found. This is a story of one kind of suffering: that of a noble girl sacrificed on the altar of family ambition, and the malaise that sets in when one has titles, ranks, plenty — if never quite enough — money, but no clear role. She floats like a specter through her own biography, unreal and unknowable.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Blockdaemon CEO issues stark warning to crypto founders
In an interview with TheStreet Roundtable, Konstantin Richter, CEO and Founder of Blockdaemon, gave some advice to crypto founders: embrace governance. The value of professional oversight is often overlooked in an industry that, at its core, is anti-establishment. Konstatin's perspective is driven by his interactions with major financial institutions like J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs, who have been hesitant to enter the space for several reasons, including the tendency for projects to not set up traditional structures. Crypto is overrun with scams, rugpulls, and other types of fraud. Earlier this year, Hailey Welch launched $HAWK, a meme coin based on the viral clip she was featured in. It collapsed within hours and millions of dollars were lost. Outside of the thousands of memecoins that pop up every single day, several high profile failures of crypto businesses have tainted the industry's image. Konstantin highlighted FTX, which collapsed in 2022 and had no board, 'I still see a lot of that.' At the beginning of April, Mantra's OM token, an established and well known token, fell over 90% in a single day. Mantra does not have a traditional board either, instead relying on a governance token that grants holders voting rights. 'Young founders and people building open-source systems have an inherent suspicion of oversight—I totally understand that,' he explained. 'But you're missing out on real entrepreneurial benefits if you don't have a professional board to hold you accountable and guide your thinking. It opens you up to dangerous behaviors.' Implementing proper governance in crypto is not easy. The most obvious risk is that you alienate crypto purists who view oversight as central control. Smaller projects will also struggle to afford to afford professional boards, potentially increasing the gap between well funded and community projects. Konstantin's call to founders is clear: in order to be accepted by the masses, it needs to mature. If users are able to trust the businesses they interact with, this can spur growth and innovation, not hamper it.
