Music section publications

10 facts about Fyodor Chaliapin

Fedor Chaliapin was an artist known to the whole world: he performed on the most famous stages in different countries. We have collected 10 interesting facts about the singer's life. Read how Chaliapin failed his theatrical debut, entered into a contract with La Scala without knowing Italian, and violated court etiquette in the royal box of the London theater.

Baby Fyodor Shlyapkin

Fyodor Chaliapin changed his surname in infancy. The singer was born in a windy and frosty February, frail and sickly, nothing foreshadowed that a hero would later grow out of this crumb. Parents were worried: as if he had not left this world unbaptized. It was very cool in the Epiphany Cathedral in Kazan, the priest who baptized the baby decided to conduct the ceremony in an abbreviated form, so as not to completely catch a cold and freeze the child. The church clerk was also in a hurry, who made a mistake in a hurry, writing in the church book “baby Fyodor Shlyapkin”, distorting the name of Chaliapin. In this form, several years ago, researchers of the singer's work found it in the archive.

Ilya Repin. Portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin. 1882

Valentin Serov. Portrait of the artist F.I. Chaliapin. 1905. State Tretyakov Gallery

Leonid Pasternak. Portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin. 1913

First teacher - regent

Chaliapin could not be called a very religious person, but his interest in singing came to him after he once accidentally went to an evening service in a church and heard the church choir. Most of all, he was struck by the boys - his peers, who sang from the notes. By chance, the regent of the church choir lived in the same house with the Chaliapin family, who checked the young Fyodor's hearing, made sure that everything was in order with this and his voice, and gave him a couple of lessons in musical literacy. After them, the future great bass learned to read music and soon got into the church choir. Here he had his first vocal performance.

Two days without food and water

Fyodor Chaliapin made his debut on the stage in the dramatic play "The Tramps", he was entrusted with the role of the gendarme Roger. More precisely, this debut did not take place. When Chaliapin stepped onto the stage of the Panaevsky Garden in Kazan, he fell into a stupor. From behind the scenes, he was prompted, then shouted - in vain. The curtain was lowered, the director tore off the costume from the unsuccessful actor. Chaliapin climbed over the fence, ran wherever his eyes looked. For two days, without food or water, he sat in a shed, afraid to go out. It seemed to him that the whole city knew about his shame. By the way, excitement and shyness, despite world fame, remained in his character.

"I'm madly in love with Tornagi!"

Chaliapin was quite an amorous person and went through several novels before his first marriage. But the Italian ballerina Iola Tornaghi, with whom he was in the same troupe, seriously turned his head. Fedor Ivanovich came up with a very witty way of explaining his love to her. He redid the lines in Gremin's aria in "Eugene Onegin" and instead of the "Onegin, I won't hide, I'm madly in love with Tatyana" sang "Onegin, I swear on the sword, I'm madly in love with Tornagi". It is incomprehensible how Iola, who did not know the Russian language at that time, could understand this, but consent to the marriage was received.

Fyodor Chaliapin. Photo: rufact.org

Fyodor Chaliapin. Photo: chtoby-pomnili.com

Fyodor Chaliapin and Iola Tornaghi. 1890-1900 years. Photo: aif.ru

The first pancake is lumpy

The first big part of Chaliapin on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater was Ruslan, the singer had only two weeks to prepare for the performance, which turned out to be insufficient. It was, if not a resounding failure, then a clear failure, after which Chaliapin was put an end to for some time and only small parties were entrusted to him. Chaliapin, although he was only 21 years old, reacted wisely to the situation and later often said that this situation “knocked his self-confidence out of him forever.”

Fabulous fee

When Fyodor Chaliapin received a telegram from La Scala with a proposal to perform the role of Mephistopheles in Boito's opera on this stage, the singer at first thought it was a hoax. He even sent a counter telegram to the theater with a request to duplicate the first one. And when I realized that everything was serious, they weren’t playing him, I was terribly scared. In order for the theater to withdraw its invitation, Chaliapin appointed a fabulous fee by the standards of those years, in the hope that the contract would not be signed. But the theater accepted the conditions of the Russian bass. Which, however, did not yet sing in Italian.

