Biography of f Shalyapin summary. In which operas did Chaliapin perform the main parts? "Woman of Pskov" (Ivan the Terrible), "Life for the Tsar" (Ivan Susanin), "Mozart and Salieri" (Salieri)

Fedor Fedorovich Chaliapin was none other than the son of the famous Russian opera bass Chaliapin. He possessed a great acting talent, which was recognized both in Europe and in the USA. The list of films in which he starred is quite large, because he was doing this from 1926 to 1991.

Chaliapin Fedor Fedorovich: biography

He was born on October 6, 1905 and lived until September 17, 1992. Moscow became the hometown of Chaliapin. The first wife of his father, the Italian prima ballerina Iola Tornaghi, became the mother of the twins Fedor and Tatiana. By the way, in this marriage they had four more children.

Son Fedor received an excellent education in Moscow and could speak three languages. A little later, after the Bolshevik revolution (in 1924), he left his family and moved to his father in Paris. It is known that Boris, his native brother, became an artist and quite famous.

Soon, however, Fedor Fedorovich Chaliapin got tired of being in the shadow of his father and left France for Hollywood, where he began acting career... Then they shot a silent movie. His career started well, he was lucky, because then he spoke with a noticeable accent.

Acting profession

However, he did not get the main roles. The time of the onset of the sound film did not bring Fyodor much fame. But nevertheless, Fedor Fedorovich Chaliapin played the role of the dying Kashkin perfectly in the film For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943). The audience remembered and recognized him very well.

After the end of the war, he went to Rome to continue his acting career there. For twenty years, from 1950 to 1970, he played a large number of strong and characteristic roles.

Mother

For many years he will not see own mother, but in 1960, at the time she moved to him in Rome. Of all the valuables, she will bring only her father's photo albums.

In 1984 he will ensure that the ashes of his father were transported from Paris to Moscow and reburied at Novodevichy cemetery.

Fedor Fedorovich Chaliapin: films

Surprisingly, success came to the younger Chaliapin when he was already in old age. It all started with the film "The Name of the Rose", with starring, where Fyodor played the role of Jorge of Burgos.

Then there was another of his bright role in the movie "Power of the Moon" (in 1987), where he played the old Italian, the grandfather of the heroine, played by the popular American. Then there were other films - "Cathedral" (1989), "Stanley and Iris" (1990) ...

His last role he played in "The Inner Circle" (1991), this picture tells about life in the Soviet Union during the Stalinist dictatorship.

Fedor Fedorovich Chaliapin died at the age of 86 (in September 1992) at his home in Rome.

Father

Concerning the topic of my son, I would like to be distracted a little by the father of F.I. Shalyapin (1873, Kazan - 1938, Paris) - unusually talented person, who, in addition to his vocal gift, had other talents - an artist, graphic artist, sculptor and even acted in films.

His parents were ordinary peasants. As a child, Shalyapin Fedor (his biography contains these exact facts) was a singer. His artistic career began when he entered the troupe of V. B. Serebryakov. Then there were wanderings and the development of talent. Once fate threw him to Tiflis, where he began to seriously engage in the production of his voice, and all thanks to the singer Dmitry Usatov, whom Chaliapin could not pay for singing lessons, and he studied with him for free.

Search for success

In 1893 he moved to Moscow, and a year later - to St. Petersburg. Critics and audiences were stunned by his amazing voice. He began to perform parts from the stage Mariinsky theater.

Then the famous Moscow philanthropist S. I. Mamontov persuades him to go to the opera with him (1896-1899). Mamontov allowed the singer to do literally whatever he wanted in his theater - complete creative freedom. Since 1899, Chaliapin has already been on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater.

In 1918, Chaliapin became artistic director Mariinsky Theater and received a "People's Artist", and then, in 1922, he went to work in America. The then leadership of the country was worried about his long absence. Once he donated money to the children of emigrants, but this was considered for the support of the White Guards, and Chaliapin was deprived of the title of "people's" in 1927. Only in 1991, more than fifty years after the death of the singer, this order was regarded as unfounded and the title was returned.

Personal life

Chaliapin was married twice. He met his first wife, Iola Tornagi, in Nizhny Novgorod (more precisely, in the village of Gagino), and they got married in 1898. She bore him six children - Igor, Boris, Fedor, Tatiana, Irina and Lydia.

Then Chaliapin had a second family with Maria Valentinovna Petzold, who already had two children from her first marriage. She gave birth to three more girls to the singer: Martha, Marina and Dasia. He lived in two families. One was in Moscow, the other in Petrograd.

