Not far from the Okhotny Ryad and Teatralnaya metro stations in Kamergersky Lane, the Prokofiev Museum has been operating in Moscow for almost 10 years. This address is connected with the years spent by the composer in this house, more precisely, in the apartment of the parents of his wife Mira Alexandrovna.
House in Kamergersky and his eminent tenant
The past of this house is closely connected with the history of the St. George Monastery of Moscow. Now it no longer exists, but was abolished in 1813.
St. George Convent was founded on this site in the XVI century. He is often associated with the history of the Romanov clan. Therefore, earlier the lane was often called Yegoryevsky. Until now, the territory has come across dips in the ground. Archaeologists here discovered the cells of the Church of Our Lady of Kazan, which was here earlier.
During its existence, Lane had several more names, one of which was Kvasnoy. That is what he was called because of the alum living here. And the area was built up for a long time with wooden houses. In the XVII century, began to build stone houses, which belonged to representatives of noble aristocratic families. Sometimes the lane at that time was called Odoevsky. All because in this part the largest building was the mansion of Prince Odoevsky.
Three houses were erected on the site of the abolished monastery. In one of them in apartment No. 6 and lived from 1944 to 1953, the Soviet composer Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev. He is the owner of seven government awards, the author of six operas, several ballets and many symphonic works. These houses were erected in the XIX for the department of the Synod. The project was developed by architect Ivan Gavrilovich Kondratenko.
The composer lived in an apartment on the second floor of building 3. The Prokofiev Museum was opened in this building.
Museum: features of the organization of space
Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev died in 1953. However, only 15 years later, his widow decided to transfer the husband’s archive to the Glinka Foundation. Thanks to the composer's personal belongings, his office was reconstructed in the house on Kamergersky.
The Prokofiev Museum has a real concert hall, which is decorated in the style of classicism using costumes made for the composer's operas and ballets. Various scenery for performances is also presented here.
In the artistic living room, made in the style of constructivism, creative meetings take place. As a rule, they are devoted to the composer's activities in the field of art. Part of the exhibition presented in the living room belongs to the role in the life and work of Prokofiev, the famous philanthropist Sergei Diaghilev.
The library has genuine composer scores, books that he read. A special place belongs to family archives. They introduce visitors to the composer's family, especially his first wife Lina and sons Svyatoslav and Oleg.
Even the staircase is a unique museum space. Here you can see genuine photographs of Moscow during the years of Sergei Prokofiev’s life and photographs of the composer himself, his family against the backdrop of the city.
Museum for children
The Prokofiev House Museum in Moscow is really not a simple building with centuries of history. The spirit of the great composer, his music, ideas and undertakings, still lives in this building .
In his work, Sergey Sergeyevich assigned a special place to children and music for them. Therefore, in the memorable interiors of the Prokofiev Museum there is a large number of interactive educational projects aimed specifically at the younger generation. First of all, we are talking about visitors to preschool and primary school age. Unobtrusively and in a playful way, they acquaint children not only with the works and personality of the composer, but with opera and ballet based on the creations of the master. The following are considered the most popular: “How Petya defeated the wolf”, “These terrible chromatisms”, “Forward to Fiction!”, “Shoe for Cinderella”, “How Serezha Prokofiev became a composer”, etc.
Museum in the wake of time
The Prokofiev House Museum takes an active part in the annual project “Museum Night”. In 2016, to the 125th anniversary of the composer's birthday, an exclusive tour “Sergey Prokofiev - a composer ahead of time” was organized in his apartment. In the same year, they held a number of events dedicated to the filming of Sergei Eisenstein's film "Alexander Nevsky." The author of the music for the picture was S. S. Prokofiev.
And the continuation of these events in 2017 was the amazing exhibition "3-D measurements of Prokofiev." It was successfully opened in the premises of the Prokofiev Museum in Moscow.