The art of Chaliapin is a phenomenon that
whom we have never met before,
cannot be explained and described in words!
Daily Telegraph (1925)1
It begins and ends all theories
about singing and performing arts, and to
this time there is no other singer around
whose name a similar ore would sparkle
ol of legends and legends, in the aggregate
creating a legend about the artist. No equal-
no need for him, since such a combination of deep
lateral artistic intellect, go-
a clear and sincere feeling, endless
creative inquisitiveness, and most importantly -
God's spark of genuine genius and wonder
body personal charm - unique!
Prague newspaper "Narodni listy" (1932)"
2003 marks the 130th anniversary of the birth of the greatest of
singers - Fedor Ivanovich Chaliapin. Truly brilliant art
tistic and vocal talent made his name immortal
nym in the history of Russian and world vocal culture. Larger-
our Italian singer, soloist of "La Scala" Giacomo Lauri-
Volpi called Chaliapin "a Russian giant who overshadowed the great
whom Caruso. “Chaliapin,” he wrote, “remains a lonely giant
volume ... He became the bass standard and his name flew around the continents "
(Lauri-Volpi, 1972).
Outstanding masters of vocal art
As you know, Chaliapin himself in his printed works is extremely
focusing primarily on the performing side of the singing
art (see fragments of his statements in Appendix 1).
contemporaries, as well as his brilliant acting skills.
In this regard, of particular interest to us are statements about
the world-famous La Scala Opera House and other major
1 Statements are given according to the article: Malkov, 1998.
The art of resonant singing 109
the most important opera scenes. The names of these prominent singers are also
famous all over the world: Toti Dal Monte, Beniamino Gigli, Tito
Skipa, Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, among them is the admirable
Adelina Patti, the most famous Italian prima donna of her time.
But let us preface their statements with the words of our eminent
masters of vocal art I.S. Kozlovsky.
Ivan Kozlovsky
“The name - Fedor Chaliapin - is not only not forgotten, but, on the contrary,
takes on new content. It acquires and the sound of everything
louder and filled with ever greater meaning...
Chaliapin - and in his beauty, in the style of his folk, calm
radiating talent, and in that irreparable drama, which doomed
la life, this great, moreover, brilliant talent, - today
comprehended by our consciousness that has grown over the years ...
Indeed: it is difficult to imagine a figure more tragic,
than Chaliapin, despite all that he heard and felt all his life
the words spoken by Stasov: "Immeasurable joy!". These words are blah
gratitude to Chaliapin for his work, for his talent, for his creativity -
truly reflect the attitude towards Chaliapin, not only progressive
noah Russia, but the whole world...” (Kozlovsky, 1992).
Toti Dal Monte
“I lived quite a long stage life, giving those
Atru is twenty-five years old. My partners were the best singers
peace. But the most vivid and exciting memory left the meeting
Cha with Chaliapin.
Oh, it was a brilliant artist, unsurpassed in talent
opera stage artist In all his roles, he was unique
Rome, original and grandiose! Yes, it's grand! Such
the impression he left in the role of Boris Godunov, I
no longer worried.
I must say that the Italian audience is perhaps the most demanding
leading in the world.<...>From [their] criticism did not leave even the most
famous singers. But I don't remember a single word of reproach,
expressed by someone in the address of Chaliapin - everything that he did,
was so perfect, so bright and convincing, that you will never
raised doubts or objections.<...>Undoubtedly, art
in Chaliapin played a big role in increasing the demanding
sti the Italian public to opera artists.
stage talent. Chaliapin still had a deep mind. He was
110_____________________ V.P. Morozov ______________________
a thinker in art, and this raised him even above the level of everything
the best that was in his time on the opera stage.
If we talk about the manner of Chaliapin's singing, then we must admit that
her animosity towards the Italian school, at least in the field of emission
room measures. I remember that in Cincinnati (America) we
they sang a performance in a theater that could seat nine thousand spectators, and
we were perfectly audible everywhere.
cheat. Vocal sound formation does not tolerate any pressure
ma, violence - it should be completely light and free,
timbre. When set incorrectly, the sound is tense,
violent, the timbre disappears, is erased, and the voice does not reach well
to the listener.
