Gerasim Lebedev

[1] In Saint Petersburg Lebedev became acquainted with Fyodor Volkov, the founder of the first permanent Russian theater.

[4] He was a self-taught violinist and accompanied Andreas Razumovsky, the ambassador designate from Russia to Vienna, as a member of a musical group.

[6] The Young Bengal generation would act Shakespeare at David Hare Academy and the Oriental Seminary.

This double bill was presented on 27 November 1795 and 21 March 1796 at a ‘New Theatre in the Domtulla (now Ezra Street) Decorated in the Bengallee style.’ The 200-seat house was ‘overfull’ on both nights; but Lebedeff left India soon after, and his pioneer efforts bore no fruit.

During his stay, he started to learn Hindi, Sanskrit and Bengali from a local schoolteacher named Golokhnath Das.

[8] With assistance from local intellectuals, Lebedev founded the first European-style proscenium drama theatre in India.

These two were the first performances in the theatre, with music composed by Lebedev himself and lyrics borrowed from the Bengali poet Bharatchandra Ray.

[1][9] The theatre Lebedev established at Domtala (Ezra Street) used for the first time Bengali actors and actresses.

[10] Lebedev's attempt was somewhat premature, but it proved that a nucleus of clients ready to pay for public performances had already been formed in the city.

[3] He also lost a court case against an employee, theatre decorator Joseph Batsh and was broken financially.

He established in St. Petersburg a printing house equipped with Devanāgarī and Bengali scripts,[3] the first of its kind in Europe.