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In 1804, on May 20, in the Smolensk province, a boy was born in the family of the landowner Ivan Nikolaevich Glinka, who was destined to become the founder of the Russian classical music. From birth the child was weak and sickly. He spent his entire childhood surrounded by women. Such an influence was naturally reflected in the character of Glinka, already very soft. Subsequently, the gentleness of his character often turned into weakness and helplessness in everyday affairs.

One of the brightest first musical impressions of the boy was church singing and bell ringing. On holidays, Misha was taken to church. Returning home, he collected copper basins, and rang them for a long time, imitating church bells. At the age of seven, when the boy was in the city, he could unmistakably distinguish the ringing of each church. Music made an amazing impression on little Glinka. Once, at a drawing lesson, the teacher, noticing Misha's absent-mindedness, asked him - "You are probably all thinking about yesterday's music." - "What to do, - answered the dreamy boy, - music is my soul." A serf violinist taught Misha to play the violin, and a governess taught him to play the piano. However, music lessons at home were far from perfect.

In 1817 the Glinka family moved to Petersburg. There, Mikhail was assigned to the Noble Boarding School at the Pedagogical Institute. IN student years Glinka often visited the theater, being fond of ballet and opera. During the summer holidays, he practiced conducting with his uncle's fortress orchestra.

After graduating from the boarding school, Glinka received the position of assistant secretary in the office of the Council of Railways. The service did not burden the composer, and he continued to engage in the main business of his life - music. Soon, due to a conflict with his superiors, Glinka was forced to resign, but this event did not upset the composer in any way. By that time, his works had already been published, he was widely known in St. Petersburg as a composer and rotated in the highest St. Petersburg society (counts M. Yu. Vielgorsky, Tolstoy, Shterich, princes Golitsyn). So the young years of the composer passed cloudlessly. It seemed that the brightest future lay ahead of him. The only thing that overshadowed his life during these years was illness. What Glinka was really ill with, we do not have reliable information, just as the doctors who treated the composer did not have them. After vain attempts by doctors to improve Glinka's health, he is sent abroad.

In 1830 the composer left for Italy. Living in Milan, Glinka admires Italian music. During this period he wrote a large number of aria in the Italian style. But soon first impressions began to lose their charm. Glinka concluded that for all the attractiveness of Italian music, it lacks depth. In the end, the composer was overcome by a feeling of longing for Russia and for Russian art. So far from the Motherland, Glinka had the idea of ​​creating Russian national music.

In 1834, Mikhail Ivanovich returned to St. Petersburg, and enthusiastically set about composing an opera about the patriotic deed of the Russian people in the image of Ivan Susanin. The plot was suggested to the composer by the poet Zhukovsky. The opera "Life for the Tsar" was enthusiastically received by the public, and strengthened the fame of the composer.

In 1837, Glinka was appointed bandmaster in the court Singing Chapel (Today, the St. Petersburg Chapel bears the name of this great composer.) Glinka is in the prime of his work. But his life is overshadowed by an unsuccessful marriage.

The discord with his wife acted depressingly on the composer's vulnerable soul, and eventually led to a public divorce, which had a very bad effect on Glinka's reputation. The composer saves himself from all life experiences by working on the opera Ruslan and Lyudmila.

It took five years to work on this piece. However, everyone to whom he showed the opera did not like the opera. Glinka was disappointed, he said bitterly: “From Ruslan, I could make ten such operas as A Life for the Tsar.” The performance of the opera turned out to be very weak. IN next season Opera was completely removed from the theater repertoire. Under such sad circumstances, the composer left Russia.

This time Glinka leaves for France and Spain. In Paris, Mikhail Ivanovich meets the famous French composer Hector Berlioz.

In 1857 Glinka caught a cold. The disease developed very quickly, and on February 3 the composer died in Berlin. His ashes were transported to St. Petersburg and buried in the cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka(1804 - 1857) - the great Russian composer.

Mikhail began to play the piano at the age of ten. Since 1817, he began to study at the Noble boarding school at pedagogical institute St. Petersburg. After graduating from the boarding school, he devoted all his time to music and created his first compositions. As a real creator, Glinka does not fully like his works, he seeks to expand household genre music.

In 1822-1823 Glinka wrote extensively famous romances and songs: “Do not tempt me without need” to the words of E. A. Baratynsky, “Do not sing, beauty, with me” to the words of A. S. Pushkin and others. During these years, he met famous Vasily Zhukovsky, Alexander Griboyedov and others.

After traveling to the Caucasus, he goes to Italy, Germany. Influenced Italian composers Bellini, Doniceti Glinka changes his musical style. Then he worked on polyphony, composition, instrumentation.

Returning to Russia, Glinka diligently worked on the national opera Ivan Susanin. Its premiere in 1836 in Bolshoi Theater Petersburg turned out to be a huge success. The premiere of the next opera Ruslan and Lyudmila in 1842 was no longer so loud. Strong criticism pushed the composer to leave, he left Russia, went to France, Spain, and only in 1847 returned to his homeland.

