Maria Poiret
Russian actress, composer, singer and poet
Maria Yakovlevna Orlova-Davydova (Russian: Мари́я Я́ковлевна Орло́ва-Давы́дова; previously Sveshnikova [Све́шникова], née Poiret [Пуаре́]; January 4, 1863 in Moscow – October 13, 1933 in Moscow), also known by stage name Marusina (Russian: Мару́сина), was a Russian actress, composer, singer and poet. She is the author of the romance "I Was Going Home".
Biography
She was born in the family of a fencing and gymnastics teacher Yakov Viktorovich Poiret (1826–1877) and the daughter of a cloth manufacturer Yulia Andreevna Tarasenkova (1830–1871). Her elder brother Emmanuel emigrated to France in his youth and became a well-known cartoonist under the pseudonym Caran d'Ache. She lost her parents early and was raised by her uncle. At the age of 16, she married engineer Mikhail Sveshnikov (died 1913), who was much older than his wife and did not share her passion for art. Soon, Maria experienced a nervous breakdown, as a result of which she was placed in a psychiatric hospital, from where she was rescued by the entrepreneur M. V. Lentovsky.
Since 1880, she began her career as an actress, taking the pseudonym Marusina. In 1880–1890, she participated in Lentovsky's projects, performed in operettas and vaudeville, often playing male roles (Caprice in Le voyage dans la lune by Jacques Offenbach, etc.), sang gypsy romances. Lentovsky himself considered Maria a gypsy by nature, according to him, this was indicated by "her ability to enjoy freedom, her carelessness, indifference to things, her readiness for a nomadic life".
The public source identifies “Maria Poiret” as russian actress, composer, singer and poet. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Maria, Poiret and Russian.
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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 Nov 3, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q89127124. VIAF identifies the subject as 13378202. The Library of Congress control number is no2004042216. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1863, 1933, 1826 and 1877.
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This entry incorporates text from “Maria Poiret” 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.