Рассказ о федоре ивановиче шаляпине

Федор Шаляпин — биография

Федор Шаляпин – великий русский оперный, камерный певец, обладатель уникального баса. Он был солистом Большого, Мариинского театра, пел в Метрополитен-опера. Творчество легендарного баса получило признание не только в России, но и далеко за ее пределами. Он пел для всех – для образованных людей и для народа. Народные песни в исполнении Шаляпина пользуются особенным успехом, в них звучит широкая русская душа, ее необъятная удаль и размах.

Детство

Федор Шаляпин родился в Казани 13 февраля 1873 года в простой крестьянской семье. Его родители поселились в городе, переехав в Казань из Вятской губернии. Отец мальчика Иван Яковлевич, грамотный человек, имевший хороший почерк, служил писчим в управлении земства. Мать будущего певца, Евдокия Михайловна, вела домашнее хозяйство. Отец имел пагубное пристрастие к горячительным напиткам. В пьяном виде он становился буйным, нередко поднимал руку на супругу и детей.

Родители рано обратили внимание на красивый дискант маленького Феди, мальчик часто и с удовольствием подпевал своей матери-певунье. В девять лет он сам попросил у регента Щербинина разрешения петь в церковном хоре. Этот человек принял участие в судьбе крестьянского мальчишки, прослушал его, после сам обучил нотной грамоте. За пение в церковном хоре мальчик получал жалованье. Отец семейства был практичным человеком, церковное пение он считал легкомысленным занятием, не приносящим пользу. По его мнению, мальчика следовало учить ремеслу, которое могло бы прокормить его во взрослой жизни. Он пристроил Федора в ученики к крестному отцу мальчика, сапожнику.

Кроме того, Федор успевал учиться в школе. Он показал себя способным учеником, окончил несколько классов начального образования с отличными отметками.

Сначала паренек учился в частной школе госпожи Ведерниковой, однако был исключен оттуда за фривольное поведение. Педагоги застали его во время поцелуя с одноклассницей. Учиться в приходском и ремесленном училище Федору нравилось, но из-за тяжелой болезни матери учебу пришлось забросить.

Отец устроил сына на работу, молодой Шаляпин занял должность помощника писаря. Несколько лет юный архивариус посвятил переписыванию бумаг, он называл этот временной отрезок самым скучным и печальным в своей жизни. В указанный период он не мог петь, и очень страдал из-за этого. Голос певца переживал период ломки.

Карьера юного архивариуса шла по накатанной дорожке, ничто не предвещало ни взлетов, ни падений. Но однажды Шаляпин совершенно случайно оказался в Казанском оперном театре. Он внимательно прослушал все представление, был по-настоящему очарован магией искусства. После посещения театра помощник писаря решил кардинально изменить сферу своей деятельности.

К 16 годам голос певца уже оформился, это был необычайно красивый, сильный бас. Федор решил пройти прослушивание в оперном театре. Но его ждала неудача, неопытный певец не справился с испытанием. Но Федор не сдавался. Он обратился в драматический коллектив В. Серебрякова, куда и был принят статистом за смехотворное жалование. Сам Шаляпин говорил, что тогда он работал «за пятак».

Способности молодого певца не остались незамеченными, со временем он стал исполнять вокальные партии. Через год он, заменяя заболевшего солиста, выступал на сцене с партией Зарецкого из оперы «Евгений Онегин». Однако в драматической антрепризе певец не задержался, через несколько месяцев его приняли в хористы музыкальной труппы С. Семенова-Самарского. Вместе с труппой новоявленный хорист отправился в Уфу.

Талантливый самоучка, невзирая на несколько провальных дебютов, со временем обрел сценическую уверенность. Об его способностях становится известно Г.И. Деркачу, руководителю малороссийского странствующего театра. Шаляпина приглашают в труппу этого театра. Он начинает гастролировать по российским городам. Но после театрального сезона молодой певец остается без работы, и без средств к существованию. Одно время ему жилось так тяжело, что Федор даже подумывал о самоубийстве.

Но когда певец оказался в Тифлисе, главном городе Грузии, неравнодушные люди посоветовали ему обратиться к Дмитрию Усатову.

Знаменитый тенор, долгое время служивший в Большом театре, принял участие в судьбе щедро одаренного крестьянского сына. Он не только взял Шаляпина на полное обеспечение, но и долгое время занимался с ним. Певец учился, и одновременно служил в местном оперном театре, исполнял басовые партии. Обучение нелегкому искусству пения у знаменитого тенора продолжалось в течение года. За это время Шаляпин разучил все популярные оперы, познакомился с этикетом. Усатов ввел певца в музыкальный круг, вскоре Шаляпин стал работать по контракту. Набравшись опыта, он решил попытать счастья в южной столице.

Музыка

В 1894 году певец приезжает в Санкт-Петербург. Его принимают на службу в Императорский театр. Это было большой удачей для Шаляпина, но через некоторое время его стала угнетать строгая дисциплина, царившая в театре. Он ищет выход из этого положения, и вскоре находит его. Меценат Савва Мамонтов приглашает певца работать в его театре. У Мамонтова было особое чутье на таланты, он чувствовал, что молодой певец обладает огромным потенциалом. Шаляпина в полной мере устраивали условия, которые создал ему Мамонтов. Ему нужно было только петь, получая за это приличное жалованье, и пользоваться безграничной свободой.