He wrote many works during his trips abroad. From 1851 in St. Petersburg he taught singing and prepared operas. Under his influence, Russian classical music was formed.

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka is one of the greatest Russian composers, the creator of an independent Russian music school. He was born on May 20 (old style) 1804 in the village of Novospasskoye, Smolensk province, and was brought up in the countryside by his parents, landowners. Already in childhood, he was strongly attracted by church singing and Russian folk songs performed by his uncle's serf orchestra. By the age of 4 he was already reading, and at the age of 10 he was taught to play the piano and violin.

In 1817, the Glinka family moved to St. Petersburg, and the boy was sent to a boarding school at the Pedagogical Institute, the course of which he completed after 5 years. Meanwhile, Glinka successfully studied piano playing with Weiner, K. Mayer, the famous Field, and singing with Belloli. At the age of 18, he began to compose: these were first variations on fashionable themes, and then, after classes in composition with K. Mayer and Zamboni, romances.

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka. Photo from the 1850s

In 1830, Glinka, who had been in poor health all his life, went to Italy on the advice of doctors, where he stayed for three years, studying the art of writing for singing and writing a lot in the Italian spirit. Here, under the influence of homesickness, in Glinka, in his own confession, there was a spiritual upheaval that pushed him away from Italian music and directed him to a new, independent path. In 1833, Glinka went to Berlin and there, together with the famous theorist Den, took a course in music theory in 5 months, which greatly enriched and systematized his musical knowledge.

A year later, Glinka returned to Russia. In St. Petersburg, he met M.P. Ivanova, whom he married in 1835. At this time, Glinka often visited famous mug Zhukovsky, where he was very sympathetically greeted with his idea of ​​\u200b\u200bRussian opera and offered for it a plot from the legend of Ivan Susanin. Glinka diligently set to work; parallel to the work of the composer, Baron Rosen wrote the libretto. First of all, the overture was sketched, and by the spring of 1836 the whole opera, A Life for the Tsar, was already ready. After all sorts of difficulties, it was finally accepted onto the state stage, learned under the direction of Kavos, and on November 27, 1836, it was performed with tremendous success.

Geniuses and villains. Mikhail Glinka

After that, Glinka was appointed bandmaster of the court choir, but in 1839 he left the service due to illness. By this time, he had become especially close to the "brotherhood" - a circle, which, in addition to him, included the brothers Kukolnikov, Bryullov, Bakhturin, and others. new opera Glinka "Ruslan and Lyudmila", based on the poem by Pushkin. Illness and family troubles (Glinka separated, and a few years later divorced his wife) slowed things down a bit, but finally on November 27, 1842, the new opera was staged in St. Petersburg. The underdevelopment of the majority of the public, who had not yet grown up to understand the musical height and originality to which Glinka rose in Ruslan and Lyudmila, was main reason the comparative failure of this opera. A year later, she was removed from the repertoire. Disappointed and ill, the composer left for Paris in 1844 (where Berlioz successfully performed some of his compositions in two concerts), and from there to Spain, where he lived for three years, collecting Spanish songs.

Returning to Russia, Glinka lived in Smolensk, Warsaw, St. Petersburg; at this time he wrote two Spanish overtures and "Kamarinskaya" for orchestra. Almost all the time, however, a dejected state of mind and malaise did not leave him. Deciding to devote himself to the Russian church music, Glinka in 1856 again went to Berlin, where, under the guidance of Den, he studied ancient church frets for about 10 months. There he caught a cold, leaving one court concert, fell ill and died on the night of February 3, 1857. His ashes were subsequently transported to St. Petersburg, and in 1885, with funds raised by a nationwide subscription, a monument was erected to him in Smolensk, with the inscription "Glinka - Russia."

In addition to the above, Glinka also wrote an overture and music for the drama puppeteer"Prince Kholmsky", solemn polonaise and tarantella for orchestra, up to 70 romances, of which the series "Farewell to Petersburg" and other compositions are considered the best. Having borrowed from the French the variety and piquancy of rhythm, from the Italians the clarity and convexity of the melody, from the Germans the richness of counterpoint and harmony, Glinka managed in his best compositions, most of all in Ruslan and Lyudmila, to translate all this and recreate it in accordance with the spirit of the Russian folk song. Glinka's instrumentation was perfect for his time. Thanks to all this, his compositions, distinguished by artistic completeness and high mastery of form, are at the same time imprinted with inimitable originality and depth of content, characteristic of the best examples of folk songs, which made it possible for them to become the basis of an original Russian musical school.

