No matter how many performances there are “ Cherry Orchard” in Moscow - there is a viewer for everyone. The Gorky Moscow Art Theater restored the performance based on the immortal play by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, the premiere of which appeared on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater back in 1904: Olga Knipper played Ranevskaya, and Stanislavsky himself played her brother Gaev.
In 1988, Sergei Danchenko staged at the Moscow Art Theater. Gorky’s “The Cherry Orchard,” which was successfully performed on stage for almost thirty years, and now the play with an updated cast has met its audience again.
The star cast of the theatre, directed by the renowned Tatiana Doronina, is presented in full color in the updated performance. But, in addition to the great and famous, young actors from the legendary theater were included in the production. Ranevskaya’s daughter, seventeen-year-old Anya, is played by Elena Korobeynikova, and with her youth and enthusiasm the actress seems to brighten up the life of the inhabitants of the old house, which will soon be sold for debts. But youth is the future, and the young actress is eager to make her dreams of the future come true. And thanks to the sensual performance of Elena Korobeynikova, the viewer practically sees this future, it seems close and inexpressibly beautiful. 
The production takes place in an old estate, where Ranevskaya returns from Paris with her daughter Anya. The scenery of the performance (the interior of the house is furnished with great love) emphasizes the place and time in which visitors find themselves. Entering the house, they seem to fall into oblivion, succumbing to the charms of this place, which will forever remain in their hearts. Thanks to the heartfelt performances of the actors, the viewer is ready to believe that the estate was once the most comfortable place on earth for the characters.
The interior of the estate is divided into a room, the windows of which overlook the garden, and a bright corridor - here they dance at balls, which turn out to be Pyrrhic for the mistress of the estate, Ranevskaya. All the characters in the play move in these two spaces, as if in two worlds. They are either immersed in dreams of the future, or in nostalgia about the past, which they want to return.
The main character, who is also the main victim of circumstances, Ranevskaya, performed by the brilliant Honored Artist of Russia Lidia Matasova, appears before the viewer as a “blind” embodiment of what is happening around the garden and house. Ranevskaya lives in memories and does not notice the obvious at all. But she is at home (for now) and therefore is in no hurry, and hopes for the best, which, alas, will never come. 
Tatyana Shalkowskaya, who played Varya, most likely understands the true state of affairs better than others, and therefore is sad, quiet and all in black. But she is unable to help those gathered with anything other than sympathy, and even secretly regrets her bitter fate.
The house and garden also embodies his character on stage - he breathes his own life, from the very recent times of serfdom. After all, it was then that they wanted to marry old man Firs (the convincing Gennady Kochkozharov), and life was in full swing and the cherries were “dried, soaked, pickled, made jam...”. But the time of serfdom has passed, and to find new way Those gathered cannot “make money.” All that remains from that time is the habit of wasting money, and Lyubov Andreevna knows this better than anyone else. And although she admits this weakness, she at the same time cannot resist it. Like, probably, each of us, she has enough of these weaknesses, but maybe that is why she forgives the shortcomings of others and pities everyone.
And although the production is deeply lyrical in its essence, the performance deeply reflects the characters’ characters who remain themselves in the given circumstances. Even the thick-skinned Lopakhin, played by Valentin Klementyev, will stop within the walls of the estate, subject to memories of his own difficult childhood. And Charlotte, played by Irina Fadina, appears playful, hiding her own unsettledness and indecision behind a wide smile. The “gentle creature” Dunyasha, embodied by Yulia Zykova, reliably portrays inappropriate delight in everything that is happening and reluctantly brushes off the clerk Epikhodov (Sergei Gabrielyan), who proposed to her. 
Neither deliberate fun nor dancing with music will save the farewell to their native noble nest, which all the heroes have to do. Illusions dissipate and the words of Anya sound as an appeal, consoling her mother and persuading her to quickly part with the old house: “...We will plant new garden, more luxurious than this, you will see it, you will understand, and joy, quiet, deep joy will descend on your soul, like the sun in the evening hour...”
Everyone has the right to a “new garden”, but not everyone can afford it.
Sabadash Vladimir.
Photo – Yuri Pokrovsky.
