Yakov Knyazhnin

Yakov Borisovich Knyazhnin (Russian: Яков Борисович Княжнин, born: November 3 1742 or 1740, Pskov – died: January 1, 1791, St Petersburg) was a Russian dramatist, poet, translator, opera librettist.

He was of a noble family. From 1750 he studied in gymnasium at the Academy in St Petersburg. From 1755 he was cadet of the Justice Board; from 1757 translator at the Construction Office. From 1762 he was at the military service as a secretary of general-adjutant K. G. Razumovsky. He was married to the elder daughter of Alexander Sumarokov. In 1773 he was sentenced to death penalty for the spending 6,000 roubles of the fiscal money, however he sentence was softened: he was deprived of the officer rank and nobility. In 1777 he obtained the pardon of empress Catherine II, Knyazhnin received back his nobility and officer rank, and soon he left into the resignation. He taught Russian Literature at the Military School. He was a member of Russian Academy from 1783.

For his plays and opera librettos Knyaznin often borrowed some ideas from Voltaire, Metastasio, Moliere and Carlo Goldoni developing them in more complex composition. Alexander Pushkin called him in his Eugene Onegin (Chapter I, XVIII) for this "derivative Knyazhnin" («переимчивый Княжнин»).

In his play Vadim Novgorodsky (1789) he contrasted Vadim, a defender of Novgorod's ancient freedom, with the authoritarian Rurik. When the play was posthumously published in 1791, the empress Catherine II was so enraged, that she had copies of the manuscript burned and the published text torn from the offending volume.

Dramatic works

• Dido (Дидона – Didona), a tragedy 1769. Text. Comments.
• Olga (Ольга), a tragedy 1776–1778. Text. http://www.rvb.ru/18vek/knyazhnin/02comm/02.htm Comments.]
• Rosslav (Росслав), a tragedy in 5 acts, publ. 1784 St Petersburg Text. Comments.
• Vadim the Bold or Vadim of Novgorod (Вадим Новгородский – Vadim Novgorogsky), a tragedy 1788 or 1789, publ. 1793. Text. Comments.
• The Boaster (Хвастун – Khvastun), a comedy 1784–1785 publ. 1786. Text. Comments.
• The Eccentrics (Чудаки Chudaki), a comedy c1790, publ. 1793. Text. Comments.
• The Carriage Accident (Несчастие от кареты – Neschactye ot karety) opera with music by Vasily Pashkevich, staged November 7 1779, Hermitage Theatre. St Petersburg Text. Comments.
• The Miser (Скупой – Skupoy) opera with music by Vasily Pashkevich, c1782. Fragments Comments.
• Sbitenshchik (Сбитенщик – Sbitenshchik) opera with music by French composer Jean Bulant (d. 1821), 1783. Fragments Comments.
• Orpheus (Орфей – Orfey) opera-melodrama with music by Giuseppe Torelli, premiere April 30, 1763, later with music by Yevstignei Fomin, premiere: February 5 1795. Text. Comments.

Quotations

• "Enchanted land! There like a lampion

that king of the satiric scene,

Fonvizin sparkled, freedom's champion,

and the derivative Knyazhnín."

(Alexander Pushkin, Eugine Onegin, translated by Charles H. Johnston)

• "Knyaznin was an author of tragedies and comedies unsuccessfully copied from more or less useless French models. I tried to read his Vadim Novgorodsky (1789), but even Voltaire is easier for reading." (Vladimir Nabokov)

See also

Vadim the Bold Vasily Pashkevich Yevstigney Fomin Ivan Krylov List of people by name: Km-Kn

External links

Peter Kropotkin on Russian Literature in English Biography in Russian Political prisoners (Russian) Russian library online Selected works. Texts in Russian Life and work inRussian