Glinka's ability to musically depict nationalities is remarkable: this is how Russian and Polish music are compared in A Life for the Tsar; in "Ruslan and Lyudmila", next to Russian music, we meet the Persian choir, Lezginka, Finn's music, etc. Glinka's beloved sister L. I. Shestakova prompted him to write his extremely interesting "Autobiography".

Essays on other great musicians - see below in the block "More on the topic ..."

Baby and youth

Creative years

Major works

Hymn Russian Federation

Addresses in St. Petersburg

(May 20 (June 1), 1804 - February 3 (15), 1857) - composer, traditionally considered one of the founders of Russian classical music. Glinka's compositions had a strong influence on subsequent generations of composers, including members of the New Russian School, who developed his ideas in their music.

Biography

Childhood and youth

Mikhail Glinka was born on May 20 (June 1, old style), 1804, in the village of Novospasskoye, Smolensk province, on the estate of his father, retired captain Ivan Nikolaevich Glinka. Until the age of six, he was brought up by his grandmother (paternal) Fyokla Alexandrovna, who completely removed Mikhail's mother from raising her son. Mikhail grew up nervous, suspicious and sickly baric-touchy - "mimosa", according to own characteristic Glinka. After the death of Fyokla Alexandrovna, Mikhail again passed into the complete disposal of his mother, who made every effort to erase the traces of her previous upbringing. From the age of ten, Mikhail began to learn to play the piano and violin. Glinka's first teacher was a governess invited from St. Petersburg, Varvara Fedorovna Klammer.

In 1817, his parents brought Mikhail to St. Petersburg and placed him in the Noble Boarding School at the Main Pedagogical Institute (in 1819 it was renamed the Noble Boarding School at St. Petersburg University), where the poet, Decembrist V.K. Kyuchelbecker was his tutor. In St. Petersburg, Glinka takes lessons from major musicians, including the Irish pianist and composer John Field. In the boarding house, Glinka meets A. S. Pushkin, who came there to his younger brother Lev, Mikhail's classmate. Their meetings resumed in the summer of 1828 and continued until the death of the poet.

Creative years

1822-1835

After graduating from the boarding school in 1822, Mikhail Glinka intensively studied music: he studied Western European musical classics, participates in home music making in noble salons, sometimes directs his uncle's orchestra. At the same time, Glinka tried himself as a composer, composing variations for harp or piano on a theme from the Austrian composer Josef Weigl's opera The Swiss Family. From that moment on, Glinka paid more and more attention to composition and soon composed an extremely large amount, trying his hand at the most different genres. During this period, he wrote well-known romances and songs today: “Do not tempt me without need” to the words of E. A. Baratynsky, “Do not sing, beauty, with me” to the words of A. S. Pushkin, “Autumn night, night dear" to the words of A. Ya. Rimsky-Korsakov and others. However, he for a long time remains dissatisfied with his work. Glinka is persistently looking for ways to go beyond the forms and genres of everyday music. In 1823 he worked on a string septet, an adagio and a rondo for orchestra, and on two orchestral overtures. In the same years, the circle of acquaintances of Mikhail Ivanovich expanded. He meets Vasily Zhukovsky, Alexander Griboyedov, Adam Mickiewicz, Anton Delvig, Vladimir Odoevsky, who later became his friend.

In the summer of 1823, Glinka traveled to the Caucasus, visiting Pyatigorsk and Kislovodsk. From 1824 to 1828, Mikhail worked as an assistant secretary of the Main Directorate of Railways. In 1829, M. Glinka and N. Pavlishchev published the Lyric Album, where Glinka's plays were among the works of various authors.

At the end of April 1830, the composer went to Italy, stopping along the way in Dresden and making big Adventure in Germany, stretching over all the summer months. Arriving in Italy in early autumn, Glinka settled in Milan, which at that time was major center musical culture. In Italy he meets outstanding composers V. Bellini and G. Donizetti, studies the vocal style of bel canto (ital. bel canto ) and composes a lot in the "Italian spirit". In his works, a significant part of which are plays on the themes of popular operas, there is nothing left of the student, all compositions are masterfully executed. Glinka pays special attention to instrumental ensembles, writing two original compositions: the Sextet for piano, two violins, viola, cello and double bass and the Pathetic Trio for piano, clarinet and bassoon. In these works, the features of Glinka's composer's style were especially clearly manifested.

In July 1833, Glinka went to Berlin, stopping for a while in Vienna along the way. In Berlin, Glinka, under the guidance of the German theorist Siegfried Dehn, works in the field of composition, polyphony, and instrumentation. Having received news of his father's death in 1834, Glinka decided to immediately return to Russia.

Glinka returned with extensive plans for a Russian national opera. After a long search for a plot for the opera, Glinka, on the advice of V. Zhukovsky, settled on the legend of Ivan Susanin. At the end of April 1835, Glinka married Marya Petrovna Ivanova, his distant relative. Soon after, the newlyweds went to Novospasskoye, where Glinka set about writing an opera with great zeal.