В период своей работы в театре Мамонтова знаменитый бас полностью раскрыл свои вокальные, артистические способности. Он исполнил все знаменитые басовые партии из русских опер – «Бориса Годунова», «Русалки», «Жизнь за царя», «Псковитянки», «Содко», «Моцарта и Сальери», «Хованщины». В опере «Фауст» Шарля Гуно певец выступал в роли Мефистофеля, его басовая партия в этой опере до настоящего времени считается эталонной. Через несколько лет похожий образ Шаляпин воссоздал в арии «Мефистофель» на сцене «Ла Скала», что принесло ему мировое признание.

В начале XX века певец стал солистом Мариинки. С этим театром он гастролирует по всему миру. Он ездит по европейским странам, в Нью-Йорке поет на сцене Метрополитен-оперы, в Москве – в Большом театре. Теперь в его окружении находятся самые яркие представители творческой элиты. Федор Иванович дружит с Александром Куприным, М. Врубелем, К. Коровиным, Сергеем Рахманиновым, со знаменитыми итальянскими исполнителями – Э. Карузо, Т. Руффо. Есть фотографии, где выдающийся русский певец запечатлен в обществе своего близкого приятеля – Максима Горького.

Федор Шаляпин всегда был близок к народу, ведь он и сам был выходцем из его беднейших слоев. В 1905 году в Российской империи было крайне неспокойно, рабочие организовывали стачки, забастовки, боролись за свои права. Шаляпин поддерживал рабочее движение своими песнями. В этот период он исполнял знаменитую «Дубинушку», «Вдоль по Питерской», другие народные песни. Собранные от его концертов средства певец отдавал на нужды рабочих. Концерты в поддержку рабочего движения превращались в яркие политические акции.

Советская власть впоследствии высоко оценила вклад Шаляпина в революционное движение. Дружба с Максимом Горьким тоже стала настоящей охранной грамотой для великого певца, в период «советского террора» оберегала его от полного разорения.

Большевики не забыли заслуги Шаляпина перед революционным движением. После того, как они взяли власть в свои руки, певец был назначен на высокий пост, получил высокое звание – стал руководителем Мариинского театра, первым Народным артистом РСФСР. Но руководящая должность тяготила артиста, в 1922 году, когда он оказался на заграничных гастролях вместе с семьей, он решил больше не возвращаться на родину. Через несколько лет советское правительство лишила певца высокого звания Народного артиста РСФСР.

Интересный факт — выходец из простой крестьянской семьи оказался всесторонне одаренным человеком. Он не только прекрасно пел, но и увлекался живописью, скульптурой, имел актерские способности. В фильме «Иван Грозный» А. Иванова-Гая он создал достоверный образ тирана-самодержца. В киноленте «Дон Кихот», снятой немецким режиссером Георгом Вильгельмом Пабстом, певец перевоплотился в благородного рыцаря, воюющего с ветряными мельницами.

Личная жизнь

Знакомство с меценатом Мамонтовым стало знаковым для певца. Оно не только принесло успех, но и дало возможность встретить свою судьбу. В театре Мамонтова певец обрел любовь, увлекся итальянской балериной Иолой Торнаги. Через некоторое время молодые люди поженились. Балерина родила своему мужу шестерых детей. Но Шаляпин был очень темпераментным человеком. Он служил в Императорском театре, часто и долго жил в северной столице. Здесь он нашел свою вторую любовь, Марию Петцольд. Женщина состояла в браке, уже имела двух детей, когда судьба свела ее с великим певцом. Мария не стала отказываться от счастья, тайно встречалась с Шаляпиным. Затем они стали жить вместе, в этой семье у певца родилось трое детей.

Вторую семью певец в полном составе смог вывезти за границу. Он остановился в Париже, вызвал к себе детей от первого брака. В России осталась только его первая жена и старшая дочь. Иола Игнатьевна и Ирина не были обижены на Федора Ивановича. Они стали настоящими хранительницами памяти певца в России.

В конце жизни Иола Торнаги переехала в Рим, перед этим она обратилась к Екатерине Фурцевой, занимавшей пост министра культуры. Торнаги хотела, чтобы в их доме на Новинском бульваре открылся музей Ф.И. Шаляпина.

Когда певец эмигрировал во Францию, советские газеты поливали его грязью. Но он считал, что поступил правильно. Шаляпин вошел во взрослую жизнь без гроша в кармане, все, что он сумел нажить, было заработано честным путем. Но представители новой власти полагали, что певец должен делиться с нуждающимися. У певца отняли дом, автомобиль, сбережения, которые он хранил в банке. Было время, когда певец пытался защитить себя и семью от произвола властей, но это ни к чему не привело.

Причина смерти

Во время своего последнего турне по азиатским странам певец почувствовал себя неважно. Парижские доктора выяснили, что у Шаляпина онкологическое заболевание крови.

Он скончался весной 1938 года, был погребен на французском кладбище, в 1984 году останки великого певца перезахоронили на Новодевичьем кладбище.

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Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin (Russian: Фёдор Ива́нович Шаля́пин, tr. Fyodor Ivanovich Shalyapin, IPA: [ˈfʲɵdər ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ ʂɐˈlʲapʲɪn]; February 13 [O.S. February 1] 1873 – April 12, 1938) was a Russian opera singer. Possessing a deep and expressive bass voice, he enjoyed an important international career at major opera houses and is often credited with establishing the tradition of naturalistic acting in his chosen art form.^[1]

During the first phase of his career, Chaliapin endured direct competition from three other great basses: the powerful Lev Sibiriakov [ru; uk; pl; ca] (1869–1942), the more lyrical Vladimir Kastorsky [Wikidata] (1871–1948), and Dmitri Buchtoyarov (1866–1918), whose voice was intermediate between those of Sibiriakov and Kastorsky. The fact that Chaliapin is far and away the best remembered of this magnificent quartet of rival basses is a testament to the power of his personality, the acuteness of his musical interpretations, and the vividness of his performances.