Fyodor Chaliapin in the title role in a production of Modest Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov. Photo: chtoby-pomnili.com

Fyodor Chaliapin as Ivan the Terrible in a production of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Maid of Pskov. 1898 Photo: chrono.ru

Fyodor Chaliapin as Prince Galitsky in the production of Alexander Borodin's opera "Prince Igor". Photo: chrono.ru

king and king

On tour in London with the troupe of Sergei Diaghilev, Chaliapin performed the part of Boris Godunov in the opera of the same name. One of the performances in the hall was attended by the King of England. He was amazed by the Russian bass and conveyed an invitation to the singer to enter the royal box. It was possible to enter the king's box only through the hall, which Chaliapin did right in the make-up and costume of Tsar Boris, who had just gone crazy. There was a pause in the royal box, the king was silent for some reason, then Chaliapin, who decided that the monarch was shy before the greatness of Russian music, spoke to him first. What violated etiquette. But the king was so moved that the singer got away with it.

Expensive watch from the emperor

Chaliapin was not at all shy in front of the powers that be. Once Emperor Nicholas II sent him a gold watch as a gift. It seemed to Chaliapin that they were not expensive enough, those that were on his hand were much more expensive. And he sent this gift to the director of the Imperial Theaters, Telyakovsky, along with a letter in which he explained why he was doing this. Telyakovsky somehow managed to settle the incident, and Chaliapin received a new watch case from the emperor. This time the watch was very expensive. Konstantin Korovin. Portrait of the artist F.I. Chaliapin. 1911. GRM

Konstantin Korovin. Portrait of the artist F.I. Chaliapin. 1905. Private collection

Did not join the party

Chaliapin sympathized with the socialist movement for many years and even somehow decided to join the party. Once, while walking around Capri with Gorky, Fedor Ivanovich asked the writer for advice: "Shouldn't I, Alexei Maksimovich, join the Social-Democratic Party?" Gorky looked at him sternly and replied: “You are not fit for this. Don't join any parties, be an artist, that's enough for you.". In the future, Chaliapin was very grateful to Gorky for this advice.

Fedor Ivanovich Chaliapin is a great Russian chamber and opera singer who brilliantly combined unique vocal abilities 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.

Fedor Ivanovich Chaliapin was born (1) February 13, 1873 in Kazan, in the family of a peasant Ivan Yakovlevich Chaliapin, a representative of the ancient Vyatka family of Chaliapins. 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.

Fedor worked as an apprentice shoemaker, turner, copyist. At the same time, he sang in the bishop's choir. From a young age he was fond of theater. 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.

In 1890, Fedor became a chorister of the opera troupe in Ufa, since 1891 he traveled around the cities of Russia with the Ukrainian operetta troupe. In 1892-1893 he studied with the opera singer D.A. Usatov in Tbilisi, where he began his professional stage activities. In the 1893-1894 season, Chaliapin performed the roles of Mephistopheles (Gounod's Faust), Miller (Dargomyzhsky's Mermaid) and many others.

In 1895 he was accepted into the troupe of the Mariinsky Theater and sang several roles.

In 1896, at the invitation of Mamontov, he entered the Moscow Private Russian Opera, where his talent was revealed. Of particular importance for Chaliapin were classes and subsequent creative friendship with Rachmaninov.

Over the years of work in the theater, Chaliapin performed almost all the main parts of his repertoire: Susanin (Glinka's Ivan Susanin), Melnik (Dargomyzhsky's Mermaid), Boris Godunov, Varlaam and Dosifey (Boris Godunov and Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina), Ivan Grozny and Salieri (The Maid of Pskov and Mozart and Salieri by Rimsky-Korsakov), Holofernes (Judith by Serov), Nilakanta (Delibes' Lakme) and others.

Chaliapin had great success during the tour of the Moscow Private Russian Opera in St. Petersburg in 1898. Since 1899, he sang at the Bolshoi and at the same time at the Mariinsky Theater, as well as in provincial cities.

In 1901, he triumphantly performed in Italy (at the La Scala Theatre), after which his constant tours abroad began, which brought the singer world fame. Of particular importance was the participation of Chaliapin in the Russian Seasons (1907-1909, 1913, Paris), as a propagandist of Russian art and, above all, the work of Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov. Fyodor Ivanovich had a special friendship with Maxim Gorky.