1836-1844

In 1836, the opera A Life for the Tsar was completed, but with great difficulty Mikhail Glinka managed to get it accepted for staging on the stage of the St. Petersburg Bolshoi Theater. This was stubbornly prevented by the director of the imperial theaters, A. M. Gedeonov, who gave it to the judgment of the “director of music,” Kapellmeister Katerino Cavos. Kavos, on the other hand, gave Glinka's work the most flattering review. The opera was accepted.

The premiere of A Life for the Tsar took place on November 27 (December 9), 1836. The success was huge, the opera was enthusiastically accepted by the advanced part of society. The next day Glinka wrote to his mother:

On December 13, A. V. Vsevolzhsky hosted a celebration of M. I. Glinka, at which Mikhail Vielgorsky, Pyotr Vyazemsky, Vasily Zhukovsky and Alexander Pushkin composed a welcoming “Canon in honor of M. I. Glinka”. Music belonged to Vladimir Odoevsky.

Soon after the production of A Life for the Tsar, Glinka was appointed bandmaster of the Court Choir, which he led for two years. Glinka spent the spring and summer of 1838 in Ukraine. There he selected choristers for the chapel. Among the newcomers was Semyon Gulak-Artemovsky, who later became not only famous singer but also as a composer.

In 1837, Mikhail Glinka, not yet having a libretto ready, began to work on a new opera based on the plot of A. S. Pushkin's poem Ruslan and Lyudmila. The idea of ​​the opera came to the composer during the lifetime of the poet. He hoped to draw up a plan according to his instructions, but the death of Pushkin forced Glinka to turn to minor poets and lovers from among friends and acquaintances. The first performance of Ruslan and Lyudmila took place on November 27 (December 9), 1842, exactly six years after the premiere of Ivan Susanin. In comparison with "Ivan Susanin", the new opera by M. Glinka aroused stronger criticism. by the most a fierce critic The composer was F. Bulgarin, at that time still a very influential journalist.

1844-1857

Hardly going through the criticism of his new opera, Mikhail Ivanovich in the middle of 1844 undertook a new long trip abroad. This time he goes to France and then to Spain. In Paris, Glinka met the French composer Hector Berlioz, who became a great admirer of his talent. In the spring of 1845, Berlioz performed Glinka's works at his concert: Lezginka from Ruslan and Lyudmila and Antonida's aria from Ivan Susanin. The success of these works led Glinka to the idea of ​​giving in Paris a charity concert from his writings. April 10, 1845 big concert Russian composer was successfully held in the Hertz Concert Hall on Victory Street in Paris.

May 13, 1845 Glinka went to Spain. There, Mikhail Ivanovich studies the culture, customs, language of the Spanish people, records Spanish folk melodies, observes folk festivals and traditions. The creative result of this trip was two symphonic overtures written in Spanish folk themes. In the autumn of 1845, he created the Jota of Aragon overture, and in 1848, upon his return to Russia, he created Night in Madrid.

In the summer of 1847, Glinka set off on his way back to his ancestral village of Novospasskoye. Glinka's stay in his native places was short. Mikhail Ivanovich again went to St. Petersburg, but after changing his mind, he decided to spend the winter in Smolensk. However, invitations to balls and evenings, which haunted the composer almost daily, drove him to despair and to the decision to leave Russia again, becoming a traveler. But Glinka was denied a foreign passport, therefore, having reached Warsaw in 1848, he stopped in this city. Here the composer wrote a symphonic fantasy "Kamarinskaya" on the themes of two Russian songs: a wedding lyric "Because of the mountains, high mountains" and a lively dance song. In this work, Glinka approved new type symphonic music and laid the foundations for it further development, skillfully creating an unusually bold combination of different rhythms, characters and moods. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky commented on the work of Mikhail Glinka:

In 1851 Glinka returned to St. Petersburg. He makes new acquaintances, mostly young people. Mikhail Ivanovich gave singing lessons, prepared opera parts and chamber repertoire with such singers as N. K. Ivanov, O. A. Petrov, A. Ya. Petrova-Vorobyova, A. P. Lodiy, D. M. Leonova and others. Under the direct influence of Glinka, the Russian vocal school. He visited M. I. Glinka and A. N. Serov, who in 1852 wrote down his Notes on Instrumentation (published in 1856). A. S. Dargomyzhsky often came.

In 1852, Glinka again set off on a journey. He planned to get to Spain, but tired of moving in stagecoaches and by rail, he stopped in Paris, where he lived for just over two years. In Paris, Glinka began work on the Taras Bulba symphony, which was never completed. Start Crimean War, in which France opposed Russia, was the event that finally decided the issue of Glinka's departure to his homeland. On the way to Russia, Glinka spent two weeks in Berlin.