Spelling note[edit]

He himself spelled his surname, French-style, Chaliapine in the West,^[2] and his name even appeared on early HMV 78s as Theodore Chaliapine.^[3] In English texts, his given name is most usually rendered as Feodor or Fyodor, and his surname is most usually seen as Chaliapin. However, in the Russian pronunciation the initial consonant Ш is pronounced like sh in shop, not as ch in chop, and in reference books the surname is sometimes given a strict romanization as Shalyapin.
This spelling also better reflects the fact that the name is pronounced with three syllables (Sha-LYA-pin), not four.

Early life[edit]

Feodor Chaliapin was born into a peasant family on February 1 (OS), 1873 in Kazan, in the wing of merchant Lisitzin’s house on Rybnoryadskaya Street (now Pushkin Street) 10. This wing no longer exists, but the house with the yard where the wing was situated is still there. The next day, Candlemas (The Meeting of Our Lord), he was baptized in Epiphany (Bogoyavlenskaya) Church on Bolshaya Prolomnaya street (now Bauman Street). His godparents were his neighbors: the shoemaker Nikolay Tonkov and Ludmila Kharitonova, a 12-year-old girl. The dwelling was expensive for his father, Ivan Yakovlevich, who served as a clerk in the Zemskaya Uprava (Zemstvo District Council), and in 1878 the Chaliapin family moved to the village of Ametyevo (also Ometyevo, or the Ometyev settlements, now a settlement within Kazan) behind the area of Sukonnaya Sloboda, and settled in a small house.

Early career[edit]

His vocal teacher was Dmitri Usatov (1847-1913). Chaliapin began his career at Tbilisi and at the Imperial Opera in Saint Petersburg in 1894. He was then invited to sing at the Mamontov Private Opera (1896–1899); he first appeared there as Mephistopheles in Gounod’s Faust, in which role he achieved considerable success.

At Mamontov Chaliapin met Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), who was serving as an assistant conductor there and with whom he remained friends for life. Rachmaninoff taught him much about musicianship, including how to analyze a music score, and insisted that Chaliapin learn not only his own roles but also all the other roles in the operas in which he was scheduled to appear. With Rachmaninoff he learned the title role of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, which became his signature character.^[4] Chaliapin returned the favor by showing Rachmaninoff how he built each of his interpretations around a culminating moment or «point». Regardless of where that point was or at which dynamic within that piece, the performer had to know how to approach it with absolute calculation and precision; otherwise, the whole construction of the piece could crumble and the piece could become disjointed. Rachmaninoff put this approach to considerable use when he became a full-time concert-pianist after World War I.^[5]

On the strength of his Mamontov appearances, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow engaged Chaliapin, and he appeared there regularly from 1899 until 1914. During the First World War of 1914-1918 Chaliapin also appeared regularly at the Zimin Private Opera in Moscow. In addition, from 1901, Chaliapin began touring in the West, making a sensational debut at La Scala that year as the devil in a production of Boito’s Mefistofele, under the baton of one of the 20th century’s most dynamic opera conductors, Arturo Toscanini. At the end of his career, Toscanini observed that the Russian bass was the greatest operatic talent with whom he had ever worked. The singer’s Metropolitan Opera debut in the 1907 season was disappointing due to the unprecedented frankness of his stage acting; but he returned to the Met in 1921 and sang there with immense success for eight seasons, New York’s audiences having grown more broad-minded since 1907. In 1913 Chaliapin was introduced to London and Paris by the brilliant entrepreneur Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929), at which point he began giving well-received solo recitals in which he sang traditional Russian folk-songs as well as more serious fare. Such folk songs included «Along Peterskaya» (which he recorded with a British-based Russian folk-instrument orchestra) and the song which he made famous throughout the world: «The Song of the Volga Boatmen». In 1925, when he performed in New York, his piano accompanist was a young Harry Lubin (1906-1977), later to become a composer of music for the television series The Outer Limits.^[6]

Later life[edit]

Chaliapin toured Australia in 1926, giving a series of recitals which were highly acclaimed.
Privately, Chaliapin’s personal affairs were in a state of disarray as a consequence of the Russian Revolution of 1917. At first he was treated as a revered artist of the newly emerged Soviet Russia. However, the harsh realities of everyday life under the new regime, and the unstable climate which followed because of the ensuing Civil War, combined with, reportedly, the encroachment on some of his property by the Communist authorities,^[7] caused him to remain perpetually outside Russia after 1921. He still maintained, however, that he was not anti-Soviet. Chaliapin initially moved to Finland and later lived in France. Cosmopolitan Paris, with its significant Russian émigré population, became his base, and ultimately, the city of his death. He was renowned for his larger-than-life carousing during this period, but he never sacrificed his dedication to his art.

Chaliapin’s attachment to Paris did not prevent him from pursuing an international operatic and concert career in England, the United States, and further afield. In May 1931 he appeared in the Russian Season directed by Sir Thomas Beecham at London’s Lyceum Theatre. His most famous part was the title role of Boris Godunov (excerpts of which he recorded 1929–31 and earlier). He is remembered also for his interpretations of Ivan the Terrible in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Maid of Pskov and Salieri in Mozart and Salieri, Mephistopheles in Gounod’s Faust, Don Quixote in Massenet’s Don Quichotte, and King Philip in Verdi’s Don Carlos.

