Ostrovsky, Aleksandr Nikolayevich

Ostrovsky, Aleksandr Nikolayevich əlyĭksän´dər nyĭkəlī´yəvĭch əstrôf´skē [key], 1823–86, Russian dramatist. Ostrovsky's first play,破产(1847; reworked asIt's a Family Affair,1850), was widely read but was banned from the stage. He left a government clerical post in 1851 to devote his time to writing. Most of his more than 50 plays deal with the merchant or petty-official classes and the conflicts within their patriarchal families. All but eight of his works were written in blank verse, using colloquial language. Ostrovsky's masterpiece isThe Storm(1860), the tragedy of a woman driven to suicide. The play is the basis for Janáček's operaKatia Kabanova.Ostrovsky's popular playPoverty Is No Crime(1854) concerns a marriage of convenience. Rimsky-Korsakov used hisSnow Maiden(1873) as the libretto of an opera and Tchaikovsky drew upon several plays by Ostrovsky as inspiration for musical works.

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