In May 1854 Glinka arrived in Russia. He spent the summer in Tsarskoe Selo at his dacha, and in August he again moved to St. Petersburg. In the same 1854, Mikhail Ivanovich began to write memoirs, which he called "Notes" (published in 1870).

In 1856, Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka left for Berlin. There he took up the study of old Russian church tunes, the work of old masters, choral compositions Italian Palestrina, Johann Sebastian Bach. Glinka was the first of the secular composers to compose and arrange church melodies in the Russian style. An unexpected illness interrupted these studies.

Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka died on February 16, 1857 in Berlin and was buried in the Lutheran cemetery. In May of the same year, at the urging younger sister M. I. Glinka Lyudmila Ivanovna Shestakova, the ashes of the composer were transported to St. Petersburg and reburied at the Tikhvin cemetery. A monument was erected on the grave, created by the architect A. M. Gornostaev. At present, the slab from Glinka's grave in Berlin has been lost. On the site of the grave in 1947, the Military Commandant's Office of the Soviet sector of Berlin erected a monument to the composer.

Memory

• At the end of May 1982, the House-Museum of M. I. Glinka was opened in the composer's homestead Novospasskoye

• Monuments to M. I. Glinka:
• in Smolensk created on folk remedies, collected by subscription, opened in 1885 in the east side of the Blonier garden; sculptor A. R. von Bock. In 1887, the composition of the monument was completed by the installation of an openwork cast fence, the drawing of which is made up of musical lines - excerpts from 24 works of the composer
• in St. Petersburg, built on the initiative of the City Duma, opened in 1899 in the Alexander Garden, at the fountain in front of the Admiralty; sculptor V. M. Pashchenko, architect A. S. Lytkin
• In Veliky Novgorod, on the Monument "1000th Anniversary of Russia" among the 129 figures of the most prominent personalities V Russian history(for 1862) there is a figure of M. I. Glinka

• Petersburg was built on the initiative of the Imperial Russian musical society, opened on February 3, 1906 in the square near the Conservatory (Teatralnaya Square); sculptor R. R. Bach, architect A. R. Bach. Monument monumental art Federal value.
• opened in Kyiv on December 21, 1910 ( Main article: Monument to M. I. Glinka in Kyiv)

• Films about M. I. Glinka:
• In 1946, Mosfilm filmed the feature biographical film "Glinka" about the life and work of Mikhail Ivanovich (in the role - Boris Chirkov).
• In 1952, Mosfilm released the feature biographical film Composer Glinka (starring Boris Smirnov).
• In 2004, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his birth, documentary about the life and work of the composer “Mikhail Glinka. Doubts and passions ... "

• Mikhail Glinka in philately and numismatics:

• In honor of M. and Glinka are named:
• State Academic Chapel of St. Petersburg (in 1954).
• Moscow Museum of Musical Culture (in 1954).
• Novosibirsk State Conservatory (Academy) (in 1956).
• Nizhny Novgorod State Conservatory (in 1957).
• Magnitogorsk State Conservatory.
• Minsk School of Music
• Chelyabinsk academic theater opera and ballet.
• Petersburg Choir School (in 1954).
• Dnepropetrovsk Musical Conservatory named after Glinka (Ukraine).
• Concert hall in Zaporozhye.
• State String Quartet.
• The streets of many cities in Russia, as well as cities in Ukraine and Belarus. Street in Berlin.
• In 1973, astronomer Lyudmila Chernykh named the minor planet discovered by her in honor of the composer - 2205 Glinka.
• Crater on Mercury.

Major works

operas

• "Life for the Tsar" (1836)
• "Ruslan and Lyudmila" (1837-1842)

Symphonic works

• Symphony on two Russian themes (1834, completed and orchestrated by Vissarion Shebalin)
• Music for the tragedy by N. V. Kukolnik "Prince Kholmsky" (1842)
• Spanish Overture No. 1 "Brilliant Capriccio on the Jota of Aragon" (1845)
• "Kamarinskaya", fantasy on two Russian themes (1848)
• Spanish Overture No. 2 "Memories of a Summer Night in Madrid" (1851)
• "Waltz Fantasy" (1839 - for piano, 1856 - extended version for symphony orchestra)

Chamber instrumental compositions

• Sonata for viola and piano (unfinished; 1828, revised by Vadim Borisovsky in 1932)
• Brilliant divertissement on themes from Bellini's La sonnambula for piano quintet and double bass
• Grand Sextet Es-dur for piano and string quintet (1832)
• "Pathetic Trio" in d-moll for clarinet, bassoon and piano (1832)

Romances and songs

• "Venetian Night" (1832)
• "I'm Here, Inezilla" (1834)
• "Night review" (1836)
• "Doubt" (1838)
• "Night Zephyr" (1838)
• "The fire of desire burns in the blood" (1839)
• wedding song "Wonderful tower stands" (1839)
• vocal cycle "Farewell to Petersburg" (1840)
• "Song of the Way" (1840)
• "Confession" (1840)
• "Do I hear your voice" (1848)
• "Healthy Cup" (1848)
• "The Song of Margarita" from Goethe's tragedy "Faust" (1848)
• "Mary" (1849)
• "Adele" (1849)
• "Gulf of Finland" (1850)
• "Prayer" ("In a difficult moment of life") (1855)
• "Don't Say Your Heart Hurts" (1856)

Anthem of the Russian Federation

The patriotic song of Mikhail Glinka in the period from 1991 to 2000 was the official anthem of the Russian Federation.