Chaliapin had, apparently, by nature correctly set
and consolidate this natural manner of singing, which brought her closer
to the Italian school, based on the principles of the natural,
natural sound production. True, in the singing of Chaliapin one hears
there was also something peculiar, which probably came from the Russian
language. After all, he was a real Russian man and kept
his native color and in singing. Not only did it not spoil him,
but gave a special expressiveness, beauty and originality
his art. Of course, this coloring is best manifested in
parts of the Russian repertoire.
But if Chaliapin's vocal school was close to Italian,
The great Russian singer Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin combined two qualities in his work: acting skills and unique vocal abilities. He was a soloist of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theaters, as well as the Metropolitan Opera. One of the greatest opera singers.The childhood of Fyodor Chaliapin
The future singer was born in Kazan on February 13, 1873. Fyodor Chaliapin's parents got married in January 1863, and 10 years later their son Fyodor was born.My father worked as an archivist in the Zemstvo council. Fedor's mother, Evdokia Mikhailovna, was an ordinary peasant woman from the village of Dudintsy.
Already in childhood, it became clear that little Fedor had a musical talent. Possessing a beautiful treble, he sang in the suburban church choir and at village holidays. Later, the boy was invited to sing in neighboring churches. When Fedor graduated from the 4th grade with a commendable diploma, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker, then to a turner.
At the age of 14, the boy began working as a clerk in the zemstvo council of the Kazan district. Earned 10 rubles a month. However, Chaliapin never forgot about music. Having learned to read music, Fedor tried to devote all his free time to music.
The beginning of the creative career of the singer Fyodor Chaliapin
In 1883, Fedor first came to the theater to stage the play by P.P. Sukhonin "Russian Wedding". Chaliapin "fell ill" with the theater and tried not to miss a single performance. Most of all, the boy liked the opera. And the greatest impression on the future singer was made by M. I. Glinka's opera A Life for the Tsar. The father sends his son to the school to study as a carpenter, but when his mother fell ill, Fedor was forced to return to Kazan to look after her. It was in Kazan that Chaliapin began to try to get a job in the theater.Finally, in 1889, he was accepted as an extra in the prestigious Serebryakov Choir. Prior to this, Chaliapin was not accepted into the choir, but they took some lanky, terribly rounded young man. A few years later, having met Maxim Gorky, Fedor told him about his first failure. Gorky chuckled and said that it was he who was this dumb young man, although he was quickly expelled from the choir due to the complete absence of his voice.
And the first performance of the extra-Chaliapin ended in failure. He was entrusted with a role without words. The cardinal played by Chaliapin, along with his retinue, had to simply walk across the stage. Fedor was very worried and constantly repeated to his retinue: “Do everything like me!”.
As soon as he entered the stage, Chaliapin got entangled in the red cardinal's robe and fell to the floor. The retinue, remembering the instructions, followed him. The cardinal could not get up and crawled across the stage. As soon as the creeping retinue headed by Chaliapin was behind the scenes, the director wholeheartedly kicked the “cardinal” and lowered him down the stairs!
Chaliapin performed his first solo role - the role of Zaretsky in the opera "Eugene Onegin" in March 1890.
In September of the same year, Chaliapin moved to Ufa and began to sing in the local operetta troupe of Semenov-Samarsky. Gradually, Chaliapin began to entrust small roles in many performances. After the end of the season, Chaliapin joined Derkach's itinerant troupe, with whom he toured the cities of Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus.
Life of Fyodor Chaliapin in Tiflis
As for many other great representatives of Russian literature and art, Tiflis played a very important role in the life of Chaliapin. Here he met a former artist of the Imperial Theaters, Professor Usatov. After listening to the singer, Usatov said: “Stay to learn from me. I won't take any money for my studies. Usatov not only "put" the voice of Chaliapin, but helped him financially. In 1893, Chaliapin made his debut on the stage of the Tiflis Opera House.HEY FUCK! Russian folk song. Performed by: FYODOR SHALYAPIN.
A year later, all the bass parts in the Tiflis opera were performed by Chaliapin. It was in Tiflis that Chaliapin gained fame and recognition, and from a self-taught singer turned into a professional artist.
The heyday of creativity of Fyodor Chaliapin
In 1895, Fyodor Chaliapin arrived in Moscow, where he signed a contract with the directorate of the Mariinsky Theater. Initially, Fedor Ivanovich played only minor roles on the stage of the Imperial Theater.The meeting with the famous philanthropist Savva Mamontov marked the beginning of the flowering of Chaliapin's work. Mamontov invited the singer to work at the Moscow Private Opera with a salary three times higher than the salary at the Mariinsky Theater.