Largely owing to his advocacy, Russian operas such as Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina, Glinka’s Ivan Susanin, Borodin’s Prince Igor and Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride and Sadko, became well known in the West.

Chaliapin made one sound film for the director G. W. Pabst, the 1933 Don Quixote. The film was made in three different versions – French, English, and German, as was sometimes the prevailing custom. Chaliapin starred in all three versions, each of which used the same script, sets, and costumes, but different supporting casts. The English and the French versions are the most often seen, and both were released in May 2006 on a DVD. Pabst’s film was not a version of the Massenet opera but a dramatic adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes’ novel, with music and songs by Jacques Ibert.

In 1932, Chaliapin published a memoir, Man and Mask: Forty Years in the Life of a Singer. While touring Japan in 1936 he was suffering from a toothache, and a hotel chef devised a way to cook a steak to be extra tender for him. This dish is known in Japan as a Chaliapin steak [ja] to this day.^[8]

Chaliapin’s last stage performance took place at the Monte Carlo Opera in 1937, as Boris. He died the following year of leukemia, aged 65, in Paris, where he was interred. In 1984, his remains were transferred from Paris to Moscow in an elaborate ceremony. They were re-buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery.^[9]

Personal life[edit]

Chaliapin was married twice. He met his first wife, Italian ballerina Iola Tornaghi (1873–1965), in Nizhny Novgorod. They married in Russia in 1898 and had six children: Igor, Boris (1904–1979), Irina, Lidia and twins Feodor Jr. (1905–1992) and Taniya. Igor died aged four. Feodor Jr. was a character actor featured in Western motion pictures including Moonstruck and The Name of the Rose opposite Sean Connery.^[10] Boris was a well-known graphical artist, who painted the portraits used on 414 covers of the Time magazine between 1942 and 1970.^[11]

While married to Tornaghi, Chaliapin lived with Marina Petsold (1882–1964), a widow who already had two children from her first marriage. She had three daughters with Chaliapin: Marfa (1910–2003), Marina [ru] (1912–2009),^[12] and Dasya (1921–1977). Chaliapin’s two families lived separately, one in Moscow and the other in Saint Petersburg, and did not interact. Chaliapin married Petsold in 1927 in Paris.^[13][14]

Chaliapin had his portrait painted a number of times by the Russian artist Konstantin Korovin. They had been introduced to each other in 1896 and became close friends.^[15]

Gallery[edit]

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  The belltower of the Epiphany (Bogoyavlenskaya) Church in Kazan. The Chaliapin Chamber Hall is located on the second floor of the belltower.^[16]

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Honours and awards[edit]

• 1902 – Order of the Golden Star of Bukhara, 3rd class
• 1907 – Golden Cross of the Prussian eagle^{[clarification needed]}
• 1908 – Commander of the officer’s rank^{[clarification needed]}
• 1910 – Soloist of His Majesty (Russia)
• 1912 – Soloist of His Majesty the King of Italy
• 1914 – British award for special achievements in the arts^{[clarification needed]}
• 1914 – Order of St. Stanislaus, 3rd class (Russia)
• 1916 – The title of the officer^{[clarification needed]}
• 1918 – People’s Artist of the Republic (The Soviet government withdrew the title in 1927)^[17]
• 1934 – Commander of the Legion of Honour (France)

Autobiographical works[edit]

Chaliapin’s autobiographical collaboration with Maxim Gorky occurred in 1917. He had already begun writing his autobiography long before, in the Crimea. In 1917, while he was in the south of France, he was urged to write such a work by a French journalist who hoped to ghost-write it. Gorky, who was his intimate friend and was then living in Capri, persuaded Chaliapin to stay with him there and with the help of a secretary a great deal of information was taken down which Gorky fashioned into a long manuscript, published in Russia in 1917 as a series of articles in the journal Letopis. Meanwhile, Chaliapin attempted to sell it to an American publisher, who refused it on learning that it had been published in Russian. There was a rift with Gorky, and Chaliapin worked with another editor to produce a ‘new’ version of his original text. The new book, published in America as Pages of My Life (Harper and Brothers, New York 1927), took the story only up to 1905, and lacked the depth, style and life of Gorky’s version. Then, in 1932, Chaliapin published Man and Mask (Alfred A. Knopf, New York) to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of his first stage appearance. The original manuscript of the Gorky version was first translated and published in English in 1967, by Nina Froud and James Hanley, as Chaliapin: An autobiography as told to Maxim Gorky (Stein and Day, New York), and included an appendix of original correspondence including a section relating to Gorky.^[18]

Recordings[edit]

Chaliapin possessed a high-lying bass voice with an unmistakable timbre which recorded clearly. He cut a prolific number of discs for His Master’s Voice, beginning in Russia with acoustical recordings made at the dawn of the 20th Century, and continuing through the early electrical (microphone) era. Some of his performances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London were recorded live in the 1920s, including a haunting version of the «Death of Boris» from Boris Godunov. His last disc, made in Tokyo in 1936, was of the famous The Song of the Volga Boatmen. Many of his recordings were issued in the United States by RCA Victor. His legacy of recordings is available on CDs issued by EMI, Preiser, Naxos and other commercial labels. In 2018 his complete recordings were issued on 13 CDs by Marston Records. They consist of songs as well as a range of arias from Italian, French and, Russian opera.