Addresses in St. Petersburg

• February 2, 1818 - end of June 1820 - Noble boarding school at the Main Pedagogical Institute - Fontanka River Embankment, 164;
• August 1820 - July 3, 1822 - Noble boarding school at St. Petersburg University - Ivanovskaya street, 7;
• summer 1824 - late summer 1825 - Faleev's house - Kanonerskaya street, 2;
• May 12, 1828 - September 1829 - Barbazan's house - Nevsky Prospekt, 49;
• end of winter 1836 - spring 1837 - Merz's house - Glukhoy lane, 8, apt. 1;
• spring 1837 - November 6, 1839 - Capella's house - Moika embankment, 20;
• November 6, 1839 - the end of December 1839 - officer barracks of the Life Guards of the Izmailovsky Regiment - Fontanka River Embankment, 120;
• September 16, 1840 - February 1841 - Mertz's house - 8 Glukhoy Lane, apt. 1;
• June 1, 1841 - February 1842 - Schuppe's house - Bolshaya Meshchanskaya street, 16;
• mid-November 1848 - May 9, 1849 - the house of the School for the Deaf-Mute - embankment of the Moika River, 54;
• October - November 1851 - tenement house Melikhova - Mokhovaya street, 26;
• December 1, 1851 - May 23, 1852 - Zhukov's house - Nevsky Prospekt, 49;
• August 25, 1854 - April 27, 1856 - tenement house of E. Tomilova - Ertelev lane, 7.

If Russian science began with Mikhail Lomonosov, poetry - with Alexander Pushkin, then Russian music - with Mikhail Glinka. It was his work that became the starting point and example for all subsequent Russian composers. Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka - for our national musical culture, this is not only an outstanding, but very significant creative person because, based on tradition folk art and building on the achievements European music, he completed the formation of the Russian composer school. Glinka, who became the first classical composer in Russia, left a few, but impressive creative heritage. In their imbued with patriotism beautiful works, the maestro sang the triumph of goodness and justice so much that even today they never cease to admire and discover new perfections in them.

A short biography of Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka and many interesting facts read about the composer on our page.

short biography

In the early morning of May 20, 1804, family tradition under the trill of a nightingale, Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka was born. His small homeland was his parental estate in the village of Novospasskoye in the Smolensk region. There he received his first musical impressions, and elementary education- Petersburg governess taught him to play the piano, violin And Italian songs. According to Glinka's biography, in 1817, young Misha entered the Noble Boarding School in the capital, where V. Küchelbecker became his mentor. It was there that he met A.S. Pushkin, who often visited his younger brother. They maintained good relations until the death of the poet. In St. Petersburg, Mikhail Ivanovich began to study music with even greater zeal. However, at the insistence of his father, after graduating from the boarding school, he entered the civil service.

Since 1828, Glinka devoted himself entirely to composing. In 1830-33, while traveling through Europe, he met his great contemporaries - Bellini, Donizetti and Mendelssohn , studies music theory in Berlin, significantly expanding his composing activities. In 1835 Glinka in the church Engineering Castle marries the young Maria Petrovna Ivanova. It was a fast-paced romance, a casual acquaintance of the young people happened just six months earlier in the house of relatives. And the very next year, the premiere of his debut opera " Life for the king ”, after which he was offered a position in the Imperial Court Chapel.

In his work, success and recognition began to accompany him, but family life failed. Just a few years after his marriage, another woman appeared in his life - Ekaterina Kern. Ironically, the daughter of Pushkin's muse Anna Kern became the composer's muse. Glinka left his wife, and a few years later began divorce proceedings. Maria Glinka also did not feel affection for her husband and, while still married, secretly married another. The divorce dragged on for several years, during which the relationship with Kern also ended. Mikhail Ivanovich did not marry anymore, he also had no children.

After the failure Ruslana and Lyudmila » the musician moved away from the Russian public life and began to travel a lot, living in Spain, France, Poland, Germany. In his rare trips to St. Petersburg - he taught vocals opera singers. At the end of his life, he wrote autobiographical Notes. He died suddenly on February 15, 1857 from pneumonia a few days after the Berlin performance of excerpts from A Life for the Tsar. Three months later, through the efforts of his sister, his ashes were transported to St. Petersburg.

