The rich creative life of Yuri Solomin, a talented artist, teacher and head of the country’s oldest academic Maly Theater, is described in this beautifully published book by theater expert Vera Maksimova.
Despite his most recognizable film image — the role of Koltsov’s adjutant in the film «His Excellency’s Adjutant» (dir. Evgeny Tashkov, 1969), Yuri Solomin has never been an adjutant in life. And even more so in the last 25 years, when the position of artistic director of the Maly Theater (by the way, for the first time in the history of the theater was chosen by the team!) and the post of Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation (1990-1992), rather brought him closer to the title of «Excellency». Whoever he plays — the quietest Tsar Fyodor or the helipad Khlestakov, the caustic Cyrano or the thoughtful Arsenyev in Kurosawa’s Dersu Uzala (which won an Oscar in 1976), and no matter what he does in the profession — directed, taught, performed — Solomin always led rather than assisted, led rather than followed someone. Yes, and the familiar image of a gentle, calm person corresponds to his character, resolute and «sharply continental», only in part. The rich creative life of Yuri Solomin, a talented artist, teacher and head of the country’s oldest academic Maly Theater, is described in this beautifully published book by theater expert Vera Maksimova.
Edition of the Maly Theatre, 360 p.