The first wife of Fyodor Chaliapin was Iola Tornagi (1874 - 1965?). 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.

Iola Tornagi, the first wife of Fyodor Chaliapin, surrounded by children - Irina, Boris, Lydia, Fyodor and Tatyana. Reproduction. Photo: RIA Novosti / K. Kartashyan

But a friendly family and a happy fairy tale collapsed in one moment. In St. Petersburg, Chaliapin had a new love. Moreover, Maria Petzold (1882-1964) was not just a mistress, she became the second wife and mother of Fedor Ivanovich's three daughters: Martha (1910-2003), Marina (1912-2009, Miss Russia 1931, actress) and Dasia (1921 —1977). 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.

Konstantin Makovsky - Portrait of Iola Tornaga

After the victory of the October Revolution of 1917, Chaliapin was appointed artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre, but in 1922, having gone abroad on tour, he did not return to the Soviet Union and remained in Paris. 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. Iola Tornagi lived for 91 years

Of all the children of Chaliapin, Marina was the last to die in 2009 (daughter of Fyodor Ivanovich and Maria Petzold).

Kustodiev Boris Mikhailovich Portrait Portrait of M. Chaliapina. 1919

(Portrait of Maria Valentinovna Petzold)

In 1927, Chaliapin was deprived of the citizenship of the USSR and his title was taken away. At the end of the summer of 1932, the actor starred in films, playing the title role in Georg Pabst's film The Adventures of Don Quixote, based on the novel of the same name by Cervantes. The film was shot in two languages ​​at once - English and French, with two casts. In 1991, Fedor Chaliapin was reinstated in rank.

Deep interpreter of romances M.I. Glinka, A.S. Dargomyzhsky, M.P. Mussorgsky, N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, P.I. Tchaikovsky, A.G. Rubinstein, Schumann, Schubert - he was also a soulful performer of Russian folk songs.

Chaliapin's multifaceted artistic talent manifested itself in his talented sculptural, painting, and graphic works. He also had a literary gift.

K. A. Korovin. Portrait of Chaliapin. Oil. 1911

Drawings, portraits of Fyodor Chaliapin can be viewed

• Married to

Russian opera and chamber singer (high bass).
First People's Artist of the Republic (1918-1927, the title was returned in 1991).

The son of a peasant in the Vyatka province Ivan Yakovlevich Chaliapin (1837-1901), a representative of the ancient Vyatka family of the Chaliapins (Shelepins). Chaliapin's mother is a peasant woman from the village of Dudintsy, Kumensky volost (Kumensky district of the Kirov region), Evdokia Mikhailovna (nee Prozorova).
As a child, Fedor was a singer. As a boy, he was sent to study shoemaking to shoemakers N.A. Tonkov, then V.A. Andreev. He received his primary education at Vedernikova's private school, then at the Fourth Parish School in Kazan, and later at the Sixth Primary School.

Chaliapin himself considered the beginning of his artistic career in 1889, when he entered the drama troupe of V.B. Serebryakova, first as an extra.

On March 29, 1890, the first solo performance took place - the part of Zaretsky in the opera "Eugene Onegin", staged by the Kazan Society of Performing Art Lovers. Throughout May and the beginning of June 1890, he was the chorister of the operetta entreprise V.B. Serebryakova. In September 1890, he arrived from Kazan in Ufa and began working in the choir of the operetta troupe under the direction of S.Ya. Semyonov-Samarsky.
Quite by chance, I had to transform from a chorister into a soloist, replacing the sick artist in Moniuszko's opera "Pebbles" in the role of Stolnik.
This debut brought forward a 17-year-old boy who was occasionally entrusted with small operatic roles, such as Ferrando in Il trovatore. The following year, he performed as the Unknown in Verstovsky's Askold's Grave. He was offered a place in the Ufa Zemstvo, but the Little Russian troupe of Derkach arrived in Ufa, to which Chaliapin joined. Wanderings with her brought him to Tiflis, where for the first time he managed to seriously take up his voice, thanks to the singer D.A. Usatov. Usatov not only approved of Chaliapin's voice, but, in view of the latter's lack of financial resources, he began to give him singing lessons for free and generally took a great part in it. He also arranged Chaliapin in the Tiflis opera of Ludwigov-Forcatti and Lyubimov. Chaliapin lived in Tiflis for a whole year, performing the first bass parts in the opera.

