The Story of Frances Berman
* A Magic Lantern Performance by Nendie Pinto-Duschinsky
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* Dedicated to The Lindsay Kemp Company, Tom Ward and Ernesto Tomasini
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This is the story of Frances Berman Performed as a Magic Lantern Show at Sartorial Contemporary Art on Thursday 22nd of May 2008 by kind invitation of Mikey Georgeson * Cast List In order of appearance
Production List
Frances Berman/Cousin Katie Ronnie Grebenyuk
The Story Shelley Pinto-Duschinsky
Alexandre Rogdenov Nicholas Asamoah
Images and Soundtrack Nendie Pinto-Duschinsky
Chinese Bride Shona Harvey
Magic Lanternist Professor Heard
Countess Troubetskoi Adrianne McKenzie
Photography Derek Wiafe Matthew Asare-Sackey Harry Dwyer
Rachmaninov Harry Dwyer White Russian Nina Manandhar Aunt Rhoda Rhoda de Pinto Photographed by the Man Ray Studio
Makeup Ryaturo and Amy Burry Costumes Peter at The Costume Studio Props Fern at Theme Traders
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My Grandmother’s name was Frances Berman. She trained in Kiev and used to watch the opera stars stroll on the Piazza in front of the Opera House and sit in the cafes.
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She was a colratura soprano, which is the very highest you can sing and quite rare. She was sent to study opera in Germany when she was 16 or 17.
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It was there that she was told not to return to Russia but to join her mother’s first cousin in Petersburg, Virginia. So she left from Bremmen and sailed to America in 1911, aged 17.
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In her possessions, she had a bottle of perfume from the Tsarina which still smells of Blue Freesia.
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She spoke Russian so attended the ‘Gymnasium’; a bit like a high-school today; which was also attended by the Tsar’s Physician’s daughters.
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My Grandmother would have spoken Russian or Ukranian, Yiddish, German and English. She had a classical Russian elitist education and would have read Tolstoy and Turgenev.
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A political clampdown on Jews and a hardening of Tsarist attitude caused her parents to write her not to return and she never saw any of her immediate family again.
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1905 produced the uprising in Petrograd (involving radical Jews)
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Russia was defeated in World War 1 and 1917 brought revolution.
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Then came the Stalinist years, and she completely lost touch with her family.
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Her nephew, Alexandre Rognedov was imprisoned.
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And wrote flattering poetry about Stalin.
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He was released from Prison and fled Russia through China.
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She was an elegant young woman who spoke upper class Russian and immediately set about learning English. Infact, she won an essay competition in Virginia, “Why I Love Virginia”: Centre of equal daughters, equal sons, All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old, Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich, Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love, A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother, Chair’d in the adamant of Time. -Walt Whitman
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Frances was of course not a Russian aristocrat. They were known as ‘White Russians’. She used to sing in local Petersburg church choirs. There was a small group of white Russians who had escaped the Revolution.
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The Countess Troubetskoi was one of these women and formed a little music circle in Virginia.
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Her brother had been the room mate or classmate of Rachmaninov at the Moscow Conservatory of Music. Thus, she and Rachmaninov were long-standing friends.
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When Rachmaninov was on a concert tour of America, perhaps he had just played in New York or even Richmond, he came to visit the Countess in Petersburg.
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The little music circle met with him. He played for them, but Grandmother said that he was very sick at the time, spitting blood.
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He died from Tuberculosis soon after that. Grandmother spoke as if they were all a group together, not as if she was speaking about a distant performer.
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We continued to hear form Madame Troubetskoi’s son, every christmas, until his death. He had beautiful handwriting, I remember.
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This story is not to be confused with Aunt Rhoda who had tea in 1930’s Paris with the transvestite Usypov who murdered Rasputin.
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Cousin Katie looks almost identical to Frances and is the only one in the family with her precise mouth.
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* Contact Nendie at nendieandnina@hotmail.com www.hardcoreismorethanmusic.com www.thecutnewspaper.com
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* www.hardcoreismorethanmusic.com www.thecutnewspaper.com
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