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Bluebeard
also: Синяя Борода, Barbe-bleue
The stage work being performed at the theater in 'The Boots,' most likely Offenbach's popular comic operetta "Barbe-bleue" (1866) or a stage adaptation of the Bluebeard legend, then a stock touring-repertoire piece; the actor Blistanov plays the title role.
Reading notes
- The Boots §29 "Bluebeard"
"Bluebeard" (Russian Синяя Борода) was among the most popular touring repertoire pieces of the era -- most likely Jacques Offenbach's comic operetta "Barbe-bleue" (1866), a burlesque of the Charles Perrault folk tale about a nobleman who murders his wives, though provincial troupes also staged straight melodramatic and pantomime versions of the legend. As a title role built for a swaggering, villainous leading man, it was a stock vehicle for touring "stage villain" actors -- and its costume (complete with prop revolver, as seen here) primes the mistaken-accusation farce that follows: the actor playing a wife-murderer is the one whom Murkin's clumsy story seems to accuse of adultery.