Opinions on his art[edit]

• Opera commentator/historian Michael Scott avers that: «Chaliapin ranks with Caruso and Maria Callas as one of the three greatest singers and most potent and influential artists of the twentieth century.»^[19]
• «At the Met he sang the role of Basilio in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville as a vulgar, unctuous, greasy priest, constantly picking his nose and wiping his fingers onto his cassock. Audiences were appalled. Defending himself, Chaliapin said in an interview that Basilio ‘is a Spanish priest. It is a type I know well. He is not the modern American priest, clean and well-groomed; he is dirty and unkempt, he is a beast, and this is what I make him, a comic beast.’ » (Harold C. Schonberg)^[20]
• Some accused Chaliapin of brawling backstage. Rachmaninoff agreed. «Feodor is a brawler. They are all scared of his very spirit. He shouts suddenly or even hits someone! And Feodor’s fist is powerful … He can take care of himself. And how else should one behave? Backstage at our own theater it’s just like a saloon. They shout, they drink, they swear in the foulest language.»^[4] In a letter from November 1910 to the editor of Utro Rossii, the publication which supposedly quoted the above remarks and which attributes them to Rachmaninoff, the composer categorically denies the quotation and wrote «The article publishes without my knowledge words of mine about the Bolshoi Theater and Chaliapin…I said that we often have regrettable confusion backstage at the Bolshoi Theater…I also said that I had heard rumors that since Chaliapin had been appointed régisseur of those operas in which he sings, there is more quiet backstage. That is all I said… S. Rachmaninoff».^[21]
• Met diva Geraldine Farrar said Chaliapin had a voice like «melodious thunder» but warned of his unannounced antics to hog the limelight onstage. «Chaliapin was a wonderful opera partner, but one had to be watchful for sudden departures from the rehearsal plan, and the touches of originality favorable only for the aggrandizement of Chaliapin.»^[22]
• Dale Carnegie, referencing a story by impresario Sol Hurok, says that Chaliapin was often temperamental, even acting like a “spoiled child.” On hearing the concert basso’s complaint that his throat was raw and that he would not be able to sing at a scheduled performance at the Metropolitan Opera, Hurok agreed immediately to cancel the engagement, commenting: “It will only cost you a couple of thousand dollars, but that is nothing in comparison to your reputation.” Chaliapin left open the possibility that he might nevertheless perform if he felt better later, and Hurok dutifully checked on him twice before the concert time. Finally he agreed to perform, provided that Hurok would announce to the audience that Chaliapin “had a very bad cold and was not in good voice.” Carnegie comments approvingly: “Mr. Hurok would lie and say he would do it, for he knew that was the only way to get the basso out on the stage.”^[23]

References[edit]

Notes

Bibliography

• Schonberg, Harold (1988). The Virtuosi: Classical Music’s Great Performers From Paganini to Pavarotti. Vintage. ISBN 0-394-75532-4.
• Darsky, Joseph (2012). Tsar Feodor: Chaliapin in America. New York: Nova Science publishers. ISBN 978-1-62100-413-4.
• Borovsky, Victor (1988). Chaliapin. A Critical Biography. London: Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 978-0-24112-254-9.

External links[edit]

• Tatar Museums (in English)
• Chalyapin and Kazan (in Russian)
• Kazan: Kultura (in Russian)
• Theodore Chaliapine includes two recordings
• Theodore Chaliapine ten recordings
• Chaliapine – six photographs in character
• Another biography of Fyodor Shalyapin
• Memorial house of F. I. Shalyapin, Moscow Archived 2020-07-31 at the Wayback Machine, many pictures, five recordings
• History of the Tenor – Sound Clip and Narration Archived 2015-05-04 at the Wayback Machine
• Schubert’s Doppelgänger performed in Russian on YouTube – (Doppelgänger Шуберта в исполнении на русском языке)
• «Feodor Chaliapin». Theatre and Performance. Victoria and Albert Museum. Archived from the original on 2011-04-21. Retrieved 2011-02-15.
• Chaliapine discography on Russian-Records.com

Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin (Russian: Фёдор Ива́нович Шаля́пин, tr. Fyodor Ivanovich Shalyapin, IPA: [ˈfʲɵdər ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ ʂɐˈlʲapʲɪn]; February 13 [O.S. February 1] 1873 – April 12, 1938) was a Russian opera singer. Possessing a deep and expressive bass voice, he enjoyed an important international career at major opera houses and is often credited with establishing the tradition of naturalistic acting in his chosen art form.^[1]

During the first phase of his career, Chaliapin endured direct competition from three other great basses: the powerful Lev Sibiriakov [ru; uk; pl; ca] (1869–1942), the more lyrical Vladimir Kastorsky [Wikidata] (1871–1948), and Dmitri Buchtoyarov (1866–1918), whose voice was intermediate between those of Sibiriakov and Kastorsky. The fact that Chaliapin is far and away the best remembered of this magnificent quartet of rival basses is a testament to the power of his personality, the acuteness of his musical interpretations, and the vividness of his performances.

Spelling note[edit]

He himself spelled his surname, French-style, Chaliapine in the West,^[2] and his name even appeared on early HMV 78s as Theodore Chaliapine.^[3] In English texts, his given name is most usually rendered as Feodor or Fyodor, and his surname is most usually seen as Chaliapin. However, in the Russian pronunciation the initial consonant Ш is pronounced like sh in shop, not as ch in chop, and in reference books the surname is sometimes given a strict romanization as Shalyapin.
This spelling also better reflects the fact that the name is pronounced with three syllables (Sha-LYA-pin), not four.