Chaliapin's marriage to Maria Valentinovna was officially formalized in 1927 in Paris.

Chaliapin was awarded many honorary awards, but since 1922 he performed and lived exclusively abroad.

The son of a peasant in the Vyatka province Ivan Yakovlevich Shalyapin (1837-1901), a representative of the ancient Vyatka clan of the Shalyapins (Shelepins). Chaliapin's mother is a peasant from the village of Dudintsy, Kumensky volost (Kumensky district Kirov region), Evdokia Mikhailovna (nee Prozorov). Ivan Yakovlevich and Evdokia Mikhailovna were married on January 27, 1863 in the Transfiguration Church in the village of Vozhgaly. As a child, Chaliapin was a singer. Received elementary education.

Carier start

Chaliapin himself considered the beginning of his artistic career in 1889, when he entered the drama troupe of V. B. Serebryakov. First, for the post of statistician.

On March 29, 1890, the first solo performance Chaliapin - the part of Zaretsky in the opera Eugene Onegin, staged by the Kazan Society of Amateurs performing arts... Throughout May and the beginning of June 1890, Chaliapin was the chorist of the operetta enterprise of V. B. Serebryakov.

In September 1890, Chaliapin arrived from Kazan to Ufa and began working in the choir of the opera troupe under the direction of S. Ya. Semyonov-Samarsky.

Quite by accident, I had to transform from a chorus into a soloist, replacing the sick artist in Moniuszko's opera "Pebbles".

This debut put forward the 17-year-old Chaliapin, who occasionally began to be entrusted with small operatic parts, for example Fernando in "Troubadour". The following year, Chaliapin performed in the role of Unknown in Verstovsky's "Askold's Grave". He was offered a place in the Ufa zemstvo, but the Little Russian troupe of Dergach arrived in Ufa, to which Chaliapin joined. Wandering with her brought him to Tiflis, where he first managed to seriously take up his voice, thanks to the singer D.A.Usatov. Usatov not only approved of Chaliapin's voice, but, due to the lack of the latter material resources, began to give him singing lessons for free and generally accepted great participation... He also arranged for Chaliapin in the Tiflis opera of Ludwigov-Forcatti and Lyubimov. Chaliapin lived in Tiflis 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 opera troupe of Lentovsky, and in the winter of 1894-1895. - In the opera company 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 playing drew the attention of critics and the public to him. In 1895, Chaliapin was adopted by the Directorate of St. Imperial theaters he joined the opera troupe: he entered the stage of the Mariinsky Theater and successfully sang the roles of Mephistopheles (Faust) and Ruslan (Ruslan and Lyudmila). Chaliapin's diverse talent was also expressed in the comic opera "The Secret Marriage" by D. Cimaroz, but still did not receive a proper assessment. It is reported that in the season 1895-1896, he "appeared quite rarely and, moreover, in parts that were not suitable for him."

The flowering of creativity

The years spent at the Russian Private Opera, created by S. I. Mamontov - a brilliant take-off of Shalyapin's artistic career. He was the lead singer of RFO for four seasons - from 1896 to 1899. autobiographical book"Mask and Soul", written in exile (1932), Chaliapin characterizes this short segment of his creative life as the most important: "I got the repertoire from Mamontov, which gave me the opportunity to develop all the main features of my artistic nature, my temperament." In the productions of the Mamontov Private Opera, the singer has grown into a true stage artist. Here is another fragment of his memoirs, which speaks of his initial steps in the Moscow opera collective: “S. I. Mamontov said to me: - Fedenka, you can do whatever you want in this theater! If you need suits, tell me and there will be suits. If you need to put new opera, let's put on an opera! All this clothed my soul in festive clothes, and for the first time in my life I felt free, strong, capable of conquering all obstacles. "

Since 1899, he again served at the Imperial Russian Opera in Moscow (Bolshoi Theater), where he enjoyed tremendous success. He was highly acclaimed in Milan, where he performed at the Teatro La Scala in the title role of Mephistopheles A. Boito (1901, 10 performances). Chaliapin's tour in St. Petersburg on the Mariinsky stage was a kind of events in St. music world.

Period of emigration

Since 1921 ("Ents. Dictionary", 1955) or 1922 ("Teatr. Ents.", 1967) - on tour abroad, in particular in the USA, where his American impresario was Solomon Hurok. When Chaliapin was in France, the Soviet government revoked his citizenship only because the singer gave money to the starving children of the White Guards.

Personal life

Chaliapin was married twice, and from both marriages he had 9 children (one died in early age).

