Ion Brezeanu
actor
Ion or Iancu Brezeanu (December 1, 1869–March 17, 1940) was a Romanian stage actor.
His jovial figure made Brezeanu ideal for comedic roles, above all in the works of Ion Luca Caragiale, whose favorite he was. In 1888, while still a student at the Bucharest Conservatory under Ștefan Vellescu, he appeared in O noapte furtunoasă. In 1898, Caragiale himself directed Brezeanu in O scrisoare pierdută, where he would appear for nearly four decades. The playwright then analyzed his actor's performance in a noted critical study.
From 1906, at the request of Alexandru Davila, he played the tragic figure of Ion in Caragiale's Năpasta. Constantin I. Nottara, who had inaugurated the role in 1890, willingly ceded it to the younger man. In all, Brezeanu interpreted nearly 200 roles, including Mogâldici from Viforul and Luceafărul by Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea (1909, 1910), the Fool in William Shakespeare’s King Lear (1910) and Șbilț from Mihail Sorbul’s Patima roșie (1916). In 1924, his Shylock, in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, drew favorable comparisons to Ermete Novelli‘s portrayal. He also played Harpagon in The Miser by Molière and the Mayor in The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol, the latter evoking a favorable review in 1909 from N. D. Cocea.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Ion Brezeanu” is actor. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Brezeanu and actor, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “actor” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 7, 2023. The linked authority identifier is Q18538295. VIAF identifies the subject as 16208618. The Library of Congress control number is n85189981. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1869, 1940, 1888 and 1898.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ion Brezeanu” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.