In 1893 he moved to Moscow, and in 1894 - to St. Petersburg, where he sang in "Arcadia" in the Lentovsky Opera Company, and in the winter of 1894-1895. - in the opera partnership at the Panaevsky Theater, in the troupe of Zazulin. The beautiful voice of the novice artist, and especially the expressive musical recitation in connection with the truthful play, drew the attention of critics and the public to him.
In 1895, he was accepted by the directorate of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theaters into the opera troupe: he entered the stage of the Mariinsky Theater and successfully sang the parts of Mephistopheles (Faust) and Ruslan (Ruslan and Lyudmila). The diverse talent of Chaliapin was also expressed in the comic opera The Secret Marriage by D. Cimarosa, but still did not receive due appreciation. It is reported that in the 1895-1896 season he "appeared quite rarely and, moreover, in parties that were not very suitable for him." Well-known philanthropist S.I. Mamontov, who at that time held an opera house in Moscow, was the first to notice an extraordinary talent in Chaliapin and persuaded him to join his private troupe. Here, in 1896-1899, Chaliapin developed in the artistic sense and developed his stage talent, performing in a number of responsible roles. Thanks to his subtle understanding of Russian music in general and the latest in particular, he completely individually, but at the same time deeply truthfully created a number of significant images of Russian opera classics:
Ivan the Terrible in "Pskovityanka" by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov; Varangian guest in his own "Sadko"; Salieri in his own "Mozart and Salieri"; Melnik in "Mermaid" by A.S. Dargomyzhsky; Ivan Susanin in "Life for the Tsar" by M.I. Glinka; Boris Godunov in the opera of the same name by M.P. Mussorgsky, Dositheus in his own "Khovanshchina" and in many other operas.
At the same time, he worked hard on roles in foreign operas; so, for example, the role of Mephistopheles in Gounod's Faust in his transmission received amazingly bright, strong and peculiar coverage. Over the years, Chaliapin has gained great fame.

Chaliapin was a soloist of the Russian Private Opera, created by S.I. Mamontov, for four seasons - from 1896 to 1899. In his autobiographical book "Mask and Soul", Chaliapin characterizes these years of his creative life as the most important: "I received from Mamontov the repertoire that gave me the opportunity to develop all the main features of my artistic nature, my temperament."

Since 1899, he was again in the service of the Imperial Russian Opera in Moscow (Bolshoi Theatre), where he enjoyed tremendous success. He was highly appreciated in Milan, where he performed at the La Scala theater in the title role of Mephistopheles A. Boito (1901, 10 performances). Chaliapin's tours in St. Petersburg on the Mariinsky stage constituted a kind of event in the St. Petersburg musical world.
During the revolution of 1905 he donated the proceeds from his speeches to the workers. His performances with folk songs ("Dubinushka" and others) sometimes turned into political demonstrations.
Since 1914, he has been performing in private opera entreprises of S.I. Zimina (Moscow), A.R. Aksarina (Petrograd).
In 1915, he made his film debut, the main role (Tsar Ivan the Terrible) in the historical film drama Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible (based on the drama of Leo Mei's The Maid of Pskov).

In 1917, in a production of G. Verdi's opera Don Carlos in Moscow, he performed not only as a soloist (Philip's part), but also as a director. His next directing experience was the opera "Mermaid" by A.S. Dargomyzhsky.

In 1918-1921 he was artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre.
Since 1922 - on tour abroad, in particular in the USA, where Solomon Yurok was his American impresario. The singer went there with his second wife, Maria Valentinovna.

The long absence of Chaliapin aroused suspicion and negative attitudes in Soviet Russia; so, in 1926 V.V. Mayakovsky wrote in his Letter to Gorky:
Or you live
How does Chaliapin live?
with stifled applause olyapan?
come back
Now
such an artist
back
to Russian rubles -
I'll be the first to shout
- Roll back
People's Artist of the Republic!