The premiere of Chekhov's play "The Cherry Orchard" took place on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater on January 17, 1904. Directors K. S. Stanislavsky and Vl. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko.
Artist – Simov V.A.
K.S. Stanislavsky recalls how Anton Pavlovich came up with the title of the play:
“Finally we got to the point. Chekhov paused, trying to be serious. But he did not succeed - a solemn smile made its way out from within.
Listen, I found a wonderful title for the play. Wonderful! - he announced, looking at me point-blank.
Which? - I got worried.
The Cherry Orchard,” and he burst into joyful laughter.
I did not understand the reason for his joy and did not find anything special in the name. However, in order not to upset Anton Pavlovich, I had to pretend that his discovery made an impression on me. What excites him about the new title of the play? I began to carefully question him, but again I came across this strange feature of Chekhov: he did not know how to talk about his creations. Instead of explaining, Anton Pavlovich began to repeat in different ways, with all sorts of intonations and sound colors:
The Cherry Orchard. Listen, this is a wonderful name! The Cherry Orchard. Cherry!
From this I only understood that it was about something beautiful, dearly loved: the charm of the name was conveyed not in words, but in the very intonation of Anton Pavlovich’s voice. I carefully hinted this to him; my remark saddened him, the solemn smile disappeared from his face, our conversation stopped flowing, and an awkward pause ensued.
After this date, several days or a week passed... Once during the performance, he came into my dressing room and sat down at my table with a solemn smile. Chekhov loved to watch us prepare for the performance. He watched our makeup so carefully that you could guess from his face whether you were putting paint on your face successfully or unsuccessfully.
Listen, not the CHERRY, but the Cherry Orchard,” he announced and burst into laughter.
At the first minute I didn’t even understand what they were talking about, but Anton Pavlovich continued to savor the title of the play, emphasizing the gentle sound “e” in the word “Cherry”, as if trying with its help to caress the former beautiful, but now unnecessary life that he destroyed with tears in his play. This time I understood the subtlety: “The Cherry Orchard” is a business, commercial garden that generates income. Such a garden is still needed now. But “The Cherry Orchard” does not bring in any income; it preserves within itself and in its blooming whiteness the poetry of the former lordly life. Such a garden grows and blooms for whim, for the eyes of spoiled aesthetes. It’s a pity to destroy it, but it’s necessary, because the process economic development the country demands it."
K.S. Stanislavsky. A.P. Chekhov at the Art Theater (Memoirs).
In the book: A.P. Chekhov in the memoirs of his contemporaries. Publishing house " Fiction", Moscow, 1960. P.410-411
“The Cherry Orchard” (1904)
The first actress to play the role of Ranevskaya was Anton Pavlovich’s wife, the brilliant actress Olga Knipper. Also participating in the performance: M. P. Lilina (Anya), M. F. Andreeva (Varya), K. S. Stanislavsky (Gaev), L. M. Leonidov (Lopakhin), V. I. Kachalov (Trofimov), I. M. Moskvin (Epikhodov), A. R. Artem (Firs), etc. Then Chekhov considered that Stanislavsky “ruined” his play, but to this day “The Cherry Orchard” is one of the most popular plays among theater directors , and the role of Ranevskaya is a pearl in the repertoire of any actress. Among them are Alla Tarasova, Alla Demidova, Alisa Freundlich, Renata Litvinova and many others.
The premiere was, according to Stanislavsky, “only an average success, and we condemned ourselves for not being able, the first time, to show the most important, beautiful and valuable thing in the play.”
They brought Chekhov to the premiere almost by force, and even then only towards the end of the third act. And during the last intermission, they organized, with pomp, with long speeches and offerings, a celebration of the 25th anniversary of his literary activity.