Fyodor Chaliapin met his first wife in Nizhny Novgorod, and they got married in 1896 in a church in the village of Gagino. It was a young Italian ballerina Iola Tornaghi (Iola Ignatievna Le-Presti (based on the stage of Tornagi), died in 1965 at the age of 92), who was born in the city of Monza (near Milan). In total, Chaliapin had six children in this marriage: Igor (died at the age of 4), Boris, Fedor, Tatiana, Irina, Lydia. Fedor and Tatiana were twins. Iola Tornaghi lived in Russia for a long time and only in the late 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: Martha (1910-2003), Marina (1912-2009) and Dasia (1921-1977). Chaliapin's daughter Marina (Marina Fedorovna Chaliapina-Freddie) lived the longest of all his children and died at the age of 98.

In fact, Chaliapin has 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 to Moscow. Maria Valentinovna's marriage to Chaliapin was officially formalized in 1927 in Paris.

In 1984, Shalyapin's ashes were transferred from Paris to Moscow, to the Novodevichye cemetery.

Addresses in St. Petersburg - Petrograd

• 1894-1895 - hotel "Palais Royal" - Pushkinskaya street, 20;
• 1899 - Kolokolnaya Street, 5;
• 1901 - end of 1911 - furnished rooms of ON Mukhina - Bolshaya Morskaya street, 16;
• late 1911 - spring 1912 - tenement house- Liteiny prospect, 45;
• summer 1912 - autumn 1914 - Nikolskaya square, 4, apt. 2;
• autumn 1914 - 06/22/1922 - Permskaya street, 2, apt. 3. (now the Memorial Museum-Apartment of F.I. Shalyapin, St. Petersburg, Graftio St., 2B)

Memory of Chaliapin

• In 1956, the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR considered "proposals to restore F. I. Shalyapin posthumously the title of People's Artist of the Republic", but they were not accepted. The 1927 resolution was canceled by the RSFSR Council of Ministers only on June 10, 1991.
• On February 8, 1982 in Kazan, in the homeland of Fyodor Chaliapin, the first opera festival his name. The festival is held on the stage of Tatarsky state theater opera and ballet. M. Jalil, since 1991 has the status of International.
• On October 29, 1984, at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, the ceremony of reburial of the ashes of F.I. Shalyapin took place.
• The opening took place on October 31, 1986 gravestone F.I.Shalyapin (sculptor A. Yeletsky, architect Y. Voskresensky).
• On August 29, 1999, a monument to F.I. Shalyapin (sculptor A. Balashov) was erected at the bell tower of the Epiphany Church in Kazan. The monument stands next to the Shalyapin Palace hotel. In February 1873 Fyodor Chaliapin was baptized in the Church of the Epiphany.
• A monument to Chaliapin was also erected in Ufa.
• Fedor Ivanovich Chaliapin received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his achievements and contributions in the field of music.
• In 2003, on Novinsky Boulevard in Moscow, next to the house-museum named after F.I. Chaliapin, a monument about 2.5 m high was erected in honor of the great artist. The author of the sculpture is Vadim Tserkovnikov.

Gallery

• Chaliapin's portraits

Valentin Alexandrovich Serov: F.I.Shalyapin in the role of Ivan the Terrible, 1897

Caricature of P. Robert on F. I. Chaliapin, 1903

Portrait by B. M. Kustodiev.

Self-portrait of F. Chaliapin as Dositheus (Khovanshchina), made on the wall of the artist's make-up room at the Mariinsky Theater (1911)

Portrait of F.I.Shalyapin on postage stamp USSR 1965, dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of the artist Serov V.A.

Awards

• 1902 - Bukhara Order of the Gold Star, III degree.
• 1907 - Golden Cross of the Prussian Eagle.
• 1908 - cavalier officer rank.
• 1910 - the title of the 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 King of England.
• 1914 - British Order of Merit for the Arts.
• 1914 - Russian Order of Stanislav III degree.
• 1916 - the rank of an officer.
• 1918 - the title of People's Artist of the Republic (awarded for the first time).
• 1934 - Commander of the Legion of Honor (France).

Creation

The surviving gramophone recordings of the singer are of very low quality, so one can judge about his work mainly by the recollections of his contemporaries. The singer's voice high bass(possibly bass-baritone) of a light timbre, with a very pronounced tremolation. Contemporaries note the singer's excellent diction, a flighty voice, audible even in the most distant places from the stage.