In 1927, Chaliapin donated the proceeds from one of the concerts to the children of emigrants, which was presented on May 31, 1927 in the VSERABIS magazine by a certain VSERABIS employee S. Simon as support for the White Guards. This story is told in detail in Chaliapin's autobiography Mask and Soul. On August 24, 1927, by a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, he was deprived of the title of People's Artist and the right to return to the USSR; this was justified by the fact that he did not want to “return to Russia and serve the people whose artist title he was awarded” or, according to other sources, by the fact that he allegedly donated money to monarchist emigrants.

At the end of the summer of 1932, he played the main role in the film "Don Quixote" by the Austrian film director Georg Pabst based on the novel of the same name by Cervantes. The film was filmed immediately in two languages ​​- English and French, with two casts, the music for the film was written by Jacques Ibert. Filming on location took place near the city of Nice.
In 1935-1936, the singer went on his last tour to the Far East, giving 57 concerts in Manchuria, China and Japan. During the tour, Georges de Godzinsky was his accompanist. In the spring of 1937, he was diagnosed with leukemia, and on April 12, 1938, he died in Paris in the arms of his wife. He was buried in the Batignolles cemetery in Paris. In 1984, his son Fyodor Chaliapin Jr. achieved the reburial of his ashes in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

On June 10, 1991, 53 years after the death of Fyodor Chaliapin, the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR adopted Resolution No. 317: "Repeal the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR of August 24, 1927 "On depriving F.I. Chaliapin of the title" People's Artist "as unreasonable."

Chaliapin was married twice, and from both marriages he had 9 children (one died at an early age from appendicitis).
Fyodor Chaliapin met his first wife in Nizhny Novgorod, and they got married in 1898 in the church of the village of Gagino. It was a young Italian ballerina Iola Tornaghi (Iola Ignatievna Le-Presti (based on the stage of Tornaghi), died in 1965 at the age of 92), who was born in the city of Monza (not far from Milan). In total, Chaliapin had six children in this marriage: Igor (died at the age of 4), Boris, Fedor, Tatyana, Irina, Lydia. Fedor and Tatyana were twins. Iola Tornaghi lived in Russia for a long time and only at the end of the 1950s, at the invitation of her son Fyodor, she moved to Rome.
Already having a family, Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin becomes close to Maria Valentinovna Petzold (née Elukhen, in her first marriage - Petzold, 1882-1964), who had two of her children from her first marriage. They have three daughters: Marfa (1910-2003), Marina (1912-2009) and Dasia (1921-1977). Chaliapin's daughter Marina (Marina Fedorovna Chaliapin-Freddy), lived longer than all his children and died at the age of 98.
In fact, Chaliapin had a second family. The first marriage was not dissolved, and the second was not registered and was considered invalid. It turned out that Chaliapin had one family in the old capital, and another in the new one: one family did not go to St. Petersburg, and the other did not go to Moscow. Officially, the marriage of Maria Valentinovna with Chaliapin was formalized in 1927 already in Paris.

prizes and awards

1902 - Order of the Golden Star of Bukhara III degree.
1907 - Golden Cross of the Prussian Eagle.
1910 - the title of Soloist of His Majesty (Russia).
1912 - the title of Soloist of His Majesty the Italian King.
1913 - the title of Soloist of His Majesty the English King.
1914 - English order for special merit in the field of art.
1914 - Russian order of Stanislav III degree.
1925 - Commander of the Order of the Legion of Honor (France).

Fedor Ivanovich Chaliapin was born on February 13, 1873 in Kazan, in a poor family of Ivan Yakovlevich Chaliapin, a peasant from the village of Syrtsovo, Vyatka province. Mother, Evdokia (Avdotya) Mikhailovna (nee Prozorova), originally from the village of Dudinskaya in the same province. Already in childhood, Fedor had a beautiful voice (treble) and often sang along with his mother, "adjusting his voice." From the age of nine he sang in church choirs, tried to learn to play the violin, read a lot, but was forced to work as an apprentice shoemaker, turner, carpenter, bookbinder, copyist. At the age of twelve, he participated in the performances of a troupe touring in Kazan as an extra. An irrepressible craving for the theater led him to various acting troupes, with which he wandered around the cities of the Volga region, the Caucasus, Central Asia, working either as a loader or a hooker on the pier, often starving and spending the night on benches.