Early life[edit]

Feodor Chaliapin was born into a peasant family on February 1 (OS), 1873 in Kazan, in the wing of merchant Lisitzin’s house on Rybnoryadskaya Street (now Pushkin Street) 10. This wing no longer exists, but the house with the yard where the wing was situated is still there. The next day, Candlemas (The Meeting of Our Lord), he was baptized in Epiphany (Bogoyavlenskaya) Church on Bolshaya Prolomnaya street (now Bauman Street). His godparents were his neighbors: the shoemaker Nikolay Tonkov and Ludmila Kharitonova, a 12-year-old girl. The dwelling was expensive for his father, Ivan Yakovlevich, who served as a clerk in the Zemskaya Uprava (Zemstvo District Council), and in 1878 the Chaliapin family moved to the village of Ametyevo (also Ometyevo, or the Ometyev settlements, now a settlement within Kazan) behind the area of Sukonnaya Sloboda, and settled in a small house.

Early career[edit]

His vocal teacher was Dmitri Usatov (1847-1913). Chaliapin began his career at Tbilisi and at the Imperial Opera in Saint Petersburg in 1894. He was then invited to sing at the Mamontov Private Opera (1896–1899); he first appeared there as Mephistopheles in Gounod’s Faust, in which role he achieved considerable success.

At Mamontov Chaliapin met Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), who was serving as an assistant conductor there and with whom he remained friends for life. Rachmaninoff taught him much about musicianship, including how to analyze a music score, and insisted that Chaliapin learn not only his own roles but also all the other roles in the operas in which he was scheduled to appear. With Rachmaninoff he learned the title role of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, which became his signature character.^[4] Chaliapin returned the favor by showing Rachmaninoff how he built each of his interpretations around a culminating moment or «point». Regardless of where that point was or at which dynamic within that piece, the performer had to know how to approach it with absolute calculation and precision; otherwise, the whole construction of the piece could crumble and the piece could become disjointed. Rachmaninoff put this approach to considerable use when he became a full-time concert-pianist after World War I.^[5]

On the strength of his Mamontov appearances, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow engaged Chaliapin, and he appeared there regularly from 1899 until 1914. During the First World War of 1914-1918 Chaliapin also appeared regularly at the Zimin Private Opera in Moscow. In addition, from 1901, Chaliapin began touring in the West, making a sensational debut at La Scala that year as the devil in a production of Boito’s Mefistofele, under the baton of one of the 20th century’s most dynamic opera conductors, Arturo Toscanini. At the end of his career, Toscanini observed that the Russian bass was the greatest operatic talent with whom he had ever worked. The singer’s Metropolitan Opera debut in the 1907 season was disappointing due to the unprecedented frankness of his stage acting; but he returned to the Met in 1921 and sang there with immense success for eight seasons, New York’s audiences having grown more broad-minded since 1907. In 1913 Chaliapin was introduced to London and Paris by the brilliant entrepreneur Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929), at which point he began giving well-received solo recitals in which he sang traditional Russian folk-songs as well as more serious fare. Such folk songs included «Along Peterskaya» (which he recorded with a British-based Russian folk-instrument orchestra) and the song which he made famous throughout the world: «The Song of the Volga Boatmen». In 1925, when he performed in New York, his piano accompanist was a young Harry Lubin (1906-1977), later to become a composer of music for the television series The Outer Limits.^[6]

Later life[edit]

Chaliapin toured Australia in 1926, giving a series of recitals which were highly acclaimed.
Privately, Chaliapin’s personal affairs were in a state of disarray as a consequence of the Russian Revolution of 1917. At first he was treated as a revered artist of the newly emerged Soviet Russia. However, the harsh realities of everyday life under the new regime, and the unstable climate which followed because of the ensuing Civil War, combined with, reportedly, the encroachment on some of his property by the Communist authorities,^[7] caused him to remain perpetually outside Russia after 1921. He still maintained, however, that he was not anti-Soviet. Chaliapin initially moved to Finland and later lived in France. Cosmopolitan Paris, with its significant Russian émigré population, became his base, and ultimately, the city of his death. He was renowned for his larger-than-life carousing during this period, but he never sacrificed his dedication to his art.

Chaliapin’s attachment to Paris did not prevent him from pursuing an international operatic and concert career in England, the United States, and further afield. In May 1931 he appeared in the Russian Season directed by Sir Thomas Beecham at London’s Lyceum Theatre. His most famous part was the title role of Boris Godunov (excerpts of which he recorded 1929–31 and earlier). He is remembered also for his interpretations of Ivan the Terrible in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Maid of Pskov and Salieri in Mozart and Salieri, Mephistopheles in Gounod’s Faust, Don Quixote in Massenet’s Don Quichotte, and King Philip in Verdi’s Don Carlos.

Largely owing to his advocacy, Russian operas such as Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina, Glinka’s Ivan Susanin, Borodin’s Prince Igor and Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride and Sadko, became well known in the West.

Chaliapin made one sound film for the director G. W. Pabst, the 1933 Don Quixote. The film was made in three different versions – French, English, and German, as was sometimes the prevailing custom. Chaliapin starred in all three versions, each of which used the same script, sets, and costumes, but different supporting casts. The English and the French versions are the most often seen, and both were released in May 2006 on a DVD. Pabst’s film was not a version of the Massenet opera but a dramatic adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes’ novel, with music and songs by Jacques Ibert.

