the first people's artist of our country
Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin
/ RIA Novosti
« The Great Chaliapin was a reflection of the split Russian reality: a tramp and an aristocrat, a family man and a “runner”, a wanderer, a regular at restaurants...” - so about the world famous artist said his teacher Dmitry Usatov. Despite all life circumstances, Fyodor Chaliapin forever entered world opera history.
Melnik's aria from the opera Rusalka - delight!!!
Vasily Shkafer as Mozart and Fyodor Chaliapin as Salieri in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Mozart and Salieri. 1898 Photo: RIA Novosti
A little from the biography
Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin was born on February 13 (old style - February 1), 1873 in Kazan into a peasant family from the Vyatka province. They lived poorly, their father served as a scribe in the zemstvo council, often drank, raised his hand against his wife and children, and over the years his addiction worsened.
Fedor studied at Vedernikova’s private school, but he was expelled for kissing a classmate. Then there were parochial and vocational schools, he left the latter due to his mother’s serious illness. This was the end of Chaliapin's government education. Even before college, Fedor was assigned to godfather- learn shoemaking. “But fate did not destined me to be a shoemaker,” the singer recalled.
One day Fedor heard choral singing in the church, and it fascinated him. He asked to join the choir, and the regent Shcherbinin accepted it. 9-year-old Chaliapin had an ear and a beautiful voice - treble, and the regent taught him musical notation and paid the salary.
At the age of 12, Chaliapin first went to the theater - to the Russian Wedding. From that moment on, the theater “drove Chaliapin crazy” and became his passion for life. Already in Parisian emigration in 1932, he wrote: “Everything that I will remember and tell will be ... connected with my theatrical life. I’m going to judge people and phenomena... as an actor, from an actor’s point of view...”
Actors of the opera performance " Barber of Seville": V. Lossky, Karakash, Fyodor Chaliapin, A. Nezhdanova and Andrey Labinsky. 1913 Photo: RIA Novosti / Mikhail Ozersky
When the opera came to Kazan, Fyodor admitted that it amazed him. Chaliapin really wanted to look behind the scenes, and he made his way behind the stage. He was hired as an extra “for a nickel.” The career of a great opera singer was still far away. Ahead were the breaking of his voice, moving to Astrakhan, a hungry life and a return to Kazan.
Chaliapin's first solo performance - the role of Zaretsky in the opera Eugene Onegin - took place at the end of March 1890. In September, he moved to Ufa as a choir member, where he became a soloist, replacing a sick artist. The debut of the 17-year-old Chaliapin in the opera Pebble was appreciated and occasionally he was assigned small roles. But the theater season ended, and Chaliapin again found himself without work and without money. He played passing roles, wandered, and in despair even thought about suicide.
Russian singer Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin in the role of Tsar Ivan the Terrible on the poster of the Paris Chatelet Theater. 1909 Photo: RIA Novosti
Friends helped and advised me to take lessons from Dmitry Usatov- former artist of the imperial theaters. Usatov not only learned famous operas with him, but also taught him the basics of etiquette. He introduced the newcomer to the musical circle, and soon to the Lyubimov Opera, already under contract. Having successfully performed over 60 performances, Chaliapin went to Moscow and then to St. Petersburg. After the successful role of Mephistopheles in Faust, Chaliapin was invited to audition for the Mariinsky Theater and was enrolled in the troupe for three years. Chaliapin gets the part of Ruslan in the opera Glinka“Ruslan and Lyudmila,” but critics wrote that Chaliapin sang “badly” and he remained without roles for a long time.
But Chaliapin meets a famous philanthropist Savva Mamontov, who offers him a place as a soloist at the Russian Private Opera. In 1896, the artist moved to Moscow and successfully performed for four seasons, improving his repertoire and skills.
Since 1899, Chaliapin has been in the troupe of the Imperial Russian Opera in Moscow and enjoys success with the public. He is received with delight at the La Scala theater in Milan, where Chaliapin performed in the guise of Mephistopheles. The success was amazing, offers began pouring in from all over the world. Chaliapin conquers Paris and London with Diaghilev, Germany, America, South America, and becomes a world famous artist.
In 1918, Chaliapin became artistic director Mariinsky Theater(having refused the position of artistic director at the Bolshoi Theater) and received the first title in Russia of “People’s Artist of the Republic”.
Chaliapin Songs and arias from operas
Despite the fact that Chaliapin sympathized with the revolution from a young age, he and his family did not escape emigration. The new government confiscated the artist’s house, car, and bank savings. He tried to protect his family and theater from attacks, and repeatedly met with the country's leaders, including Lenin And Stalin, but this only helped temporarily.
