Name Modest Tchaikovsky | Role Dramatist | |
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Movies Queen of Spades (Bolshoi Ballet) Books The Life & Letters of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, The Life & Letters of Pete Ilich Tchaikovsky - Scholar's Choice Edition Parents Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky, Alexandra Andreyevna d'Assier Siblings Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Anatoly Ilyich Tchaikovsky Similar People Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky, Eduard Napravnik, Alexandra Andreyevna d'Assier, Sergei Rachmaninoff | ||
Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Моде́ст Ильи́ч Чайко́вский; 13 May [O.S. 1 May] 1850–15 January [O.S. 2 January] 1916) was a Russian dramatist, opera librettist and translator.
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Early life
Modest Ilyich was born in Alapayevsk, Verkhotursky Uyezd, Perm Governorate, the younger brother of the composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. He graduated from the School of Jurisprudence with a degree in law. In 1876, Modest became the tutor to a deaf-mute boy Nikolai ("Kolya") Hermanovich Konradi (1868–1922) and, using a special teaching method, helped him to talk, write, and read. In his still unpublished Autobiography, broadly quoted by Alexander Poznansky, Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky mentions his homosexuality, as well as his brother's Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky homosexuality.
Career
Modest chose to dedicate his entire life to literature and music. He wrote plays, translated sonnets by Shakespeare into Russian and wrote librettos for operas by his brother Pyotr, as well as for other composers such as Eduard Nápravník, Arseny Koreshchenko, Anton Arensky and Sergei Rachmaninoff. Being the nearest friend of his brother, he became his first biographer, and also the founder of the Tchaikovsky Museum in Klin.