According to a widespread point of view, Chaliapin gained his popularity not so much as a singer, but as an outstanding artist, a master of reincarnation and artistic word... Tall, stately, with sharply expressed demonic features, with a piercing gaze, Chaliapin made an indelible impression in his best tragic roles (Melnik, Boris Godunov, Mephistopheles, Don Quixote). Chaliapin shocked the audience with his frantic temperament, he sang every note, found very accurate and sincere intonations for every word of the song, was absolutely organic and reliable on stage.

Chaliapin's artistic talent was not limited to musical and acting activities. Chaliapin painted well in oils, drew and sculpted, showed great literary ability, demonstrating in his written works a great and sharp-witted natural mind, an extraordinary sense of humor, tenacious observation.

Partners in different years were: A. M. Davydov, T. Dal Monte, D. de Luca, N. Ermolenko-Yuzhina, I. Ershov, E. Zbrueva, E. Caruso, V. Kastorsky, E. Cuza, N. M. Lanskaya, L. Lipkovskaya, F. Litvin, E. Mravina, V. Petrov, T. Ruffo, N. Salina, T. Skipa, P. Slovtsov, D. Smirnov, L. Sobinov, R. Storkjo, M. Cherkasskaya, V. Eberle, L. Yakovlev.

Born into 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.

First, little Fyodor, trying to put him “to the point”, was sent to the apprentices of the shoemaker N.A. Tonkov, then V.A. Andreev, then to the turner, later to the carpenter.

V early childhood he showed beautiful voice treble and he often sang with his mother. At the age of 9, he began to sing in the church choir, where he was led by the choir director Shcherbitsky, their neighbor, and began to earn money at weddings and funerals. Father bought a violin for his son at a flea market and Fedor tried to play it.

Later Fedor entered the 6th city four-year school, where the wonderful teacher N.V. Bashmakov, which he finished with a letter of commendation.

In 1883, Fyodor Chaliapin first went to the theater and then tried to watch all the performances.

At the age of 12, he began to participate in the performances of the 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 the opera by P.I. Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin", staged by the Kazan Society of Performing Arts Lovers. Soon he moved from Kazan to Ufa, where he performed in the choir of the troupe S.Ya. Semenov-Samarsky.

In 1893 Fyodor 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. Zazulina.

In 1895, the directorate of St. Petersburg opera houses accepted him into the troupe of the Mariinsky Theater, where he sang the roles of Mephistopheles in "Faust" by C. Gounod and Ruslan in "Ruslan and Lyudmila" by M.I. Glinka.

In 1896 S. I. Mamontov invited Fyodor Chaliapin to sing at 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 with great success at the Mariinsky Theater.

In 1901, Fyodor Chaliapin gave 10 triumphal performances at La Scala in Milan, Italy and drove with concert tour in Europe.

Since 1914, he began performing in private opera enterprises of S.I. Zimin in Moscow and A.R. Aksarina in Petrograd.

In 1915, Fyodor Chaliapin played the role of Ivan the Terrible in the film Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich the Terrible based on L. Mei's drama The Woman of Pskov.

In 1917, Fyodor Chaliapin acted as a director, staging The Bolshoi Theater opera by D. Verdi "Don Carlos".

After 1917 he was appointed Artistic Director of the Mariinsky Theater.

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 the "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 decree deprived him of the title of People's Artist and forbade him to return to the USSR. This decree was canceled by the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR on June 10, 1991" as unfounded. "

In 1932 he starred in the title role 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, Fyodor died and was buried in the Batignolles cemetery in Pargis in France. In 1984, his ashes were transferred to Russia and on October 29, 1984 they were reburied at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

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Biography, life story of Fyodor Ivanovich Shalyapin

Fedor Ivanovich Chaliapin was born on 02.13.1873. This event took place on Rybnoryadskaya Street in the city of Kazan. The boy was born into the family of a simple Vyatka peasant, whose name was Ivan Yakovlevich. Fedya's mother was Evdokia Mikhailovna (nee Prozorova), a simple woman from the peasant class, who was born in the Kumyon volost in the village of Dudintsy.

Childhood and youth

Even in early childhood, Fyodor was a chorister in a church choir, but he had to acquire a specialty. Parents sent the boy to study shoemaking, and a little later - turning. The Shalyapins still managed to determine their son to study at the city primary school, Fedya graduated from his four classes with a letter of commendation.

The beginning of an artistic career

Fyodor Chaliapin got into the theater for the first time in 1883 for a play called "Russian Wedding" based on the play by Pyotr Petrovich Sukhonin. V late XIX centuries on the stage of the theater in Kazan, great masters played: Pisarev, Svobodina-Barysheva, Ivanov-Kozelsky and others. It is not surprising that a ten-year-old boy seriously began to get involved in the theater, and when the opera troupe of Mikhail Efimovich Medvedev (Meer ) ", This ingenious creation.