In 1922, Chaliapin and his family left Russia and toured Europe and America. In 1927, the Council of People's Commissars deprived him of the title of People's Artist and the right to return to his homeland. According to one version, Chaliapin donated the proceeds from the concert to the children of emigrants, and in the USSR this gesture was regarded as support for the White Guards.
The Chaliapin family settles in Paris, and it is there that the opera singer will find his final refuge. After touring in China, Japan, and America, Chaliapin returned to Paris in May 1937, already ill. Doctors make a diagnosis of leukemia.
“I’m lying... in bed... reading... and remembering the past: theaters, cities, hardships and successes... How many roles I played! And it seems not bad. Here’s the Vyatka peasant...,” wrote Chaliapin in December 1937 to his daughter Irina.
Ilya Repin paints a portrait of Fyodor Chaliapin. 1914 Photo: RIA Novosti
The great artist passed away on April 12, 1938. Chaliapin was buried in Paris, and only in 1984 did his son Fyodor achieve the reburial of his father’s ashes in Moscow, on Novodevichy Cemetery. In 1991, 53 years after his death, Fyodor Chaliapin was returned to the title of People's Artist.
Love story: Fyodor Chaliapin and Iola Tornaghi
Fyodor Chaliapin made an invaluable contribution to the development opera art. His repertoire includes over 50 roles played in classical operas, over 400 songs, romances and Russian folk songs. In Russia, Chaliapin became famous for the bass parts of Borisov Godunov, Ivan the Terrible, and Mephistopheles. It was not only his magnificent voice that delighted the audience. Chaliapin paid great attention to the stage image of his heroes: he transformed into them on stage.
“Oh, if I could express it in sound...”
Personal life
Fyodor Chaliapin was married twice, and from both marriages he had 9 children. With his first wife, an Italian ballerina Ioloi Tornaghi— the singer meets at the Mamontov Theater. In 1898 they got married, and in this marriage Chaliapin had six children, one of whom died in early age. After the revolution, Iola Tornaghi lived in Russia for a long time, and only in the late 50s she moved to Rome at the invitation of her son.
Fyodor Chaliapin at work on his sculptural self-portrait. 1912 Photo: RIA Novosti
While married, in 1910 Fyodor Chaliapin became close to Maria Petzold, who raised two children from her first marriage. The first marriage had not yet been dissolved, but in fact the singer had a second family in Petrograd. In this marriage, Chaliapin had three daughters, but the couple was able to formalize their relationship already in Paris in 1927. Fyodor Chaliapin spent with Maria recent years life.
Interesting facts
Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his achievements and contributions to music.
Chaliapin was a wonderful draftsman and tried his hand at painting. Many of his works have survived, including “Self-Portrait”. He also tried himself in sculpture. Performing in Ufa at the age of 17 as Stolnik in the opera Moniuszko“Pebble” Chaliapin fell on stage and sat down past his chair. All his life from that moment on, he kept a vigilant eye on the seats on the stage. Leo Tolstoy After listening to the folk song “Nochenka” performed by Chaliapin, he expressed his impressions: “He sings too loudly...”. A Semyon Budyonny after meeting Chaliapin in the carriage and drinking a bottle of champagne with him, he recalled: “His powerful bass seemed to shake the entire carriage.”
Chaliapin collected weapons. Old pistols, shotguns, spears, mostly donated A.M. Gorky, hung on his walls. The house committee either took away his collection, then, at the direction of the deputy chairman of the Cheka, returned it.
Writer Alexei Maksimovich Gorky and singer Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin. 1903 Photo: RIA Novosti
Rare archival footage: Maxim Gorky pokes opera singer Fyodor Chaliapin with a broom
The message about Chaliapin, summarized in this article, will tell you about the life and work of the Russian opera and chamber singer.
Report on Fyodor Chaliapin
Fedor Ivanovich Shalyapin was born on February 13, 1873 in Kazan into the family of a clerk in the zemstvo administration. Parents noticed little boy a beautiful treble and sent him to sing in the church choir, where he learned the basics of musical literacy. In parallel with this, Fedor studied shoemaking.
The future Russian singer Fyodor Chaliapin completed only a few classes primary school and went to work as an assistant clerk. One day he visited the Kazan Opera Theater, and art captivated him. At the age of 16, the young man auditions for the theater, but in vain. Serebryakov, the head of the drama group, took Fedora as an extra.
Over time, he is entrusted with vocal parts. The successful performance of the role of Zaretsky (the opera Eugene Onegin) brings him minor success. The inspired Chaliapin decides to change the team to music group Semenov-Samarsky, in which he was accepted as a soloist, and leaves for Ufa.
