The Alexander Palace at the Newark Museum

[CLAYCAT78]

The exhibit "Nicholas and Alexandra: At Home with the Last Tsar and His Family" will open at The Newark Museum, New Jersey on Sept. 28.  I am a docent  and we all have been studying like mad to be ready.  It looks like there will be sellout crowds.  Already over 1,000 tours are booked and this for our small Museum is something.  Many days are sold out already for booked tours.  However, there is a daily public tour too.  Right now workmen  are transforming our lovely marble court surrounded by corridors into the palace, with deep red drapes, columns and many crystal chandeliers rented for the occasion.  If anyone has any questions as the exhibition continues, I will attempt to answer them. In fact, if you get me relevant questions quickly I might be able to ask the curator herself.

I  really visited this website to find out what I could learn; but after reading all the questions about the Santa Fe Exhibit, I figure I might be able to answer questions as the exhibiion continues.    But meanwhile, does anyone know how to pronounce Tsarkoye Selo?

[Mike]

 does anyone know how to pronounce Tsarkoye Selo?

You can download and play an mp3 file of the song Davai poyedem v Tsarskoye Selo (Let's go to Tsarskoye Selo), performed by its author Alexander Gorodnitsky (who btw lives there). The first phrase is exactly the above title, so listen & learn.

[LisaDavidson]

Zar - sko Say - lo

[Douglas]

Zar - skoee- -Say-low

[Dashkova]

Doug, your version is closer to  what I always have been taught.  Do you mean:  "TSAR-skoh-yeh SAY-lo"?  Just wondering if there are slightly different pronunciations depending on maybe the accent of the Russian speaker?

It's like the town Kolomonskoe (Koh-LOW-men-skoh-yah) the "oe" at the end comes out closer to "yeh" or "yah", isn't that right?

[DanielB]

Get a Russian and a linguist in here for heaven's sake!! Final accent is on LO : TSAR-sko-yeh-see-LO. Instead of trying to transliterate Russian, you should listen to the nice song Mike has provided : no need to understand the language to get it : it’s the 4th word of the song!!

[Forum Admin]

Our best transliteration is "Tsar' skehya- Sye'lo" but we agree that listening to that MP3 really helps.

[KayTanaka]

And it is the ALEXANDER Palace rather than the ALEXANDRA Pqlace.

[Forum Admin]

Kay's transliteration is very good I think. I also learned the pronunciation from my "tante Lili". The only thing I would add is that the final "o" of Selo, should be a soft "o", shortened, and not the full sound like "low" in English.
It should be somewhere "between" ow (in low) and uh (in duh)

[Forum Admin]

Kay,
I have written this before on the forum, but it bears repeating here. I once read that the pre1917 "upper class" or educated Russian accent was compared to "silver troika bells ringing across new fallen snow." When I heard "Tante Lili" recite her Pushkin poems by heart for me, over tea. I realized that this description was spot on correct. Those of us who have heard this wonderful language can never forget that sound.
cheers.
Rob

[CLAYCAT78]

Had no idea I was starting such a conversation about the pronounciation.  We have a Russian gal working at the Museum who is totally thrilled about the Exhibit coming.  She is going to meet with the docents on Tues and go over all the pronounciations.  I'm pretty good because I had a bit of Russian years ago, and I remember Russian is totally phonetic. Alphabet invented by a monk, I believe in order to translate the Bible. I had fun with the alphabet and pronounciation...but the grammar was dreadful as I recall.  Which syllable to accent throws me though.  Thanks everyone.

I want to make a correction in my original message.  There are not over a thousand tours coming.  It is about 130 or more.  I don't think we could fit in 1,000 tours. The Museum is only open 12-5 Wed. through Sunday. I meant to say over 100.  But folks are still booking.

It's scary, because we don't get a docent walk through until earlier in the day on the 28th  (opening day)  and tours start the next day.  Probably by the time the exhibit is about to close we will get really good at giving tours.  But for us, this is a blockbuster show, which will require some traffic controll. Anyone want me to keep you posted of interesting events or interesting people at the exhibit?  You never know.

[CLAYCAT78]

How can I edit the title of the subject once I post it?  I want it to correct the spelling of Palace and also change Alexandra to Alexander.  Perhaps someone at the website can edit it.  Like most emailers, my editing is not always perfect.

[rskkiya]

CLAYCAT

Enjoy the exhibit-- it is a great one and I am glad to think just how much attention (and maybe income it will give to your museum!
Its full of lots of delicate stuff/ clothes/letters/toys and personal items and even my dear spouse- a german cyclist- found it splendid... (his only complain --"No Bikes!")LOL

R.

[Forum Admin]

Claycat,
One serious flaw to our BB software is that once you create a topic title it cannot be changed, so please, type carefully!
FA

[Forum Admin]

Actually, Look up, at the title of this thread!
A very astute user discovered that if I or the original poster of a thread modify the very first post subject line, it will correct the whole thread!!
I just found that out yesterday....