View source for Pyotr Stepanov (actor)

{{short description|Russian singer and opera singer}}
{{Infobox person
| name                  =  Pyotr Stepanov
| image                 = 
| imagesize    = 
| caption               = 
| birthname             = Пётр Гаврилович Степанов
| birth_date            = 1800 
| birth_place           = [[Moscow]], [[Russian Empire]]
| death_date            = {{Death date and age|1869|05|15|1800|||df=yes}}
| death_place           = Moscow, Russian Empire
| occupation            = stage actor
| years_active          = 
| spouse                = 
| website               =
| awards                = 
}}

'''Pyotr Gavrilovich Stepanov''' ({{lang-ru|Пётр Гаврилович Степанов}}; 1800 – 15 May 1869) was a Russian stage actor, associated with the Moscow [[Maly Theatre (Moscow)|Maly Theatre]], one of the first stage professionals in Russia.

== Biography ==
Born in 1800<ref>[http://rulex.ru/01180488.htm Пётр Гаврилович Степанов]. Biography at the [[Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary]]</ref> (or 1806, according to other sources)<ref>[http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/biograf2/12225 Пётр Гаврилович Степанов]. Biography at the Russian Biographical Dictionary</ref> into a family close to the Michael Maddox troupe, Stepanov received private lessons from actress Maria Sinyavskaya<ref name="ste">[http://bookz.ru/authors/avtor-neizvesten-3/theatre_encicl/page-597-theatre_encicl.html Stepanov's biography] at the Soviet Theatre Encyclopedia.</ref>  before enrolling into the [[Mikhail Shchepkin Higher Theatre School|Moscow Theatre College]] which he graduated in 1825 to join the Maly Theatre troupe which he stayed with for the whole of his life.<ref>Grekov, Vladimir. [http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enc_biography/116412/Степанов Stepanov's biography] at the Great Biographical Encyclopedia]</ref>

Stepanov became popular mostly for his comic and eccentric parts, but was also known as an [[opera]] [[baritone]] and even, occasionally, a [[ballet dancer]] (such occurrences weren't unusual at the time, formally the dance and the drama troupes had been separated in 1824, but in reality co-existed for quite some time). In all, Stepanov had more than 500 parts in Maly, some of them very tiny, by most of them memorable and expressive. Writers like [[Vissarion Belinsky]] and [[Sergey Aksakov]] were among his fans.<ref name="ste"/>

On the Moscow stage Stepanov was the first performer of such parts as Prince Tugoukhovsky (''[[Woe from Wit]]'', 1831,  a particular favourite of [[Nicholas I of Russia|Tsar Nicholas I]]), Tyapkin-Lyapkin (''[[Revizor]]'', 1836), Yaichnitsa (''[[Marriage (play)|Marriage]]'', 1843) and Shvokhnev (''[[The Gamblers (Gogol)|The Gamblers]]'', 1839), by [[Gogol]]. Among his best remembered roles were those in the plays by [[Alexander Ostrovsky]] (''[[Stay in Your Own Sled]]'', Malomalsky, 1853) and ''[[Live Not as You Would Like To]]'' (Yeryomka, 1854).<ref name="ste"/>

== References ==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stepanov, Pyotr}}
[[Category:Male actors from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:1800 births]]
[[Category:1869 deaths]]


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