Chaliapin's many-sided talent was truly revealed in the private opera, and the repertoire was replenished with many unforgettable images from the operas of Russian composers.
In 1899, Chaliapin was invited to the Bolshoi Theater, where he had a stunning success. The stage life of the singer turned into a grandiose triumph. He became everyone's favorite. The singer's contemporaries assessed his unique voice in this way: in Moscow there are three miracles - the Tsar Bell, the Tsar Cannon and the Tsar Bass - Fedor Chaliapin.
Fyodor Chaliapin. Elegy. Romance. Old Russian Romance.
Music critics wrote that, apparently, Russian composers of the 19th century “foresaw” the appearance of a great singer, which is why they wrote so many wonderful parts for bass: Ivan the Terrible, the Varangian guest, Salieri, Melnik, Boris Godunov, Dosifey and Ivan Susanin. Largely thanks to the talent of Chaliapin, who included arias from Russian operas in his repertoire, the composers N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, A.S. Dargomyzhsky, M. Mussorgsky, M. Glinka received world recognition.
In the same years, the singer receives European fame. In 1900 he was invited to the famous Milanese La Scala. The amount that was paid to Chaliapin under the contract at that time was unheard of high. After a stay in Italy, the singer began to be invited on tour abroad every year. The world war, revolutions and civil war in Russia for a long 6 years "put an end" to the singer's foreign tours. In the period from 1914 to 1920, Chaliapin did not leave Russia.
Emigration period
In 1922, Chaliapin went on tour in the United States. The singer never returned to the Soviet Union. At home, in turn, they decided to deprive Chaliapin of the title of People's Artist. The way to Russia was finally cut off.
Abroad, Chaliapin tries his hand at a new art - cinema. In 1933, he starred in the film "Don Quixote" directed by G. Pabst.
Fyodor Chaliapin's personal life
Fedor Chaliapin was married twice. The singer met his first wife, an Italian ballerina, Iona Tornaghi, in 1898 in Nizhny Novgorod. In this marriage, seven children were born at once. 
Later, without terminating the first marriage, Chaliapin becomes close to Maria Petzold. The woman at that time already had two children from her first marriage. They met in secret for a long time. The marriage was officially registered only in 1927 in Paris.
Memory
Chaliapin died in the spring of 1938 in Paris. The great singer was buried at the Batignolles cemetery in Paris. Only almost half a century later, in 1984, his son Fyodor obtained permission to reburial his father's ashes in Moscow, at the Novodevichy cemetery.The repeated funeral was held with all honors.
And 57 years after the death of the artist, he was posthumously returned the title of People's Artist of the USSR.
So, finally, the singer returned to his homeland.
Fedor Chaliapin is a Russian opera and chamber singer. At various times he was a soloist at the Mariinsky and Bolshoi Theaters, as well as at the Metropolitan Opera. Therefore, the work of the legendary bass is widely known outside of his homeland.
Childhood and youth
Fedor Ivanovich Chaliapin was born in Kazan in 1873. His parents were visiting peasants. Father Ivan Yakovlevich moved from the Vyatka province, he was engaged in an unusual job for a peasant - he served as a clerk in the administration of the Zemstvo. And mother Evdokia Mikhailovna was a housewife.
As a child, a beautiful treble was noticed by little Fedya, thanks to which he was sent to the church choir as a chorister, where he received the basic knowledge of musical literacy. In addition to singing in the temple, the father sent the boy to study with a shoemaker.
After completing several classes of primary education with honors, the young man goes to work as an assistant clerk. Fedor Chaliapin will later remember these years as the most boring in his life, because he was deprived of the main thing in his life - singing, since at that time his voice was going through a period of withdrawal. This is how the career of a young archivist would have gone on, if one day he did not get to the performance of the Kazan Opera House. The magic of art has captured the young man's heart forever, and he decides to change his activity.
At the age of 16, Fyodor Chaliapin, with an already formed bass, auditions for the opera house, but fails miserably. After that, he turns to the drama group of V. B. Serebryakov, in which he is taken as an extra.
