Two events were held at the Alexandrovskaya Sloboda museum-reserve that opened the program of activities for the 495th anniversary of the birth of Ivan the Terrible.
“This program can be called a ‘rehearsal’ for the celebrations of the 500th anniversary, which we are preparing to mark in 2030. We wanted to ‘start’ on a high note, and our long-time friend of the museum Lyubov Molina helped with that. A few years ago, thanks to her efforts a concert version of the opera The Tsar’s Bride was staged at the Tsar’s Court on our grounds. And now the performers have come with a concert called ‘Old Good Classics,’ featuring arias from popular operas and operettas,”
— said Larisa Zarayskaya, deputy director of the Alexandrovskaya Sloboda museum-reserve.
And soloist of Mosconcert and the Galina Vishnevskaya Center for Opera Singing Lyubov Molina added:
“We are bound by warm creative relations. We first came to the museum in 2017. We staged The Tsar’s Bride several times. Performing the opera in an authentic historical interior made the plot felt and understood anew. In essence, we created a musical reconstruction of events that once took place right here! And today I am incredibly happy that our cooperation continues!”
A significant role in the series of celebrations has been given to the educational lecture program.
“Throughout the year we will invite specialists to shed light on various aspects of the complex era of the Middle Ages. The topic of the first lecture — ‘The Unicorn of Ivan the Terrible’ — was not chosen by chance. Quite recently the unicorn became the tourist symbol of our town. This caused a stir and heated debates. The lecturer's task was to justify the modern choice from a historical point of view,”
— shares details Marina Rybakova, acting director of the Alexandrovskaya Sloboda museum-reserve.
For this, the museum invited E.V. Pchelov, Candidate of Historical Sciences, head of the Department of Auxiliary Historical Disciplines at the Russian State University for the Humanities, a specialist in the history of medieval Russia and a heraldist.
Evgeny Vladimirovich told listeners that for quite a long time the unicorn was one of Russia's state heraldic symbols. Ivan the Terrible primarily associated it with the image of a kingdom inherited from the biblical kings, seeing himself as the first tsar of the Moscow dynasty. The image of the unicorn is linked to Christian symbolism. In the Bible the horn is used in anointing for kingship, i.e., it symbolizes the divine grace descending upon the ruler. In Russian texts since 1550 the expression “rogá inroga” (the horn of the unicorn) is used in reference to the royal title. In charters of that time the sovereign's title even includes the phrase “yako roga inroga tsarya.” Therefore attaining the tsar's title as an anointing is associated specifically with this figure.
The unicorn was known in Rus before the time of the Terrible and was always considered a symbol of protection, power and invulnerability. And on February 3, 1561, the image of the mythical animal (by the tsar's order) appeared on the state seal, and subsequently on a ring, on military insignia, in the royal interior and on tableware. By the way, archaeologists have repeatedly found items bearing this royal symbol during excavations on the Sloboda grounds, in particular a harness fitting, a ceramic ladle and glazed tiles. At one time the theme of the unicorn also found wide expression in European art.
This and much more were discussed in the one-and-a-half-hour fascinating lecture, after which listeners asked questions and exchanged opinions. The online broadcast was also a success, having already been watched by more than two and a half thousand people, which proves the genuine interest in the topic.
The next unusual project will be a poetic online marathon. At the initiative of the Sloboda, 17 participating museums, many of them kremlins, will record “The Song of the Merchant Kalashnikov” and then post it on their pages. The final result promises to be impressive.