“At the anniversary itself,” Stanislavsky later recalled, “he was not cheerful, as if sensing his imminent death. When, after the third act, he, deathly pale and thin, standing on the proscenium, could not stop coughing while he was greeted with addresses and gifts, our hearts sank painfully. People from the audience shouted at him to sit down. But Chekhov frowned and stood through the long and drawn-out celebration of the anniversary, about which he laughed good-naturedly in his works. But even here he couldn’t help but smile. One of the writers began his speech with almost the same words with which Gaev greets the old wardrobe in the first act: “Dear and respected... (instead of the word “cabinet” the writer inserted the name of Anton Pavlovich)... welcoming you,” etc. Anton Pavlovich glanced sideways at me, the performer Gaev, and an insidious smile ran across his lips. The anniversary was solemn, but it left a difficult impression. It reeked of a funeral. It was sad in my soul... Anton Pavlovich died (approx. July 15, 1904), without ever seeing the real success of his last fragrant work.”
Of course, Anton Pavlovich and Olga Leonardovna discussed the play and preparations for it in their letters to each other:
“And you, dusik, first wanted to make Ranevskaya calm down, right? Do you remember - you showed me her words in Act 2? And how difficult it is to play! How much lightness, grace and skill is needed! Yesterday we read a play.
They listened, hung on every word and applauded at the end. »
“The roles haven’t been handed out yet, rehearsals haven’t been scheduled yet. Charlotte, I think, will be played by Muratova. Rumor has it that if there was an actress like Ranevskaya, I would have to play Charlotte. Those. the actors are talking, and then only two, I haven’t heard anything from the directors.”
“No, I never wanted to make Ranevskaya calm down. Only death can calm such a woman down. Or maybe I don't understand what you want to say. It’s not difficult to play Ranevskaya, you just need to strike the right tone from the very beginning; you have to come up with a smile and a way to laugh, you have to know how to dress. Well, you can do everything, if you were willing to hunt, you’d be healthy.”
“I really want to play Lilina as Anya. If, he says, I get old, they can tell me and kick me out, and I won’t be offended. Varya, she doesn’t want to play, she’s afraid it will happen again. K.S. says she should play Charlotte. They also varied like this: Ranevskaya - Maria Fedor, I - Charlotte, but hardly. I want a graceful role.”
“I was just now at the Morozovs’, had dinner with them, and, of course, everyone was talking about the theater and The Cherry Orchard.” Zinaida is delighted with the title, she hasn’t read the play, but she expects a lot of charm and poetry and told you to convey this. With Savva they decided who should play whom. The kids are still just as cute. The palace environment is oppressive. Savva left after dinner, and I sat and chatted; chatted and thought about dresses for Ranevskaya.”
“Don’t learn your role too well, you still need to consult with me; and don’t order dresses before my arrival.
Muratova can be so funny in the hostel; tell her to be funny in Charlotte, that's the main thing. And Lilina will hardly have Anya, she will be an old-looking girl with a squeaky voice, and nothing else.”
“We talked about the roles, found out the characters, the relationships: Ranevskaya, Ani, Varya, Gaev. Today is the continuation.
All soft and pleasant. We watched two approximate sets of Act 1 on stage. Dusik, when you arrive, you will tell me where French can be inserted into my role. characteristic phrases. Is it possible?
“It will be good. I found laughter for Ranevskaya. Const. Serg. He ordered me to study at home in an elegant dress, so that I would get used to feeling at least somewhat like a chic woman. I took a dress from “Dreams” and will work in it. Technically, this is a hellishly difficult role. Thank you, my dear husband. You gave me a task. Now I don't have a moment's peace. You can be jealous of Ranevskaya. I only know her now.”
From this correspondence we learn that Olga Leonardovna is rehearsing the role of Ranevskaya in a dress from the play "In Dreams", and that Anton Pavlovich did not allow the purchase of dresses for “ Cherry Orchard"without him.
In April 1904, the Moscow Art Theater was on tour in St. Petersburg. Maria Gavrilovna Savina (leading actress) came to watch the play Alexandrinsky Theater, who also played Ranevskaya), who expressed her displeasure that Lamanova made her the same hood as Olga Leonardovna.
“Yesterday I watched Savina, I was in the restrooms. All she found necessary to tell me was that I killed her with my hood, because... Lamanova made her exactly like this and everyone will say that Savina copied it from me. Now Lamanova will fly in.”
