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Arkady Apollonovich Sempleyarov

The head of the Acoustics Commission of Moscow Theaters. There was no such organization, presumably this is GOMEC, the State Union of Music-Hall, Concert, and Circus Enterprises (see Chapter 17).

Sempleyarov's name sounds like that of Bulgakov's friend, the composer Alexander Afanasievich Spendiarov (1871-1928), seen here in a 1926 photo.

Sempleyarov's name and patronymic point to the Apollonian/Dionysian theme of this chapter. Apollo was the patron of the arts, associated with the civilizing force of the gods. Arcadia was the pastoral woodland, home of Dionysus, Pan, and the forces of anti-civilization and chaos.

We learn in Chapter 27 that Sempleyarov lives in the House on the Embankment.