"... Apparently, even in the modest role of a chorister, I managed to show my natural musicality and not bad voice means. When one day one of the baritones of the troupe suddenly, on the eve of the performance, for some reason refused the role of Stolnik in Moniuszko's opera "Galka", and replaced him there was no one in the troupe, then the entrepreneur Semyonov-Samarsky turned to me - would I agree to sing this part. Despite my extreme shyness, I agreed. It was too tempting: the first serious role in my life. I quickly learned the part and performed.

Despite the sad incident in this performance (I sat down on the stage past a chair), Semyonov-Samarsky was nevertheless moved by both my singing and my conscientious desire to portray something similar to a Polish magnate. He added five rubles to my salary and also began to entrust me with other roles. I still think superstitiously: a good sign for a beginner in the first performance on stage in front of an audience is to sit by the chair. Throughout my subsequent career, however, I vigilantly watched the chair and was afraid not only to sit by, but also to sit in the chair of another ...

In this first season of mine, I also sang Fernando in Il trovatore and Neizvestny in Askold's Grave. Success finally strengthened my decision to devote myself to the theater."

Then the young singer moved to Tiflis, where he took free singing lessons from the famous singer D. Usatov, performed in amateur and student concerts. In 1894 he sang in performances that took place in the St. Petersburg suburban garden "Arcadia", then in the Panaevsky Theater. On April 5, 1895, he made his debut as Mephistopheles in Gounod's Faust at the Mariinsky Theatre.

In 1896, Chaliapin was invited by S. Mamontov to the Moscow Private Opera, where he took a leading position and fully revealed his talent, creating over the years of work in this theater a whole gallery of unforgettable images in Russian operas: Ivan the Terrible in N. Rimsky's The Maid of Pskov -Korsakov (1896); Dositheus in M. Mussorgsky's "Khovanshchina" (1897); Boris Godunov in the opera of the same name by M. Mussorgsky (1898) and others.

Communication in the Mammoth Theater with the best artists of Russia (V. Polenov, V. and A. Vasnetsov, I. Levitan, V. Serov, M. Vrubel, K. Korovin and others) gave the singer powerful incentives for creativity: their scenery and costumes helped in creating a compelling stage presence. The singer prepared a number of opera parts in the theater with the then novice conductor and composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. Creative friendship united two great artists until the end of their lives. Rachmaninov dedicated several romances to the singer, including "Fate" (verses by A. Apukhtin), "You knew him" (verses by F. Tyutchev).

The deeply national art of the singer delighted his contemporaries. “In Russian art, Chaliapin is an era, like Pushkin,” wrote M. Gorky. Based on the best traditions of the national vocal school, Chaliapin opened a new era in the national musical theater. He managed to surprisingly organically combine the two most important principles of opera art - dramatic and musical - to subordinate his tragic gift, unique stage plasticity and deep musicality to a single artistic concept.

From September 24, 1899, Chaliapin, the leading soloist of the Bolshoi and at the same time the Mariinsky Theater, toured abroad with triumphant success. In 1901, in Milan's La Scala, he sang with great success the part of Mephistopheles in the opera of the same name by A. Boito with E. Caruso, conducted by A. Toscanini. The world fame of the Russian singer was confirmed by tours in Rome (1904), Monte Carlo (1905), Orange (France, 1905), Berlin (1907), New York (1908), Paris (1908), London (1913/14). The divine beauty of Chaliapin's voice captivated listeners of all countries. His high bass, delivered by nature, with a velvety, soft timbre, sounded full-blooded, powerful and had a rich palette of vocal intonations. The effect of artistic transformation amazed the listeners - there is not only an external appearance, but also a deep inner content, which was conveyed by the vocal speech of the singer. In creating capacious and scenically expressive images, the singer is helped by his extraordinary versatility: he is both a sculptor and an artist, writes poetry and prose. Such a versatile talent of the great artist is reminiscent of the masters of the Renaissance - it is no coincidence that contemporaries compared his opera heroes with the titans of Michelangelo. The art of Chaliapin crossed national borders and influenced the development of the world opera house. Many Western conductors, artists and singers could repeat the words of the Italian conductor and composer D. Gavazeni: “Chaliapin’s innovation in the sphere of the dramatic truth of opera art had a strong impact on the Italian theater ... The dramatic art of the great Russian artist left a deep and lasting mark not only in the field of performance Russian operas by Italian singers, but in general, on the whole style of their vocal and stage interpretation, including works by Verdi ... "

