Adamian, Petros

Born 1849 in Constantinople; died there on June 3 (15), 1891. Armenian actor.

Adamian began his stage career in 1866 in Constantinople’s Armenian theater. After 1879 he appeared in Tiflis, Baku, Shusha, and Aleksandropol. He toured Russian and Ukrainian cities between 1883 and 1888, performing in Armenian and French, and returned to Constantinople in 1888. His acting was characterized by intellectual depth, marked emotionalism, and high artistry. According to Russian contemporary critics, Adamian’s portrayals of Othello and Hamlet (in Shakespeare’s plays of the same name) brought him to the front ranks of the world’s tragedians. Among his best roles were Arbenin in Lermontov’s Masquerade, Khlestakov in Gogol’s The Inspector-General, Zhanov in Ostrovskii’s A Lucrative Position, Uriel Acosta inGutzkow’s play of the same name, and Corrado in Giacometti’s The Criminal’s Family. He wrote the book Shakespeare and the Criticism of His Tragedy Hamlet in 1887.