page_title: Alexander Ostuzhev
section_title: Voice and deafness
hierarchical_section_title: Alexander Ostuzhev / Voice and deafness
caption_attribution_description: en:Alexander Ostuzhev as en:False Dmitry I, August 1909.
context_page_description: Alexander Alexeyevich Pozharov, better known by the stage name Alexander Ostuzhev was a Russian and Soviet drama actor. Ostuzhev became the lead actor of the Maly Theatre company in Moscow in 1898.
  He completely lost hearing by 1910 yet managed to stay on stage and play leading roles at Maly until 1952, including critically acclaimed productions of Othello and Uriel da Costa.
context_section_description: Young Ostuzhev was admired for his voice. Tommaso Salvini who watched Ostuzhev as Cassio in 1900 rehearsals of Othello, seriously advised him to pursue a career in bel canto singing. However, Vsevolod Meyerhold argued that Ostuzhev "would have been a better actor had he not had such a beautiful voice" and branded his style "declamatory singsong a la Ostuzhev".
  In late 1900s Ostuzhev gradually moved from juvenile, romantic parts of his early days to modern drama, particularly exploring mother and son relationships in a duo with Maria Yermolova (Neznamov in Guilty without Guilt and Zhadov in A Profitable Place by Aleksandr Ostrovsky, Oswald in Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen). Ostuzhev's career could have ended there: around 1908 his hearing, damaged by Ménière's disease, declined, and by 1910 the actor was completely deaf. But Ostuzhev defied disability and remained on stage: in August 1909, approaching deafness, he played the tragic part of False Dmitriy I in False Dmitry and Vasily Shuisky by Aleksandr Ostrovsky (August 1909); already deaf, he played in the new Maly productions of Shakespeare's comedies – Ferdinand in The Tempest, Orlando in Twelfth Night (1912) and Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice (1916)
  He designed and followed a rigorous training routine to stay on stage despite the disability; he memorized all parts of each play flawlessly before the first rehearsal, to be able to read the lips of his stage partners and even provided them with accidental prompting services, undetected by the audience. He retained full control of his voice and attributed his later acting success to "concentration within himself" imposed by his disability. Off stage, Ostuzhev retreated into his hobby of metalworking; his small apartment contained only a bedroom and a workshop.
  Deafness, coupled with Ostuzhev's reputation of a star, was a significant obstacle to directors;  from onset of deafness until meeting director Sergey Radlov in 1935 Ostuzhev never felt being directed professionally. Radlov controlled Ostuzhev in writing with long personal letters.
caption: As False Dmitriy I, 1909
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