Gradually, the young man began to entrust vocal parts. A year later, Fyodor Chaliapin performed the part of Zaretsky from the opera Eugene Onegin. But in the dramatic entreprise, he does not stay long and after a couple of months he gets a job as a chorister in the musical troupe of S. Ya. Semyonov-Samarsky, with whom he leaves for Ufa.
As before, Chaliapin remains a talented self-taught, who, after several comically failed debuts, gains stage confidence. The young singer is invited to a traveling theater from Little Russia under the direction of G. I. Derkach, with whom he makes a number of first trips around the country. The journey ultimately leads Chaliapin to Tiflis (now Tbilisi).
In the capital of Georgia, a talented singer is noticed by vocal teacher Dmitry Usatov, a famous tenor of the Bolshoi Theater in the past. He takes on the full support of a poor young man and deals with him. In parallel with the lessons, Chaliapin works as a bass performer at the local opera house.
Music
In 1894, Fyodor Chaliapin entered the service of the Imperial Theater of St. Petersburg, but the strictness prevailing here quickly began to weigh him down. By a lucky chance, at one of the performances, a philanthropist notices him and lures the singer to his theater. Possessing a special flair for talents, the philanthropist discovers incredible potential in a young temperamental artist. He gives Fedor Ivanovich complete freedom in his team.
Fedor Chaliapin - "Black Eyes"While working in the Mamontov troupe, Chaliapin revealed his vocal and artistic abilities. He covered all the famous bass parts of Russian operas, such as The Maid of Pskov, Sadko, Mozart and Salieri, Rusalka, A Life for the Tsar, Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina. His performance of the role in "Faust" by Charles Gounod still remains a reference. Subsequently, he will recreate a similar image in the aria "Mephistopheles" at the theater "La Scala", which will earn success with the world public.
From the beginning of the 20th century, Chaliapin reappeared on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater, but already as a soloist. With the capital's theater, he tours around Europe, gets on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, not to mention regular trips to Moscow, to the Bolshoi Theater. Surrounded by the famous bass, you can see the whole color of the creative elite of that time: I. Kuprin, Italian singers T. Ruffo and. A photo has been preserved where he is captured next to his close friend.
In 1905, Fyodor Chaliapin especially distinguished himself with solo performances, in which he sang romances and the then-famous folk songs "Dubinushka", "Along the Piterskaya" and others. The singer donated all the funds from these concerts to the needs of the workers. Such concerts by the maestro turned into real political actions, which later earned Fedor Ivanovich honor from the Soviet authorities. In addition, friendship with the first proletarian writer Maxim Gorky protected the Chaliapin family from ruin during the “Soviet terror”.
Fedor Chaliapin - "Along the Piterskaya"After the revolution, the new government appoints Fyodor Ivanovich as the head of the Mariinsky Theater and awards him the title of People's Artist of the RSFSR. But in a new capacity, the singer did not work long, since with the very first foreign tour in 1922 he immigrated with his family abroad. More he did not appear on the stage of the Soviet stage. Years later, the Soviet government stripped Chaliapin of the title of People's Artist of the RSFSR.
The creative biography of Fyodor Chaliapin is not only his vocal career. In addition to singing, the talented artist was fond of painting and sculpture. He also acted in films. He got a role in the film of the same name by Alexander Ivanov-Gaya, and he also participated in the filming of the film Don Quixote by German director Georg Wilhelm Pabst, where Chaliapin played the main role of the famous windmill fighter.
Personal life
Chaliapin met his first wife in his youth, while working at the Mamontov private theater. The girl's name was Iola Tornaghi, she was a ballerina of Italian origin. Despite the temperament and success with women, the young singer decided to tie the knot with just this sophisticated woman.
During the years of marriage, Iola gave birth to six children to Fedor Chaliapin. But even such a family did not keep Fedor Ivanovich from cardinal changes in life.
While serving in the Imperial Theater, he often had to live in St. Petersburg, where he started a second family. At first, Fyodor Ivanovich met his second wife Maria Petzold secretly, since she was also married. But later they began to live together, and Mary bore him three more children.
The double life of the artist continued until the moment of his departure to Europe. The prudent Chaliapin went on tour as part of his entire second family, and a couple of months later five children from his first marriage went to Paris.