In 1932, Chaliapin published a memoir, Man and Mask: Forty Years in the Life of a Singer. While touring Japan in 1936 he was suffering from a toothache, and a hotel chef devised a way to cook a steak to be extra tender for him. This dish is known in Japan as a Chaliapin steak [ja] to this day.^[8]

Chaliapin’s last stage performance took place at the Monte Carlo Opera in 1937, as Boris. He died the following year of leukemia, aged 65, in Paris, where he was interred. In 1984, his remains were transferred from Paris to Moscow in an elaborate ceremony. They were re-buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery.^[9]

Personal life[edit]

Chaliapin was married twice. He met his first wife, Italian ballerina Iola Tornaghi (1873–1965), in Nizhny Novgorod. They married in Russia in 1898 and had six children: Igor, Boris (1904–1979), Irina, Lidia and twins Feodor Jr. (1905–1992) and Taniya. Igor died aged four. Feodor Jr. was a character actor featured in Western motion pictures including Moonstruck and The Name of the Rose opposite Sean Connery.^[10] Boris was a well-known graphical artist, who painted the portraits used on 414 covers of the Time magazine between 1942 and 1970.^[11]

While married to Tornaghi, Chaliapin lived with Marina Petsold (1882–1964), a widow who already had two children from her first marriage. She had three daughters with Chaliapin: Marfa (1910–2003), Marina [ru] (1912–2009),^[12] and Dasya (1921–1977). Chaliapin’s two families lived separately, one in Moscow and the other in Saint Petersburg, and did not interact. Chaliapin married Petsold in 1927 in Paris.^[13][14]

Chaliapin had his portrait painted a number of times by the Russian artist Konstantin Korovin. They had been introduced to each other in 1896 and became close friends.^[15]

Gallery[edit]

• 

• 

  The belltower of the Epiphany (Bogoyavlenskaya) Church in Kazan. The Chaliapin Chamber Hall is located on the second floor of the belltower.^[16]

• 

Honours and awards[edit]

• 1902 – Order of the Golden Star of Bukhara, 3rd class
• 1907 – Golden Cross of the Prussian eagle^{[clarification needed]}
• 1908 – Commander of the officer’s rank^{[clarification needed]}
• 1910 – Soloist of His Majesty (Russia)
• 1912 – Soloist of His Majesty the King of Italy
• 1914 – British award for special achievements in the arts^{[clarification needed]}
• 1914 – Order of St. Stanislaus, 3rd class (Russia)
• 1916 – The title of the officer^{[clarification needed]}
• 1918 – People’s Artist of the Republic (The Soviet government withdrew the title in 1927)^[17]
• 1934 – Commander of the Legion of Honour (France)

Autobiographical works[edit]

Chaliapin’s autobiographical collaboration with Maxim Gorky occurred in 1917. He had already begun writing his autobiography long before, in the Crimea. In 1917, while he was in the south of France, he was urged to write such a work by a French journalist who hoped to ghost-write it. Gorky, who was his intimate friend and was then living in Capri, persuaded Chaliapin to stay with him there and with the help of a secretary a great deal of information was taken down which Gorky fashioned into a long manuscript, published in Russia in 1917 as a series of articles in the journal Letopis. Meanwhile, Chaliapin attempted to sell it to an American publisher, who refused it on learning that it had been published in Russian. There was a rift with Gorky, and Chaliapin worked with another editor to produce a ‘new’ version of his original text. The new book, published in America as Pages of My Life (Harper and Brothers, New York 1927), took the story only up to 1905, and lacked the depth, style and life of Gorky’s version. Then, in 1932, Chaliapin published Man and Mask (Alfred A. Knopf, New York) to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of his first stage appearance. The original manuscript of the Gorky version was first translated and published in English in 1967, by Nina Froud and James Hanley, as Chaliapin: An autobiography as told to Maxim Gorky (Stein and Day, New York), and included an appendix of original correspondence including a section relating to Gorky.^[18]

Recordings[edit]

Chaliapin possessed a high-lying bass voice with an unmistakable timbre which recorded clearly. He cut a prolific number of discs for His Master’s Voice, beginning in Russia with acoustical recordings made at the dawn of the 20th Century, and continuing through the early electrical (microphone) era. Some of his performances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London were recorded live in the 1920s, including a haunting version of the «Death of Boris» from Boris Godunov. His last disc, made in Tokyo in 1936, was of the famous The Song of the Volga Boatmen. Many of his recordings were issued in the United States by RCA Victor. His legacy of recordings is available on CDs issued by EMI, Preiser, Naxos and other commercial labels. In 2018 his complete recordings were issued on 13 CDs by Marston Records. They consist of songs as well as a range of arias from Italian, French and, Russian opera.

Opinions on his art[edit]