The young man began to dream about singing career... Back in 1889, Chaliapin was hired (albeit only for the position of extra) in the entertainment choir of Vasily Bogdanovich Serebryakov, here he had a fleeting meeting with the future writer. at that time, the choir was accepted as a full participant, but Chaliapin was not. Later, in 1900, having met again already mature adults in Nizhny Novgorod, they became friends for life.

CONTINUED BELOW

Fyodor Chaliapin was determined to become an artist. His debut took place on the Kazan stage in 1980, when the young man sang his first solo part for the first time. This was the role of Zaretsky in an amateur production of the opera “ The Queen of Spades"Written by a genius.

Acclaimed opera singer

Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin performed most of the parts on the stage of the Private Russian Opera in Moscow, he sang both at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg and at the Bolshoi.

The best parts of Chaliapin are considered the parts of the prince of darkness Mephistopheles, performed by him in the opera "Faust", written, and in the opera "Mephistopheles", which was created by the Italian Arrigo Boito. Total repertoire famous singer included about four hundred different songs, classical romances and other chamber vocal works. Among the masterpieces are the famous "Flea" and many other folk songs.

Personal life

With his first wife, Italian actress and ballerina Iola Tornagi, Fyodor Ivanovich met in Nizhny Novgorod, they got married in 1896 in the church of the village of Gagino.

In total, in this marriage, Chaliapin had six children: twins Fedor and Tatyana, son Boris, daughters Lydia and Irina. There was also a son, Igor, but the baby died at the age of four.

Iola Tornaghi lived in Russia for a long time, having already parted with Fedor Ivanovich, and only at the end of the 50s of the last century did she move to Rome at the invitation own son Fedor.

Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin met, while still married to Iola, in Petrograd with Maria Valentinovna Petzold (nee Elukhen). This young woman already had two children of her own from her first marriage. Chaliapin, living in fact in two houses and torn between St. Petersburg and Moscow, became a father three daughters, which his concubine gave birth to. Their names were Marina, Martha and Dasia. Fyodor Ivanovich officially married Maria Valentinovna only after emigration. This happened in Paris in 1927, and in 1938, on April 12, Fedor Ivanovich Chaliapin died.

In the photo: Chaliapin in the portrait by B. M. Kustodiev. This portrait, painted in 1918, accompanied the singer into exile.

Chaliapin Fedor Ivanovich (1873-1938), singer.

At the beginning of the 20th century, glory Fyodor Chaliapin thundered all over the world, his performing talent was recognized as incomparable. It all began with falling in love with church singing, first heard by Chaliapin in one of the Kazan temples.

Was born Fedor Ivanovich Chaliapin February 13, 1873 in Kazan in the family of a small employee.

Childhood was spent on the outskirts of Kazan. The family lived in the suburban village of Ometova, in Tatarskaya, then in Sukonnaya Sloboda. His father, Ivan Yakovlevich, a Vyatka peasant by origin, served as a clerk, his mother, Evdokia Mikhailovna, earned a day job. Lived poorly; Dumplings, Fedya's favorite food, were eaten once a month, “after the twentieth,” that is, when the father brought his salary.

He began to work early: he worked as a woodcarver, a copyist of papers, was an apprentice for a shoemaker. WITH young years possessed unique vocal abilities.

The boy's life went on in the usual way until it happened significant event, which Fyodor Ivanovich himself later recalled in his "memoir" "Mask and Soul":

“Once in winter I rode a wooden skate on a square in Kazan. There was a magnificent old church of St. Varlaam. Deaths. I wanted to keep warm, and with this worldly intention I entered the church. Vespers or all-night vigils were in progress. And then I heard the choir singing. For the first time in my life, I heard a harmonious chant composed of different voices. And they sang not just in unison or in third, as I sang with my mother, but the sounds were combined in an excellent harmonic order. (Of course, I would not have been able to understand and explain it in words then, but I got such a wordless impression.) It was amazing and wonderful for me. When I came closer to the choir, I, to my surprise, saw ahead standing boys about the same age as myself. These boys were holding in front of them some mysteriously scribbled paper and, looking into it, made out the most pleasant sounds in their voices. I opened my mouth in surprise. I listened, listened, and thoughtful went home.