Of Fedor's large family, only his first wife Iola Ignatievna and eldest daughter Irina remained in the USSR. These women became the keepers of the memory of the opera singer in their homeland. In 1960, the old and sick Iola Tornaghi moved to Rome, but before leaving, she turned to the Minister of Culture with a request to create a museum of Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin in their house on Novinsky Boulevard.
Death
Chaliapin went on his last tour of the countries of the Far East in the mid-1930s. He gives over 50 solo concerts in the cities of China and Japan. After that, returning to Paris, the artist felt unwell.
In 1937, doctors diagnosed him with an oncological blood disease: Chaliapin had a year to live.
The great bass died in his Paris apartment in early April 1938. For a long time, his ashes were buried on French soil, and only in 1984, at the request of Chaliapin's son, his remains were transferred to the grave at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
True, many historians consider the death of Fyodor Chaliapin rather strange. Yes, and the doctors unanimously insisted that leukemia with such a heroic physique and at that age is extremely rare. There is also evidence that after a tour of the Far East, the opera singer returned to Paris in a sick condition and with a strange "decoration" on his forehead - a greenish bump. Doctors say that such neoplasms occur when poisoned by a radioactive isotope or phenol. The question of what happened to Chaliapin on tour, and asked local historian from Kazan Rovel Kashapov.
The man believes that Chaliapin was "removed" by the Soviet authorities as objectionable. At one time, he refused to return to his homeland, plus, through an Orthodox priest, he provided material assistance to poor Russian emigrants. In Moscow, his act was called counter-revolutionary, aimed at supporting the White emigration. After such an accusation, there was no longer any talk of returning.
Soon the singer came into conflict with the authorities. His book "The Story of My Life" was printed by foreign publishers, and they received permission to print from the Soviet organization "International Book". Chaliapin was outraged by such an unceremonious disposal of copyright, and he filed a lawsuit, which ordered the USSR to pay him monetary compensation. Of course, in Moscow this was regarded as hostile actions of the singer against the Soviet state.
And in 1932 he wrote the book "Mask and Soul" and published it in Paris. In it, Fedor Ivanovich spoke out in a harsh manner in relation to the ideology of Bolshevism, to the Soviet government, and in particular to.
Actor and singer Fyodor Chaliapin In the last years of his life, Chaliapin showed maximum caution and did not let suspicious persons into his apartment. But in 1935, the singer received an offer to organize a tour in Japan and China. And during a tour in China, unexpectedly for Fedor Ivanovich, he was offered to give a concert in Harbin, although the performance there was not originally planned. Local historian Rovel Kashapov is sure that it was there that Dr. Vitenzon, who accompanied Chaliapin on this tour, was handed an aerosol can with a poisonous substance.
Fyodor Ivanovich's accompanist, Georges de Godzinsky, in his memoirs, claims that before the performance Vitenzon examined the singer's throat and, despite the fact that he found it quite satisfactory, "sprayed with menthol." Godzinsky said that further tours took place against the backdrop of Chaliapin's deteriorating health.
February 2018 marked the 145th anniversary of the birth of the great Russian opera singer. In the house-museum of Chaliapin on Novinsky Boulevard in Moscow, where Fyodor Ivanovich lived with his family since 1910, admirers of creativity widely celebrated his anniversary.
Arias
- Life for the Tsar (Ivan Susanin): Aria Susanina “They smell the truth”
- Ruslan and Lyudmila: Farlaf's Rondo “Oh, joy! I knew"
- Mermaid: Melnik's Aria "Oh, that's all you young girls"
- Prince Igor: Igor's Aria "No Sleep, No Rest"
- Prince Igor: Konchak's Aria "Is it healthy, Prince"
- Sadko: Song of the Varangian guest "O formidable rocks are crushed with the roar of the wave"
- Faust: Aria of Mephistopheles "Darkness descended"
Born in the family of a peasant Ivan Yakovlevich from the village of Syrtsovo, who served in the Zemstvo Council, and Evdokia Mikhailovna from the village of Dudinskaya, Vyatka province.
At first, little Fyodor, trying to put "to the point", was given as an apprentice to the shoemaker N.A. Tonkov, then V.A. Andreev, then to a turner, later to a carpenter.
In early childhood, he developed a beautiful treble voice and often sang with his mother. At the age of 9, he began to sing in the church choir, where he was brought by the regent Shcherbitsky, their neighbor, and began to earn money from weddings and funerals. The father bought a violin for his son at the flea market and Fedor tried to play it.
