In the Spotlight
RUSSIA'S FIRST NATIONAL CIRCUS
On November 22, 1845, the Italian equestrian Alessandro Guerra and his troupe gave their first performance in the circus they had just built on the old Place des Manèges—the "merry-go-round square", today’s Theatre Square—in St. Petersburg, in the shadow of the stately Kamennyi Theatre (the "stone theatre"). The Kamennyi was also known as the Bolshoi Theatre (the "grand" theatre), and like its homonym in Moscow, it housed the Imperial Ballet and Opera companies. For a long time, the vast Place des Manèges had welcomed visiting fairs and their merry-go-rounds, but the presence of the theater had since redeemed the square's prestige, and Guerra found himself in ideal surroundings. Guerra was fifty-five in 1845. Born in Rome, Italy, he had started his career at Vienna's Circus Gymnasticus, under the management of the Latvian equestrian Christopher de Bach, whose daughter, Elisa, Alessandro had seduced and married. Then, in 1826, he had created his own company, which toured under the name (fashionable at the time) of
Cirque Olympique. After the death of his father-in-law, Guerra engaged into a bitter rivalry with de Bach's widow, the beautiful Laura de Bach, and then went to compete against Ernst Renz in Berlin before settling in the Capital of All Russias. Guerra was a remarkable
trickAny specific exercise in a circus act.-rider, famous for his aggressive manner in the ring (which he also displayed in private life), and which got him a nickname:
Il Furioso.... (
more...)
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