Singing peers, the same kids as me. Why don't I sing in the choir too? Maybe I could also output harmonious sounds with my voice. At home I was sick and tired of all these sounds, but mainly my mother. I had a treble! "

Fedor Chaliapin began to sing in the temples of Kazan

The first lessons in musical notation were given to Chaliapin by the regent church choir, and then, for several years, singing in church brought the young singer a small but Fixed salary, which he was supposed to give to his parents, "but, of course, he hid some" and spent on sweets and trips to the booth. Shalyapin's memories;

“I enjoyed what a splendid singing deal! And for myself it is a great pleasure, and they still pay money ... "

Chaliapin sang in various Kazan churches - where he was baptized, in Varvarinsky on the Arsk field, in the Spassky monastery ... And, of course, in the Peter and Paul Cathedral. So almost all the surviving churches in the historical center of Kazan have the right to acquire a memorial plaque: "Here Chaliapin sang."

Subsequently, Fyodor Ivanovich admitted:

“Personally, although I am not a religious person in the sense that it is customary to understand it, I always come to church and hear 'Christ is risen from the dead,' I feel like I am raptured. I want to say that a short time I don’t feel the ground, I’m standing in the air ... "

Theatrical stage of the young Fyodor Chaliapin

Along with a passion for singing, a passion for theater soon grew. At the age of twelve, Chaliapin first came to the gallery and from that time on became, in his own words, "almost insane." And when the opera arrived in Kazan, she literally stunned the boy:

“Unusual people, unusually dressed up, asking - sang, answering - sang, sang, thinking, angry, dying, sang, sitting, standing, in chorus, duets and in every way! That order of life amazed me and I liked it terribly. "

Parents, of course, did not understand his passion, and his father from time to time whipped his dissolute offspring - especially when he came home with his face smeared with a burnt cork (among other extras, he represented a savage in a play about Vasco da Gama). But Fyodor did not want to be an employee in the office, or a foreman, or a janitor. At the age of seventeen, he, having added himself two years, entered the enterprise "Russian comic opera and operetta "S. Ya. Semenov-Samarsky and together with her left for Ufa. Soon he was already singing small opera parts, replacing the sick artists.

The first successes, the first benefit performance (eighty rubles and, in addition, a gift from the public - a silver watch on a steel chain) ... The young man felt “completely happy”. But there was still a long way to go to real success.

Through hardship to the stars

Wanderings with operetta troupes threw Chaliapin to Tiflis. He came here "at the brake platform of a freight car", naturally, with a two-kopeck piece in his pocket.

The first time in Tiflis he had a bad time. It was not possible to find work, the suit was all worn out, lunch happened two days later on the third. Chaliapin recalled that time:

“It is especially unpleasant and difficult to go hungry in Tiflis, because here everyone is fried and boiled in the streets. The sense of smell is teased by different tasty smells. I came to despair, into a frenzy, I was ready to beg, but did not dare, and, finally, I decided to commit suicide ... "

Fortunately, the desperate intent remains intent. Chaliapin met the singer and teacher D.A.Usatov, who undertook to teach him free of charge. He taught, and fed, and raised ("Listen, Chaliapin, you smell very bad. Excuse me, but you need to know this! My wife will give you underwear and socks - put yourself in order!"). And a few months later he helped his student to conclude the first real opera contract and blessed him to go to Moscow, supplying letters of recommendation.

"I was not allowed to sing ..."

For the first time, Moscow became only a transit point in Shalyapin's quarry. Here he met the entrepreneur M.V. Aentovsky and, having entered his opera troupe, left for St. Petersburg. A year later, he was already singing at the Mariinsky Theater, where, however, his talent was not properly appreciated. He recalled his first season as a performer in the Imperial Theaters:

“I was not allowed to sing. I sang only Ruslan and went wild ... It worried me very much ... "

The official scene was disappointing with the official attitude. “I was disgusted with going to the theater,” admitted Fyodor Ivanovich, “because of the attitude of the authorities towards the artists. I was sure that the artist is a free, independent person. And here, when the director came backstage, the artists stretched themselves out in front of him like soldiers, and shook the two director's fingers condescendingly outstretched to them, smiling corny. Previously, I saw such an attitude only in the offices. " Chaliapin did not succeed in making comrades between the actors, behind the scenes he felt like a stranger. “I suddenly came to some kind of crossroads ... Something was necessary for me, but what? - I did not know".

Chaliapin's first success

The season of 1895-1896, which was difficult in all respects, ended, and Chaliapin left for an exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod as part of the troupe of S. I. Mamontov. Mamontov, who had an exceptional artistic "scent", immediately appreciated Chaliapin and suggested that he leave Petersburg and go to Moscow, to his own troupe, for 7,200 rubles a year - in order to pay the penalty to the Imperial Theater in half.