"Chaliapin was attracted by the characters of strong people, seized with an idea and passion, experiencing a deep emotional drama, as well as vivid comedy images," notes D.N. Lebedev. "With amazing truthfulness and strength, Chaliapin reveals the tragedy of an unfortunate father distraught with grief in "Mermaid" or painful mental discord and remorse experienced by Boris Godunov.

In sympathy for human suffering, high humanism is manifested - an inalienable property of progressive Russian art, based on nationality, on purity and depth of feelings. In this nationality, which filled the whole being and all the work of Chaliapin, the strength of his talent is rooted, the secret of his persuasiveness, intelligibility to everyone, even to an inexperienced person.

Chaliapin is categorically against simulated, artificial emotionality: “All music always expresses feelings in one way or another, and where there are feelings, mechanical transmission leaves the impression of terrible monotony. A spectacular aria sounds cold and formal if the intonation of the phrase is not developed in it, if the sound is not colored with the necessary shades of emotions. Western music also needs this intonation ... which I recognized as obligatory for the transmission of Russian music, although it has less psychological vibration than Russian music.

Chaliapin is characterized by a bright, rich concert activity. Listeners were invariably delighted with his performance of the romances The Miller, The Old Corporal, Dargomyzhsky's Titular Counselor, The Seminarist, Mussorgsky's Trepak, Glinka's Doubt, Rimsky-Korsakov's The Prophet, Tchaikovsky's The Nightingale, The Double Schubert, “I am not angry”, “In a dream I wept bitterly” by Schumann.

Here is what the remarkable Russian musicologist academician B. Asafiev wrote about this side of the singer's creative activity:

“Chaliapin sang truly chamber music, sometimes so concentrated, so deep that it seemed that he had nothing to do with the theater and never resorted to the emphasis on accessories and the appearance of expression required by the scene. Perfect calmness and restraint took possession of him. For example, I remember Schumann’s “In my dream I wept bitterly” - one sound, a voice in silence, a modest, hidden emotion, but it’s as if there is no performer, and there is no this large, cheerful, generous with humor, affection, clear person. The voice sounds lonely - and everything is in the voice: all the depth and fullness of the human heart ... The face is motionless, the eyes are extremely expressive, but in a special way, not like, say, Mephistopheles in the famous scene with students or in a sarcastic serenade: there they burned maliciously, mockingly, and then the eyes of a man who felt the elements of sorrow, but who understood that only in the harsh discipline of the mind and heart - in the rhythm of all its manifestations - does a person gain power over both passions and suffering.

The press loved to calculate the artist's fees, supporting the myth of fabulous wealth, Chaliapin's greed. What if this myth is refuted by posters and programs of many charity concerts, famous performances of the singer in Kyiv, Kharkov and Petrograd in front of a huge working audience? Idle rumors, newspaper rumors and gossip more than once forced the artist to take up his pen, refute sensations and speculation, and clarify the facts of his own biography. Useless!

During the First World War, Chaliapin's tours ceased. The singer opened two infirmaries for wounded soldiers at his own expense, but did not advertise his "good deeds". Lawyer M.F. Volkenstein, who managed the singer’s financial affairs for many years, recalled: “If only they knew how much Chaliapin’s money went through my hands to help those who needed it!”

After the October Revolution of 1917, Fyodor Ivanovich was engaged in the creative reconstruction of the former imperial theaters, was an elected member of the directorates of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theaters, and in 1918 directed the artistic part of the latter. In the same year, he was the first of the artists to be awarded the title of People's Artist of the Republic. The singer sought to get away from politics, in the book of his memoirs he wrote: “If in my life I was anything but an actor and a singer, I was completely devoted to my vocation. But least of all I was a politician.”