Later, Fedor entered the 6th city four-year school, where there was a wonderful teacher N.V. Bashmakov, which he graduated with a commendable diploma.
In 1883, Fyodor Chaliapin first got into the theater and then sought to watch all the performances.
From the age of 12, he began to participate in the performances of a touring troupe as an extra.
In 1889 he entered the drama troupe of V.B. Serebryakova as an extra.
On March 29, 1890, Fyodor Chaliapin made his debut with the part of Zaretsky in P.I. Tchaikovsky "Eugene Onegin", staged by the Kazan Society of Performing Art Lovers. Soon he moved from Kazan to Ufa, where he performed in the choir of the troupe S.Ya. Semenov-Samarsky.
In 1893, Fedor Chaliapin moved to Moscow, and in 1894 to St. Petersburg, where he began to sing in the country garden "Arcadia", in the theater of V.A. Panaev and in the troupe of V.I. Zazulin.
In 1895, the directorate of the St. Petersburg Opera Houses accepted him into the troupe of the Mariinsky Theater, where he sang the parts of Mephistopheles in Faust by Charles Gounod and Ruslan in Ruslan and Lyudmila by M.I. Glinka.
In 1896, S.I. Mamontov invited Fyodor Chaliapin to sing in his Moscow private opera and move to Moscow.
In 1899, Fyodor Chaliapin became the leading soloist of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow and, while touring, performed at the Mariinsky Theater with great success.
In 1901, Fyodor Chaliapin gave 10 triumphal performances at La Scala in Milan in Italy and went on a concert tour of Europe.
Since 1914, he began to perform in the private opera companies of S.I. Zimin in Moscow and A.R. Aksarin in Petrograd.
In 1915, Fyodor Chaliapin played the role of Ivan the Terrible in the film drama "Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible" based on L. May's drama "The Maid of Pskov".
In 1917, Fyodor Chaliapin acted as a director, staging D. Verdi's opera Don Carlos at the Bolshoi Theater.
After 1917 he was appointed artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre.
In 1918, Fyodor Chaliapin was awarded the title of People's Artist of the Republic, but in 1922 he went on tour to Europe and stayed there, continuing to perform successfully in America and Europe.
In 1927, Fyodor Chaliapin donated money to a priest in Paris for the children of Russian emigrants, which was presented as assistance to "White Guards in the fight against Soviet power" on May 31, 1927 in the magazine Vserabis by S. Simon. And on August 24, 1927, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, by a decree, deprived him of the title of People's Artist and forbade him to return to the USSR. This decision was canceled by the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR on June 10, 1991 "as unfounded."
In 1932, he starred in the film "The Adventures of Don Quixote" by G. Pabst based on the novel by Cervantes.
In 1932-1936 Fyodor Chaliapin went on tour to the Far East. In China, Japan, Manchuria, he gave 57 concerts.
In 1937 he was diagnosed with leukemia.
On April 12, 1938, Fedor died and was buried in the Batignolles cemetery in Pargiers, France. In 1984, his ashes were transferred to Russia and on October 29, 1984, they were reburied at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
Chaliapin Fedor Ivanovich (1873-1938) is a great Russian chamber and opera singer who brilliantly combined unique vocal skills with acting skills. He performed parts in high bass, soloed at the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theaters, as well as at the Metropolitan Opera. He directed the Mariinsky Theatre, acted in films, became the first People's Artist of the Republic.
Childhood
Fedor was born on February 1, 1873 in the city of Kazan.
The singer's father, Ivan Yakovlevich Chaliapin, was a peasant, originally from the Vyatka province. Mother, Evdokia Mikhailovna (maiden name Prozorova), was also a peasant woman from the Kumenskaya volost, where the village of Dudintsy was located at that time. In the village of Vozhgaly, in the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord, Ivan and Evdokia got married at the very beginning of 1863. And only 10 years later their son Fedor was born, later a boy and a girl appeared in the family.
My father worked in the zemstvo council as an archivist. Mom was engaged in hard day labor, washing people's floors, washing clothes. The family was poor, there was hardly enough money to live on, so Fedor began to be taught various crafts from an early age. The boy was sent to study with a shoemaker and a turner, a woodcarver, a joiner, and a copyist of papers.
Also, from an early age it became clear that the child had excellent hearing and voice, he often sang along with his mother in a beautiful treble.