Mamontov's confidence in Chaliapin was great:

“Fedenka, you can do whatever you want in this theater! If you need suits, tell me and there will be suits. If we need to stage a new opera, we will stage an opera. "

And here is the testimony of Chaliapin himself:

“Nobody bothered me, they didn’t hit me on the hands, saying that I was doing the wrong gestures. Nobody suggested to me how Petrov and Melnikov did this or that. As if the chains had been lifted from my soul. "

New acquaintances - with artists, writers, composers, critics - had a significant impact on the formation of Chaliapin as an artist. They partly helped him to overcome the lack of education, which the singer himself felt keenly. Of course, to a greater extent he played with "instinct", and he really was a genius. But is it possible to underestimate, for example, interviews with V.O. Klyuchevsky when preparing parts in "historical" operas - "Khovanshchina", "Pskovityanka", "Boris Godunov"?

Without exaggeration, it was Mamontov's Private Opera that made Chaliapin - Chaliapin. Skill, self-confidence, fame came to him. But fame, as often happens, did not have an ennobling effect on his nature, on the contrary - it showed "stuff" in it, in the words of V. A. Serov. And it happened amazingly soon. Konstantin Korovin recalled how Chaliapin once shouted in his workshop under Vrubel and Serov:

“Here I am doing a full collection, and the performances without my participation are held almost in an empty hall. What do I get? This is unfair! And they say - Mamontov loves me! If you love, pay. You don't know Gorky, but he says the truth: "You are being exploited." In general, people in Russia do not like to pay ... "

When in 1899 Mamontov went bankrupt and was arrested, Chaliapin did not come to check on him (however, in his memoirs thirty years later he wrote gratefully about him). The era of the Private Opera in his life was over, he returned to the stage of the Imperial Theaters, but now he himself dictated the conditions.

The great Fyodor Chaliapin

At this time, Fyodor Chaliapin often said such phrases:

"There are rich people, why can't I be a rich person?"

"Only the birds sing for free."

Passion for money, angry suspicion, autocratic whims, eternal acting - these features, which increasingly determined the Chaliapin style, pushed many away from him. Many disliked him, wished him a stage failure. But when he started to sing - "stuff" was forgotten:

“What was the secret of Shalyapin's charm? - Konstantin Korovin asked and answered himself: - The combination of musicality, the art of singing with the wonderful comprehension of the created image.

Indeed, Chaliapin, by his own admission, did not just "enter the role", as all actors do (however, here it should be noted that in the "pre-Shalyapin era" opera singers did not care about that either; singing was considered the main thing, not playing), but literally reincarnated - in Godunov, Ivan the Terrible, Mephistopheles, Don Quixote ... Chaliapin confessed in a friendly conversation:

“I ... forget myself. That's all. And I control myself on stage. Of course, I am worried, but I can hear the music as it flows. I never look at the conductor, I never wait for the director to let me out. I go out myself when necessary. I don't need to tell when to join. I can hear it myself. I hear the whole orchestra - I notice how the bassoon or the viola has fallen behind ... You need to feel the music! .. When I sing, I listen to myself. I want to like it myself. And if I like myself, it means I sang well. "

"God grant so and so to everyone ..."

Bunin recalled Fyodor Chaliapin:

“Everyone considered Chaliapin to be very leftist, they roared with delight when he sang the Marseillaise or Flea, which they also saw as something revolutionary”.

Yes, and the artist himself was not averse to posing in a blouse and cap and flaunting a passport, in which he was recorded as a peasant. Meanwhile, he had lost the habit of the people of the “cloth settlement” during the years of “unfinished” life, but he did not understand the peasants at all and was wary of them. Korovin recalled:

“Chaliapin was afraid of the peasants. Coming to me in Okhotino from his estate, he never went through the countryside. I tried to bypass the backyards. When he had a chance to talk with the peasants, he would say: “Listen, milyaga, well, how ugly? Yes, your work is difficult. " The Russian peasants answered slyly: “Why, Fyodor Ivanovich, there is no reason to blame, we live nothing. But there is not enough wine on the holiday ... "Chaliapin pretended not to understand the hint, and did not give wine."

Chaliapin of the revolution, he "did not accept"

He "did not accept" the revolution, as they wrote, as if in condolences, in Soviet biographies about any outstanding - so much so that it was impossible not to write at all - an emigrant. Yes, and could not accept - with his simple-minded money-grubbing, habit after a bath to eat two pounds of caviar with rolls, indispensable to live "in obeisance." After all, before it was necessary to bow only sometimes, but now, if you please, all the days, bow before the "victorious proletariat" with its wounded gaze through the sight: "I sang to the Tsar, but don't you want us?"

