VLADIMIR STENBERG (1899-1982) GEORGI STENBERG (1900 -1933) Costume design of Organ grinder for ‘The Beggars’ Opera’ (‘The Threepenny Opera’) by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Julian Weill, the Moscow Kamerny Theater, 1930

signed in Cyrillic by Vladimir Stenberg ‘work by V. and G. Stenberg/ art. V. Stenberg/ Moscow, 1928’, numbered in pencil ‘N 6’ (on the reverse) coloured pencil, gouache on paper 34.8 x 21 cm executed in 1928 Certificate of authenticity by Andrei B. Nakov, 1999 Provenance: Vladimir Avgustovich Stenberg. Private collection Literature: S.O. Khan-Magomedov, Vladimir and Georgy Stenberg, The makers of the avant-garde, Moscow, 2010., ill p. 177 The Moscow Kamerny Theatre’s production of The Beggar’s Opera, which premiered on 24 January 1930, was the first Brecht production in the Soviet Union. It was directed by Alexander Tairov, the founder of the renowned Kamerny (Chamber) Theatre in the early twentieth century. Performed under the title ‘The Beggar’s Opera’, the play ‘The Threepenny Opera’ was staged in the style of a political revue. ‘The quintessence of the characters was presented with such emphasis that it was sometimes shocking. The Stenberg brothers’ set design for The Beggar’s Opera was daring and extremely intriguing. Unexpectedly, in a bold composition, they staged a scene in a brothel. The set consisted of a rotating carousel, with each compartment occupied by girls in cheap corsets worn over short skirts. High lace-up boots on bare legs, disheveled hair, vulgar faces—everything highlighted, with particular sharpness, the corruption, cynicism, and moral decay.’ Alisa Koonen, Pages of Life