The Chaliapins' neighbor, church regent Shcherbinin, hearing the boy's singing, brought him with him to St. Barbara's Church, and together they sang the vigil and Mass. After that, at the age of nine, the boy began to sing in the church suburban choir, as well as at village holidays, weddings, prayers and funerals. For the first three months, Fedya sang for free, and then he was given a salary of 1.5 rubles.
Even then, his voice did not leave indifferent listeners, later Fyodor was invited to sing in the churches of neighboring villages. He also had a dream - to play the violin. His father bought him an instrument at a flea market for 2 rubles, and the boy began to learn how to pull the bow on his own.
Once the father came home very drunk and whipped his son for no one knows why. The boy ran off into the fields out of resentment. Lying on the ground near the lake, he sobbed bitterly, and then he suddenly wanted to sing. Having tightened the song, Fedor felt that it became easier on his soul. And when he fell silent, it seemed to him that the song was still flying somewhere nearby, continues to live ...
Young years
Parents, despite poverty, took care to give their son an education. His first educational institution was the private school of Vedernikov, followed by the fourth parish Kazan and the sixth elementary school. The last Chaliapin graduated in 1885, having received a certificate of merit.
In the summer of the same year, Fedor worked as a clerk in the Zemstvo Council, earning 10 rubles a month. And already in the fall, his father arranged for him to study in Arsk, where a vocational school had just opened. For some reason, young Chaliapin really wanted to leave the settlement, it seemed to him that a beautiful country was waiting for him ahead.
But soon the young man was forced to return home to Kazan, because his mother fell ill, and it was necessary to take care of her and her younger brother and sister.
Here he managed to join the theater troupe, which toured Kazan, he participated in performances as an extra. However, Fyodor's father did not like this hobby, he told him: "You have to go to the janitors, and not to the theater, then you will have a piece of bread." But the young Chaliapin was simply sick of the theater from the very day when he first got to the production of the play "Russian Wedding".
The beginning of the theatrical journey
When the young man was 15 years old, he turned to the theater management with a request to listen to him and accept him as a chorister. But at this age, Fedor's voice began to change, and during the audition he did not sing very well. Chaliapin was not accepted, but this did not affect his love for the theater in any way, it only grew stronger every day.
Finally, in 1889, he was accepted as an extra in Serebryakov's dramatic troupe.
In early 1890, Chaliapin made his first appearance as an opera singer. It was "Eugene Onegin" by P. I. Tchaikovsky, the party of Zaretsky. And already in the fall, Fedor left for Ufa, where he entered the local operetta troupe, in many performances he got small roles:
- Stolnik in Moniuszko's "Pebbles";
- Ferrando in "Il trovatore";
- Unknown in "Askold's Grave" by Verstovsky.
And when the theater season ended, a Little Russian traveling troupe arrived in Ufa, Fedor joined it and went on tour in Russian cities, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
In Tiflis, Chaliapin met Professor Dmitry Usatov, who had once served in the Imperial Theater. This meeting turned out to be vital for Fedor, the professor offered him to stay for training, and he did not demand money for this. Moreover, he not only gave voice to the young talent, but also helped him financially. And in early 1893, Chaliapin made his debut at the Tiflis Opera House, where he worked for almost a year, performing the first bass parts.
At the end of 1893, Fedor moved to Moscow, and the following year to the capital, St. Petersburg. The novice actor, his beautiful voice, truthful play and amazing expressiveness of musical recitation attracted the attention of both the public and critics.
In 1895 Fyodor Ivanovich was admitted to the Mariinsky Theatre.
Rise, success and glory
The well-known philanthropist Savva Mamontov lived in Moscow at that time, he kept the opera house and persuaded Chaliapin to go to him, offering a salary three times more than at the Mariinsky Theater. Fedor Ivanovich agreed and worked with Mamontov in the theater for about four years from 1896. Here he had the repertoire that allowed him to show all his temperament and artistic talent.
Since 1899, Chaliapin entered the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, the success of his performances was grandiose. Then they often liked to repeat that there are three miracles in Moscow - the Tsar Bell, the Tsar Cannon and the Tsar Bass (this is about Chaliapin). And when he came on tour to the Mariinsky stage, for St. Petersburg it became a grandiose event in the world of art.