In the summer of 1936, the Moscow Art Theater toured in Kyiv. The performances “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich” and “The Cherry Orchard” were shown. Olga Leonardovna writes a letter to Nadezhda Petrovna from Kyiv:
“Dear Nadezhda Petrovna,
I don’t know how to thank you for the wonderful, wonderful costume.
And the dress without a coat fits perfectly, simply charming. I kiss you.
Kyiv is beautiful, green, good air; I walk a lot and take a little break from the Moscow crowd.
Will you breathe soon?
I send you a big, big hello.
I hug and kiss.
Yours O. Knipper-Chekhova"
Spectators of the Art Theater of the 1930s knew and loved Ranevskaya, performed by Olga Knipper. The fact that Olga Leonardovna continued to play this famous role in “The Cherry Orchard” illuminated with enduring poetry old performance, still running in the original 1904 mise-en-scène. Her participation was the main poetic meaning of the performance and saved it from the taint of a museum. She retained her creative right to this role until the end. Ranevskaya remained her creation, which turned out to be unsurpassed whenever others, even the most talented actresses. It seemed that Olga Leonardovna alone possessed some cherished secret of this subtlest, most complex in its internal psychological interweavings of Chekhov’s image. Having guessed back then, at the beginning of the century, that the most difficult thing for an actress in Ranevskaya was to find her “lightness,” she did not burden her with anything over the years. When you now listen to the phonographic recording of “The Cherry Orchard,” you are struck by its mastery - the filigree of the design of each phrase, the weight of each word, the richness of shades, the extraordinary courage and precision of the most unexpected internal transitions, the harmonious harmony of the whole. But when Olga Leonardovna was Ranevskaya on stage, hardly anyone in the audience thought about her skill. It seemed that she was not playing her at all and that everything she did was born right there, of course, and existed outside of her acting intentions and skills.
It is interesting that Olga Leonardovna played Ranevskaya in the 1930s wearing the same dress created by Nadezhda Petrovna. There is a photograph taken in 1932 to confirm this. In total, the Lamanova dress lasted 40 years.
This dress for the role of Ranevskaya is depicted on portrait by Nikolai Pavlovich Ulyanov, student of Valentin Aleksandrovich Serov.
In 2016, a portrait of Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova was shown at the exhibition “The Fashion Designer Whom Stanislavsky Trusted” in Moscow Fashion Museum and in Nizhny Novgorod Literary Museum named after. Gorky .
Sources used:
http://diletant.media/blogs/60920/675/
http://vadim-i-z.livejournal.com/1060229.html
http://teatr-lib.ru/Library/MAT_v_kritike/MAT_v_kritike_1919-1930/#_Toc272450594
https://studfiles.net/preview/4387373/page:11/
http://thelib.ru/books/vitaliy_vulf/50_velichayshih_zhenschin_kollekcionnoe_izdanie-read.html
K.S. Stanislavsky. A.P. Chekhov at the Art Theater (Memoirs).
In the book: A.P. Chekhov in the memoirs of his contemporaries. Publishing house "Fiction", Moscow, 1960. P.410-411
In the role of Lopakhin, viewers will see Anton Khabarov, Ranevskaya – Karina Andolenko
Ksenia UgolnikovaDecember 2, 3 and 29 your version great play will be presented by the Provincial Theater. Viewers will see Anton Khabarov in the role of Lopakhin, Karina Andolenko as Ranevskaya, and Alexander Tyutin will play Gaev.
It would seem, what new can be seen in the play written in 1903? But the directors succeed: everyone who touched Chekhov always has their own key to him. Staged Provincial Theater also has its own accent: here Lopakhin’s personal drama comes to the fore, however, the theme of a passing era and the inevitable loss of the values of the past sounds no less clear and piercing. The story of the loss of the cherry orchard, staged by Sergei Bezrukov, becomes the story of long-term and hopeless love - Lopakhin’s love for Ranevskaya. About love, which Lopakhin needs to uproot from his heart, like a cherry orchard, in order to live on.
The cherry orchard itself will live its life in the production. It will enter a time of flowering and withering, and then completely disappear from the face of the earth - as the personification of the past, albeit beautiful, but irretrievably gone.