Outwardly, it might seem that Chaliapin's life is prosperous and creatively rich. He is invited to perform at official concerts, he also performs a lot for the general public, he is awarded honorary titles, asked to head the work of various kinds of artistic juries, theater councils. But then there are sharp calls to "socialize Chaliapin", "put his talent at the service of the people", doubts are often expressed about the "class loyalty" of the singer. Someone demands the obligatory involvement of his family in the performance of labor service, someone makes direct threats to the former artist of the imperial theaters ... "I saw more and more clearly that no one needs what I can do, that there is no point in my work" , - the artist admitted.

Of course, Chaliapin could protect himself from the arbitrariness of zealous functionaries by making a personal request to Lunacharsky, Peters, Dzerzhinsky, Zinoviev. But to be in constant dependence on the orders of even such high-ranking officials of the administrative-party hierarchy is humiliating for an artist. In addition, they often did not guarantee full social security and certainly did not inspire confidence in the future.

In the spring of 1922, Chaliapin did not return from foreign tours, although for some time he continued to consider his non-return to be temporary. The home environment played a significant role in what happened. Caring for children, the fear of leaving them without a livelihood forced Fedor Ivanovich to agree to endless tours. The eldest daughter Irina remained to live in Moscow with her husband and mother, Paula Ignatievna Tornagi-Chaliapina. Other children from the first marriage - Lydia, Boris, Fedor, Tatyana - and children from the second marriage - Marina, Martha, Dassia and the children of Maria Valentinovna (second wife), Edward and Stella, lived with them in Paris. Chaliapin was especially proud of his son Boris, who, according to N. Benois, achieved "great success as a landscape and portrait painter." Fyodor Ivanovich willingly posed for his son; portraits and sketches of his father made by Boris "are priceless monuments to the great artist ...".

In a foreign land, the singer enjoyed constant success, touring in almost all countries of the world - in England, America, Canada, China, Japan, and the Hawaiian Islands. From 1930, Chaliapin performed in the Russian Opera company, whose performances were famous for their high level of staging culture. The operas Mermaid, Boris Godunov, and Prince Igor were especially successful in Paris. In 1935, Chaliapin was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Music (together with A. Toscanini) and was awarded an academic diploma. Chaliapin's repertoire included about 70 parts. In operas by Russian composers, he created images of Melnik (Mermaid), Ivan Susanin (Ivan Susanin), Boris Godunov and Varlaam (Boris Godunov), Ivan the Terrible (The Maid of Pskov) and many others, unsurpassed in strength and truth of life. . Among the best parts in Western European opera are Mephistopheles (Faust and Mephistopheles), Don Basilio (The Barber of Seville), Leporello (Don Giovanni), Don Quixote (Don Quixote). Just as great was Chaliapin in chamber vocal performance. Here he introduced an element of theatricality and created a kind of "romance theater". His repertoire included up to four hundred songs, romances and other genres of chamber and vocal music. Among the masterpieces of performing arts are "Bloch", "Forgotten", "Trepak" by Mussorgsky, "Night Review" by Glinka, "Prophet" by Rimsky-Korsakov, "Two Grenadiers" by R. Schumann, "Double" by F. Schubert, as well as Russian folk songs “Farewell, joy”, “They don’t tell Masha to go beyond the river”, “Because of the island to the core”.

In the 20-30s he made about three hundred records. “I love gramophone records ... - Fedor Ivanovich admitted. “I am excited and creatively excited by the idea that the microphone symbolizes not some particular audience, but millions of listeners.” The singer was very picky about recordings, among his favorites is the recording of Massenet's "Elegy", Russian folk songs, which he included in his concert programs throughout his creative life. According to Asafiev's recollection, "the great, powerful, inescapable breath of the great singer sated the melody, and, it was heard, there was no limit to the fields and steppes of our Motherland."

On August 24, 1927, the Council of People's Commissars adopts a resolution depriving Chaliapin of the title of People's Artist. Gorky did not believe in the possibility of removing the title of People's Artist from Chaliapin, which was already rumored in the spring of 1927: will do." However, in reality, everything happened differently, not at all the way Gorky imagined ...

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.

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 ...