Interesting Facts

• M.I. Glinka is considered to be the father of Russian opera. This is partly true - it was he who became the founder of the national direction in the world operatic art, created the techniques of typically Russian operatic singing. But to say that A Life for the Tsar is the first Russian opera would be wrong. History has preserved little evidence of the life and work of the court composer of Catherine II V.A. Pashkevich, but he is known comic operas who went to metropolitan scenes in the last third of the 18th century: "Misfortune from the carriage", "Miserly" and others. Two operas were written by him on the libretto of the Empress herself. Three operas for Russian court created by D.S. Bortnyansky (1786-1787). E.I. Fomin wrote several operas at the end of the 18th century, including those based on the libretto of Catherine II and I.A. Krylov. Operas and vaudeville operas also came out from the pen of the Moscow composer A.N. Verstovsky.
• For 20 years, K. Kavos's opera Ivan Susanin ran in theaters on a par with A Life for the Tsar. After the revolution, Glinka's masterpiece was consigned to oblivion, but in 1939, on the wave of pre-war moods, the opera again entered the repertoires of the largest theaters in the country. For ideological reasons, the libretto was radically revised, and the work itself received the name of its predecessor, which had sunk into oblivion - "Ivan Susanin". In its original version, the opera saw the stage again only in 1989.
• The role of Susanin became a turning point in the career of F.I. Chaliapin. At the age of 22, he performed Susanin's aria at an audition at the Mariinsky Theatre. The very next day, February 1, 1895, the singer was enrolled in the troupe.
• "Ruslan and Lyudmila" - an opera that broke the notion of traditional vocal voices. Thus, the part of the young knight Ruslan was written not for the heroic tenor, as the Italian operatic model would require, but for the bass or low baritone. Tenor parts are presented good magician Finn and storyteller Bayan. Lyudmila - party for coloratura soprano, while Gorislava - for the lyrical. It is striking that the role of Prince Ratmir is female, he is sung by a contralto. Witch Naina is a comic mezzo-soprano, and her protégé Farlaf is a bass buffo. The heroic bass, to whom the role of Susanin is given in A Life for the Tsar, is sung by Lyudmila's father, Prince Svetozar.

• According to one version, the only reason for the negative criticism of Ruslan and Lyudmila was the defiant departure of Nicholas I from the premiere - official publications had to justify this fact with some shortcomings in the creative part of the opera. It is possible that the emperor's act is explained by too obvious allusions to real events, which led to the duel A.S. Pushkin, in particular, suspicions about the relationship of his wife with Nikolai.
• The role of Ivan Susanin marked the beginning of a series of great bass roles in the Russian operatic repertoire, including such powerful figures as Boris Godunov, Dosifey and Ivan Khovansky, Prince Galitsky and Khan Konchak, Ivan the Terrible and Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich. These roles were performed by truly outstanding singers. O.A. Petrov is the first Susanin and Ruslan, and thirty years later, Varlaam in Boris Godunov. The director of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theater accidentally heard his unique voice at a fair in Kursk. The next generation of basses was represented by F.I. Stravinsky, father famous composer who served at the Mariinsky Theatre. Then - F.I. Chaliapin, who began his career in private opera S. Mamontov and grew into a world opera star. IN Soviet time M.O. shone in these parties. Reizen, E.E. Nesterenko, A.F. Vedernikov, B.T. Shtokolov.
• Mikhail Ivanovich himself had beautiful voice, a high tenor, and performed his romances to the piano.
• "Notes" by M.I. Glinka became the first composer's memoirs.

• The composer, who looks imposing on monumental monuments, was in fact vertically challenged, which made him walk with his head up to appear taller.
• During his life, Glinka suffered from various ailments. In part, they were due to grandmother's upbringing in early years when he was pretty wrapped up and not allowed out for many months. Partly because the parents were each other's second cousins ​​and sisters, and all the boys in the family were in poor health. Descriptions of his own diseases and their treatment are given a considerable place in his Notes.
• The musician had 10 younger brothers and sisters, but only three survived him - sisters Maria, Lyudmila and Olga.

• Glinka admitted that male society prefers the feminine because the ladies liked him musical talents. He was amorous and addicted. His mother was even afraid to let him go to Spain, because of the hot tempers of local jealous husbands.
• For a long time it was customary to represent the composer's wife as a narrow-minded woman who did not understand music and loved only secular entertainment. Did this image correspond to reality? Maria Petrovna was a practical woman, which probably did not live up to the romantic expectations of her husband. In addition, at the time of the wedding, she was only 17 years old (Glinka - 30), she had just entered the period of going out into society, balls and holidays. Should she be punished for being fascinated by the outfits and her beauty more than her husband's creative projects?
• Glinka's second love, Ekaterina Kern, was the complete opposite of his wife - an ugly, pale, but sensitive intellectual who understood art. Probably, it was in her that the composer saw those features that he tried in vain to find in Maria Petrovna.
• Karl Bryullov drew many caricatures of Glinka, which hurt the composer's vanity.