Many of the directorial moves chosen by Sergei Bezrukov, and indeed the entire concept of the play, were dictated or “heard” by him after the decision was made that Anton Khabarov would play Lopakhin. Anton Pavlovich himself dreamed that the first performer of the role of Lopakhin would be Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky - he saw this character as subtle, vulnerable, aristocratic, despite his low origin. This is exactly how director Sergei Bezrukov sees Lopakhin:
Anton Khabarov has both strength and vulnerability. We have a story about crazy, passionate love. Lopakhin fell in love with Ranevskaya as a boy, and many years later he continues to love her, and cannot help himself. This is a story about a man who rose from the very bottom and made himself - and he was driven not by a passion for profit, but by a great love for a woman whom he idolized all his life and strove to become worthy of her.
Part of the rehearsals took place at the estate of K.S. Stanislavsky in Lyubimovka, where Chekhov stayed in the summer of 1902 and where he came up with the idea for this play. A sketch of S. Bezrukov’s play “The Cherry Orchard” was shown in June of this year in the natural scenery of the estate, in a real cherry orchard. The screening took place at the opening of the Stanislavsky Season festival. Summer Festival provincial theaters.
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On January 17, 1904, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov’s play “The Cherry Orchard” was staged for the first time at the Moscow Art Theater. It was this play that was destined to become a symbol of Russian drama of the twentieth century.
"The Cherry Orchard" - last play Chekhov and the pinnacle of his dramatic creativity. By the time this play was written in 1903, Chekhov was already a recognized master of thoughts and the author of four plays, each of which became an event - “Ivanov”, “The Seagull”, “Uncle Vanya”, “Three Sisters”.
The main dramatic feature of The Cherry Orchard is symbolism. The main character-symbol of the play is not this or that character, but the cherry orchard itself. This garden was grown not for profit, but to please the eyes of its noble owners. But the economic realities of the beginning twentieth century inexorably dictate their laws, and the garden will be cut down, just as the noble nests, and with them will go down in history and noble Russia XIX century, and it will be replaced by Russia of the twentieth century with its revolutions, the first of which is just around the corner.
Chekhov had already worked closely with the Moscow Art Theater. While working on the play, he often discussed it with Stanislavsky, and main role Ranevskaya was originally intended for the actress Olga Knipper-Chekhova, who became the writer’s wife in 1901.
The premiere of The Cherry Orchard was a great success and became the main event in Moscow at the beginning of 1904, which was facilitated by the skill and fame of Chekhov, the reputation of the Moscow Art Theater, the directorial talent of Stanislavsky and the brilliant performance of the Moscow Art Theater actors. In addition to Olga Knipper-Chekhova, the premiere performance featured Konstantin Stanislavsky himself (who played the role of Gaev), Leonid Leonidov (who played the role of Lopakhin), Vasily Kachalov (who played Trofimov), Vladimir Gribunin (the role of Simeonov-Pishchik), Ivan Moskvin (who played Epikhodov) , and Alexander Artem delighted the audience in the role of Firs, which Chekhov wrote especially for this favorite actor.
Also in 1904, Chekhov, whose tuberculosis worsened, went to Germany for treatment, where he died in July.
And the “Cherry Orchard” began a triumphal procession along theater scenes Russia and the world, which continues to this day. Only in 1904, this play by Chekhov was staged at the Kharkov Theater by Dyukova (simultaneously with the production at the Moscow Art Theater, premiere on January 17, 1904), by the New Drama Partnership in Kherson (director and performer of the role of Trofimov - Vsevolod Meyerhold), in Kiev Theater Solovtsov and at the Vilna Theater. And in 1905, “The Cherry Orchard” was also seen by spectators in St. Petersburg - Chekhov’s play was staged on the Alexandrinka stage by Yuri Ozerovsky, and Konstantin Korovin acted as a theater designer.
Scene from Act II of the play “The Cherry Orchard” based on the play by A.P. Chekhov. Moscow Art Theater, 1904. Photo from the almanac “Album of the Sun of Russia”, No. 7. "Moscow art theater. Plays by A.P. Chekhov" 
Poster for the production of “The Cherry Orchard” at the Kiev Theater. 1904.