• Opera commentator/historian Michael Scott avers that: «Chaliapin ranks with Caruso and Maria Callas as one of the three greatest singers and most potent and influential artists of the twentieth century.»^[19]
• «At the Met he sang the role of Basilio in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville as a vulgar, unctuous, greasy priest, constantly picking his nose and wiping his fingers onto his cassock. Audiences were appalled. Defending himself, Chaliapin said in an interview that Basilio ‘is a Spanish priest. It is a type I know well. He is not the modern American priest, clean and well-groomed; he is dirty and unkempt, he is a beast, and this is what I make him, a comic beast.’ » (Harold C. Schonberg)^[20]
• Some accused Chaliapin of brawling backstage. Rachmaninoff agreed. «Feodor is a brawler. They are all scared of his very spirit. He shouts suddenly or even hits someone! And Feodor’s fist is powerful … He can take care of himself. And how else should one behave? Backstage at our own theater it’s just like a saloon. They shout, they drink, they swear in the foulest language.»^[4] In a letter from November 1910 to the editor of Utro Rossii, the publication which supposedly quoted the above remarks and which attributes them to Rachmaninoff, the composer categorically denies the quotation and wrote «The article publishes without my knowledge words of mine about the Bolshoi Theater and Chaliapin…I said that we often have regrettable confusion backstage at the Bolshoi Theater…I also said that I had heard rumors that since Chaliapin had been appointed régisseur of those operas in which he sings, there is more quiet backstage. That is all I said… S. Rachmaninoff».^[21]
• Met diva Geraldine Farrar said Chaliapin had a voice like «melodious thunder» but warned of his unannounced antics to hog the limelight onstage. «Chaliapin was a wonderful opera partner, but one had to be watchful for sudden departures from the rehearsal plan, and the touches of originality favorable only for the aggrandizement of Chaliapin.»^[22]
• Dale Carnegie, referencing a story by impresario Sol Hurok, says that Chaliapin was often temperamental, even acting like a “spoiled child.” On hearing the concert basso’s complaint that his throat was raw and that he would not be able to sing at a scheduled performance at the Metropolitan Opera, Hurok agreed immediately to cancel the engagement, commenting: “It will only cost you a couple of thousand dollars, but that is nothing in comparison to your reputation.” Chaliapin left open the possibility that he might nevertheless perform if he felt better later, and Hurok dutifully checked on him twice before the concert time. Finally he agreed to perform, provided that Hurok would announce to the audience that Chaliapin “had a very bad cold and was not in good voice.” Carnegie comments approvingly: “Mr. Hurok would lie and say he would do it, for he knew that was the only way to get the basso out on the stage.”^[23]

References[edit]

Notes

Bibliography

• Schonberg, Harold (1988). The Virtuosi: Classical Music’s Great Performers From Paganini to Pavarotti. Vintage. ISBN 0-394-75532-4.
• Darsky, Joseph (2012). Tsar Feodor: Chaliapin in America. New York: Nova Science publishers. ISBN 978-1-62100-413-4.
• Borovsky, Victor (1988). Chaliapin. A Critical Biography. London: Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 978-0-24112-254-9.

External links[edit]

• Tatar Museums (in English)
• Chalyapin and Kazan (in Russian)
• Kazan: Kultura (in Russian)
• Theodore Chaliapine includes two recordings
• Theodore Chaliapine ten recordings
• Chaliapine – six photographs in character
• Another biography of Fyodor Shalyapin
• Memorial house of F. I. Shalyapin, Moscow Archived 2020-07-31 at the Wayback Machine, many pictures, five recordings
• History of the Tenor – Sound Clip and Narration Archived 2015-05-04 at the Wayback Machine
• Schubert’s Doppelgänger performed in Russian on YouTube – (Doppelgänger Шуберта в исполнении на русском языке)
• «Feodor Chaliapin». Theatre and Performance. Victoria and Albert Museum. Archived from the original on 2011-04-21. Retrieved 2011-02-15.
• Chaliapine discography on Russian-Records.com

29 марта 1890 года Федор Шаляпин дебютировал с партией Зарецкого в опере П.И. Чайковского «Евгений Онегин», поставленной Казанским обществом любителей сценического искусства. Вскоре он переезжает из Казани в Уфу, где выступает в хоре труппы С.Я. Семенова-Самарского.

Далее он примыкает к труппе Г. И. Дергача, с которой он уезжает в Тифлис и начинает там заниматься с певцом Д.А. Усатовым.

В 1893 году Федор Шаляпин переехал в Москву, а в 1894 году – в Санкт-Петербург, где начал петь в загородном саду «Аркадия», в театре В.А. Панаева и в труппе В.И. Зазулина.

В 1895 году дирекция Санкт-петербургских оперных театров приняла его в состав труппы Мариинского театра, где он пел партии Мефистофеля в «Фаусте» Ш. Гуно и Руслана в «Руслане и Людмиле» М.И. Глинки.

В 1896 году С.И.Мамонтов предложил Федору Шаляпину петь в его Московской частной опере и переехать в Москву.

В 1899 году Федор Шаляпин стал ведущим солистом Большого театра в Москве и, гастролируя, с огромным успехом выступал в Мариинском театре.

В 1901 году Федор Шаляпин дал 10 триумфальных представлений в «Ла Скала» в Милане в Италии и проехал с концертным турне по Европе.

С 1914 года он начал выступать в частных оперных антрепризах С.И. Зимина в Москве и А.Р. Аксарина в Петрограде.

В 1915 году Федор Шаляпин исполнил роль Ивана Грозного в кинодраме «Царь Иван Васильевич Грозный» по драме Л. Мея «Псковитянка».

В 1917 году Федор Шаляпин выступил как режиссер, поставив в Большом театре оперу Д. Верди «Дон Карлос».

После 1917 года он был назначен художественным руководителем Мариинского театра.

В 1918 году Федору Шаляпину было присвоено звание народного артиста Республики, но в 1922 году он выехал на гастроли в Европу и там остался, продолжив успешно выступать в Америке и Европе.

В 1927 году Федор Шаляпин пожертвовал деньги священнику в Париже для детей русских эмигрантов, что было представлено как помощь «белогвардейцам на борьбу с Советской властью» 31 мая 1927 года в журнале «Всерабис» С. Симоном. И 24 августа 1927 года СНК РСФСР постановлением лишил его звания Народного артиста и запретил возвращаться в СССР. Это постановление было отменено Советом Министров РСФСР 10 июня 1991 «как необоснованное».

В 1932 году он снялся в главной роли в фильме «Приключения Дон Кихота» Г. Пабста по роману Сервантеса.

В 1932 -1936 Федор Шаляпин поехал в гастроли на Дальний Восток. В Китае, Японии, Маньчжурии он дал 57 концертов.