“Overture” by Igor Severyanin: “Pineapples in champagne! Surprisingly tasty, sparkling and spicy!”

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Literary life seethed and boiled at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries! At this time, which is called the Silver Age of Russian culture, in addition to the truly talented masters of this cheerful workshop, a lot of “foam” appeared. These names have practically disappeared into oblivion. But the unusual melodic verses “Pineapples in champagne!” remained, which were talked about everywhere.

Short biography of Igor Vasilyevich Lotarev

In 2017, on May 16, it was 130 years since the birth of Igor Severyanin, who, by his mother, nee Shenshina, was a distant relative of A. Fet. The family of the retired staff captain lived in St. Petersburg, where the future poet was born. The Lotarev family was cultured and educated. She appreciated music and literature. Igor began to write poetry at the age of 9, studying at a real school. After finishing the 4th grade, he leaves for a year with his father to the North, to the Dalniy Port. The beauty of these places conquered the teenager, and with the help of K. Fofanov, he came up with a pseudonym for himself - Severyanin. A year later, he returned to his mother in Gatchina in 1904. BUTa year later it began to be printed.

Fame and glory in Russia brought him the collection "The Thundering Cup" in 1913. And in 1915, "Pineapples in Champagne" appeared.

Success on stage

Since 1913, having already announced the principles of ego-futurism, I. Severyanin began to perform at poetic concerts. He read his poems, as poets usually do, singsongly, paying attention only to the melody of the verse. His success was enormous. By this time, he had already received a negative review from L. Tolstoy for the lines "Put a corkscrew into the elasticity of the cork, and the eyes of women will not be timid." It trumpeted all the newspapers to smash his poetry. However, this backfired in the form of extreme popularity. "Pineapples in champagne" was held everywhere on "Hurrah!". They brought him fame as a lyricist of salons.

He was surrounded by enthusiastic, dreamy, sophisticated ladies and very young pretty girls.

Overture

Loving opera music from childhood, I. Severyanin gave this name to his bold poem. The music was written for "Pineapples in Champagne". The most varied. We present one of the options.

But how did this poem come about? It turns out that V. Mayakovsky dipped a piece of pineapple into a glass of sparkling foam and offered to do the same to his neighbor. The first phrase “Pineapples in champagne!” immediately sounded in the poet’s head. Igor Severyanin ironically mixed in the poem the rapid pace of life, the achievements of technology,urban theme. Cars, express trains, planes rush in it, which are opposed to salon, exclusive, refined life. Something Norwegian and Spanish appears. In this beautiful life, someone was kissed at the reception. And the girls are nervous because someone has been beaten. Rough fight, tragedy and low life turned into a "dream farce". It is expressed brightly, with an eccentricity. "Pineapples in champagne" by Severyanin symbolizes the sharpness and surprise of the beginning of the century.

The creative process of a poet

I. The northerner himself said that he was "impulsively" inspired and immediately took up the pen. The poet is capricious and musical. Illogicality and mystery are its main properties. He is delighted with the world and himself and tries to hide from everyday life, mixing romantic and passionate Spanish and cold, balanced Norwegian into a new captivating and bewitching unknown. The verse “Pineapples in champagne” is built on neologisms (“wind whistle”, “winglet”, “dreaming farce”) and enthusiasm. There are 18 exclamation points in a poem of 12 stanzas! The creative process of the poet is unlimited. He can mentally be in Japan, America and even on Mars. Why does he need everyday life!

The poet needs exoticism, which is personified by "pineapples in champagne". At the evening at the Polytechnic Museum, where V. Mayakovsky, K. Balmont were, he was awarded the title of "king of poets." And then came the revolution.

Estonia

In 1918, together with his mother, I. Severyanin moved to Estonia, to a small seaside town of Toyolu. But the Germans occupied the republic, and two years laterit secedes from the country of the Soviets. So Igor Severyanin turned out to be an emigrant. He was always drawn to his homeland. But his mother died in Estonia, where he married the translator and poetess Fellisa Kruut. Together with her, he made translations, published an anthology of Estonian poets for 100 years. He lost popularity in Russia, but did not gain in Estonia. Only in 1940 did the small state rejoin the USSR. At this time, Igor Vasilievich was already seriously ill and could not return. Then the Nazis occupied Tallinn. And in 1941, on January 20, I. Severyanin died and was buried in this city at the Alexander Nevsky cemetery. His own lines became the epitaph: a paraphrase on the poems of I. Myatlev.

In Soviet times, the name of Severyanin was banned for a long time. It was decadence, alien and harmful to the builders of the new society. Only M. Tsvetaeva appreciated his magnificently overgrown talent. In Russia, in 1996, a boom in the release of previously prohibited works began. Then came the first edition of the collected works of I. Severyanin, who dreamed of returning and kissing his native land in tears. The poetry of this amazing man must now be rediscovered.