In 1901, ten of his performances took place at Milan's La Scala. The fee for the tour was unheard of at that time, now Fyodor Ivanovich was increasingly being invited abroad.
They say about Chaliapin that he is the best bass of all peoples and times. His first of the Russian singers was recognized in the world. He created unique and great images in opera that to this day no one can surpass. They say that you can sing an opera, but never surpass Chaliapin.
Critics argue that it was only thanks to the opera parts performed by him that many Russian composers received world recognition.
| Work | Composer | The image created by Chaliapin |
| "Mermaid" | Dargomyzhsky A. | Miller |
| "The Barber of Seville" | G. Rossini | Don Basilio |
| "Boris Godunov" | Mussorgsky M. | monk Varlaam and Boris Godunov |
| "Mephistopheles" | A. Boito | Mephistopheles |
| "Ivan Susanin" | Glinka M. | Ivan Susanin |
| "Pskovite" | N. Rimsky-Korsakov | Ivan groznyj |
| Ruslan | Glinka M. | "Ruslan and Ludmila" |
In 1915, Fedor Ivanovich made his film debut, playing the role of Tsar Ivan the Terrible.
Since 1918, he directed the Mariinsky Theater and at the same time was the first to receive the title of People's Artist of the Republic.
The general repertoire of the singer consists of 70 opera parts and about 400 romances and songs.
No wonder Maxim Gorky said about Chaliapin: "In Russian art, he is an era, like Pushkin."
Personal life
The first wife of Fyodor Chaliapin was Iola Tornaghi. They say that opposites attract, probably following this law, they, completely different, were so strongly attracted to each other.
He, tall and bassist, she, a thin and small ballerina. He did not know a word of Italian, she did not understand Russian at all.
The Italian young ballerina was a real star in her homeland, at the age of 18 Iola became the prima of the Venetian theater. Then followed Milan, French Lyon. And then Savva Mamontov invited her troupe on tour to Russia. It was here that Iola and Fyodor met. He liked her immediately, and the young man began to show all sorts of signs of attention. The girl, on the contrary, remained cold to Chaliapin for a long time.
Once, during the tour, Iola fell ill, and Fedor came to visit her with a pot of chicken broth. Gradually, they began to get closer, an affair began, and in 1898 the couple got married in a small village church.
The wedding was modest, and a year later the first-born Igor appeared. Iola left the stage for the sake of her family, and Chaliapin began touring even more in order to earn a decent living for his wife and child. Soon two girls were born in the family, but in 1903 grief happened - the first-born Igor died of appendicitis. Fedor Ivanovich could hardly survive this grief, they say that he even wanted to commit suicide.
In 1904, the wife gave Chaliapin another son Borenka, and the following year they had twins - Tanya and Fedya.
But a friendly family and a happy fairy tale collapsed in one moment. In St. Petersburg, Chaliapin had a new love. Moreover, Maria Petzold was not just a mistress, she became the second wife and mother of three daughters of Fyodor Ivanovich. The singer was torn between Moscow and St. Petersburg, and touring, and two families, he flatly refused to leave his beloved Tornagi and five children.
When Iola found out everything, she hid the truth from the children for a long time.
In 1922, Chaliapin emigrated from the country with his second wife, Maria Petzold, and their daughters. Only in 1927 in Prague they officially registered their marriage.
The Italian Iola Tornaghi stayed in Moscow with her children, survived here both the revolution and the war. She returned to her homeland in Italy only a few years before her death, taking with her from Russia only a photo album with portraits of Chaliapin.
Of all the children of Chaliapin, Marina was the last to die in 2009 (daughter of Fyodor Ivanovich and Maria Petzold).
Emigration and death
In 1922, the singer went on tour to the United States, from where he never returned to Russia. At home, he was deprived of the title of People's Artist.
In the summer of 1932, he starred in a sound film, where he played Don Quixote. And in 1935-1936 his last tour took place, he gave 57 concerts in Japan and China, Manchuria and the Far East.
In the spring of 1937, doctors diagnosed Chaliapin with leukemia. A year later, on April 12, 1938, he died in Paris in the arms of his second wife. He was buried in the Batignolles cemetery. In 1984, the ashes of the singer were transported from France to Russia. In 1991, the decision was canceled to deprive Chaliapin of the title of People's Artist.
Fedor Ivanovich returned to his homeland ...