In a word, Chaliapin found himself in the position of many. Until October 1917, almost everyone was liberal - some sincerely, some out of indigestion, some grumble out of habit. And after October, it suddenly turned out that something went wrong somehow ... In 1922 National artist Republic (they gave it in 1918) went on tour abroad and since then in Soviet Russia did not return. In the spring of 1938, he died of leukemia in Paris. Last time he performed in public in June 1937, and it was a tragic concert: a great singer
saved only by honed performance skills, perfect intonation, the gift of gesture. Chaliapin's voice was gone.

Bunin recalled how, shortly before Chaliapin's death, they listened to the records he had recorded together, and he “listened to himself with tears in his eyes, muttering:

- He sang well! God bless everyone!

Sasha Mitrakhovich 31.07.2017 13:32

Native Kazan and her Sukonka became the cradle of childhood and the temple of youth of the great bass of world music Fyodor Chaliapin. Here, in house 58 on the former Georgievskaya street, he learned the basics of knowledge at the 6th city primary school. It was considered among the best in Kazan, and Chaliapin graduated from it in 1885 with honors. Here, in the Church of the Spiritual Life, little Fedya sang for the first time for the people.

In the 80s of the XIX century, many visitors to the Kazan Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit drew attention to the vociferous youth who sang in the church choir. How did he get there?

After the death of their son and daughter, barely recovering from the illness of little Fedya, the Chaliapin family moved to the then city outskirts, to Sukonnaya Sloboda. Not far from their house, in the neighborhood next to the school, the Dukhosshestvenskaya church stood. But for the first time I drew attention to church choir the boy is in a completely different temple when he went ice skating to the Haymarket. Feeling pretty cold, he ran into the nearest Varlaam church and, while warming himself, listened to her little singers, his peers. Fedya was completely fascinated by their art, and he passionately wanted to find himself among them, to become a singer too. His dream came true precisely in the Church of the Descent of the Holy Spirit.

This was helped by a happy circumstance: according to some information, one of the members of the church choir was a neighbor of the Shalyapins. Coming with him to the temple, which has always been distinguished by excellent acoustic properties, and hearing the singers again, Fedya began to beg his neighbor to put in a word for him before the choir director. Ivan Osipovich Shcherbinin decided to test the boy's hearing and listen to the voice. He liked the results, and they accepted little Chaliapin, instructing him to quickly master musical notation... Fedya quickly learned the notes, and from that moment the musical destiny great Chaliapin, his musical outlook began to form.

From recognition to vocation!

Fyodor sang with pleasure in the choir of the Dukhososhestskaya church. A wonderful atmosphere reigned here, he was friends with many priests of the temple and with its abbot.

The musical career of little Shalyapin progressed in the Spiritual Conception Church by leaps and bounds. Until recently, he only brought notes to the singers, then he sang in the choir - at first without remuneration, as a trainee, and then, three months later, he began to receive his first wages- one and a half rubles! He did not shy away from any orders, he sang at prayer services, and at Christmas time, at weddings and at funerals, wherever he was in demand. beautiful voice... By all accounts, he was destined to become a priest or choir director. Many Kazan churches wanted to get the Chaliapin's voice, and he even entered the bishop's choir, where he now received as much as six rubles a month.

Fyodor's repertoire also increased and became more diverse: the bishop's choir, in addition to sacred music, performed and classical works... At the same time, the young man began to perform in Varvarinskaya, Voskresenskaya and other churches and cathedrals, as well as in the choir of the Kazan Real School. And now it was clearly ripening in his soul true calling, which became his destiny - a dream of a theatrical stage.

Even from childhood, Fedya was used to saving part of the money he earned at work outside the church. At first he spent them on attending festive performances and buffoonery, and then on the theater. The stage beckoned him uncontrollably, Chaliapin was ready to perform on it even as a simple extra, receiving five kopecks for an exit. And even as he grew older, he continued to rejoice like a child: to watch the play for free and even earn money in it - can there be greater happiness for an unknown youth who sings in a church choir?

Already in our days, within the walls of the Spiritual Church of the Sacrament, a concert-offering in memory of Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin "Spiritual Revelation of Russian Music" took place. I would like to believe that such wonderful events will become a good tradition in this temple.

Sasha Mitrakhovich 23.01.2018 20:12