• From the biography of Glinka, we know that the composer was so attached to his mother Evgenia Andreevna that he wrote to her every week during his life. After reading the news of her death, his hand was taken away. He was neither at her funeral nor at her grave, because he believed that without his mother, trips to Novospasskoye had lost all meaning.
• The composer who created the opera about the fight against the Polish invaders has Polish roots. His ancestors settled near Smolensk, when it belonged to the Commonwealth. After the return of the lands under the rule Russian state, many Poles converted to Orthodoxy and swore allegiance to the king in order to stay and live on their land.
• Mikhail Ivanovich was very fond of songbirds and kept about 20 at home, where a whole room was set aside for them.
• Glinka wrote "Patriotic Song" in the hope that it would become a new Russian anthem. And so it happened, but not in 1833, when they chose "God save the Tsar!" A.F. Lvov, and in 1991. For 9 years, while the "Patriotic Song" was a national symbol, no words were written for it. Including for this reason, in 2000, music again became the anthem of Russia national anthem USSR A.B. Alexandrova.
• The premiere of Ruslan and Lyudmila directed by D. Chernyakov opened the Bolshoi Theater after reconstruction in 2011.
• The Mariinsky Theater is the only one in the world where both operas by the composer are performed in the current repertoire.

Creation

Mikhail Glinka is equally famous for his operas and romances. Since chamber music it started composer activity. In 1825 he wrote the romance "Do not tempt". As rarely happens, one of his first creations turned out to be immortal. In the 1830s, instrumental compositions based on opera music V. Bellini, Sonata for Viola and Piano, Grand Sextet for Piano and String Quintet, "Pathetic Trio". During the same period, Glinka wrote his only symphony, which he never finished.

Traveling around Europe, Glinka became more and more rooted in the idea that the work of a Russian composer should be based on the original folk culture. He began to look for a plot for the opera. The theme of the feat of Ivan Susanin was suggested to him by V.A. Zhukovsky, who was directly involved in the creation of the text of the work. The libretto was written by E.F. Rosen. The event structure was completely proposed by the composer, since the poems were already composed to ready-made music. Melodically, the opera is built on the opposition of two themes - Russian with its draft melodiousness and Polish with its rhythmic, loud mazurka and Krakowiak. The apotheosis was the choir "Glory" - a solemn episode that has no analogues. "Life for the King" was presented at the Bolshoi Theater of St. Petersburg on November 27, 1836. It is noteworthy that the production was directed and conducted by K. Kavos, who 20 years earlier created his own Ivan Susanin based on material folk art. The opinion of the public was divided - some were shocked by a simple "peasant" theme, others considered the music too academic and difficult to understand. Emperor Nicholas I reacted favorably to the premiere and personally thanked its author. Moreover, earlier he himself suggested the name of the opera, previously named "Death for the Tsar."

Even during the lifetime of A.S. Pushkin Glinka decided to transfer the poem to the musical stage "Ruslan and Ludmila". However, this work began only in the mournful year of the death of the great poet. The composer had to involve several librettists. The writing took five years. The semantic accents are placed in a completely different way in the opera - the plot has become more epic and philosophical, but somewhat devoid of irony and Pushkin's signature humor. In the course of action, the characters develop, experience deep feelings. The premiere of "Ruslan and Lyudmila" was held at the Bolshoi Theater in the capital on November 27, 1842 - exactly 6 years after "A Life for the Tsar". But on the date of the similarity of the two prime ministers are exhausted. The reception of the opera was ambiguous, including due to unsuccessful replacements in the artistic composition. Imperial family defiantly left the hall right during the last action. It was truly a scandal! The third performance put everything in its place, and the audience gave Glinka's new creation a warm welcome. What the critics didn't do. The composer was accused of loose dramaturgy, unstagedness and protractedness of the opera. For these reasons, almost immediately they began to reduce and remake it - often unsuccessfully.

Simultaneously with the work on "Ruslan and Lyudmila" Glinka wrote romances and a vocal cycle " Farewell to Petersburg», "Waltz Fantasy". Abroad, two Spanish overtures And "Kamarinskaya" . In Paris, the first concert of Russian music in history, consisting of his works, was triumphantly held. Last years the composer was full of ideas. In his fateful year, he was inspired to be in Berlin not only by the performance of A Life for the Tsar, but also by classes with the famous music theorist Z. Den. Despite his age and experience, he did not stop learning, wanting to keep up with the trends of the time - in a brilliant creative form was G. Verdi , gained strength R. Wagner . Russian music made itself known on the European stages, and it was necessary to promote it further.

Unfortunately, Glinka's plans were interrupted by fate. But thanks to his work, Russian music has received significant development, many generations of talented composers have appeared in the country, and the beginning of the Russian musical school was laid.