The singer, who has gained musical experience, is invited to the Little Russian traveling theater of Derkach. Chaliapin tours the country with him. In Georgia, Fedora is noticed by D. Usatov, a vocal teacher, and takes him in for full support. The future singer not only studied with Usatov, but also worked at the local opera house, performing bass parts.
The works of Fyodor Chaliapin
The life of Fyodor Chaliapin changed in 1894, when he entered the service of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theater. It was here that during one performance he was noticed by the benefactor Savva Mamontov, who lured Fedor to his place. Mamontov gave him freedom of choice in his theater regarding the roles performed. He sang parts from the operas “A Life for the Tsar”, “Sadko”, “The Pskov Woman”, “Mozart and Salieri”, “Khovanshchina”, “Boris Godunov” and “Rusalka”.
At the beginning of the twentieth century he appears at the Mariinsky Theater as a soloist. Together with capital theater tours Europe and New York. He performed at the Moscow Bolshoi Theater many times.
In 1905, Fyodor Chaliapin, the singer, was already a fully formed artist who performed songs that were famous at that time. He often gave the proceeds from concerts to workers, which earned him respect from the Soviet authorities.
After the revolution in Russia, Fyodor Ivanovich was appointed head of the Mariinsky Theater and awarded the title of People's Artist of the Republic. But to work hard in the theatrical field in new position he did not succeed for long. In 1922, the singer emigrated abroad with his family and never performed in Soviet Russia again. After some time, the authorities deprived him of the title of People's Artist of the Republic.
Abroad, he went on tour around the world. After his last tour in the countries of the Far East, Fyodor Ivanovich felt unwell. After a medical examination in 1937, he was diagnosed with blood cancer. Doctors said that more than a year he won't live. The great singer died in April 1938 in his Paris apartment.
Fyodor Chaliapin personal life
His first wife was a ballerina Italian origin. Her name was Iola Tornaghi. The couple married in 1896. The marriage produced 6 children - Igor, Boris, Fedor, Tatyana, Irina, Lydia. Chaliapin often traveled to perform in St. Petersburg, where he met Maria Valentinovna Petzold. She had two children from her first marriage. They began to meet secretly and, in fact, Fyodor Ivanovich started a second family. Double life the artist led him to leave for Europe, where he took his second family. At that time, Maria gave birth to three more children - Martha, Marina and Dasia. Later, Chaliapin took five children from his first marriage to Paris (son Igor died at the age of 4). Officially, the marriage of Maria and Fyodor Chaliapin was registered in Paris in 1927. Although he maintained a friendly relationship with his first wife Iola, he constantly wrote letters to her about the achievements of their children. Iola herself went to Rome in the 1950s at the invitation of her son.
- The music of Fyodor Chaliapin has not been preserved on gramophone recordings in very good condition. good quality. However, contemporaries note his flying, timbre voice with pronounced tremulation.
- Fyodor Chaliapin not only sang. He was interested in sculpture, painting and even starred in 2 films.
- Even in his youth, he auditioned for the choir with M. Gorky. And the team leaders preferred the latter. Chaliapin harbored a grudge against Gorky for the rest of his life, although he did not know the name of his competitor. Once, when meeting with the writer, Fyodor Ivanovich told him this story. And Gorky, laughing, said that he was the offender.
- Has his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- He drew beautifully, as evidenced by his “Self-Portrait”.
- He collected weapons.
- His second wife could not officially bear the surname Chaliapin, since he was not divorced from his first wife. There have always been scandals about this in the Western press. Once, even while on tour in New York, the artist was blackmailed by reporters, demanding $10,000 so that information would not go to the people.
We hope that the report about Fyodor Chaliapin helped you learn a lot useful information about the singer. And you can leave your message about Fyodor Chaliapin using the comment form below.
Coming from a peasant family, Fyodor Chaliapin performed at the most prestigious theaters in the world - the Bolshoi, Mariinsky, and Metropolitan Opera. Among the admirers of his talent were composers Sergei Prokofiev and Anton Rubinstein, actor Charlie Chaplin and the future English king Edward VI. The critic Vladimir Stasov called him a “great artist”, and Maxim Gorky called him a separate “era of Russian art”
From the church choir to the Mariinsky Theater
“If everyone knew what a fire smolders inside me and goes out like a candle...”- Fyodor Chaliapin said to his friends, convincing them that he was born to be a sculptor. Already famous opera performer, Fyodor Ivanovich drew a lot, was engaged in painting, and sculpted.
The painter's talent was evident even on stage. Chaliapin was a “virtuoso of makeup” and created stage portraits, adding a bright picture to the powerful sound of the bass.
The singer seemed to be sculpting his face; contemporaries compared his style of applying makeup with the paintings of Korovin and Vrubel. For example, the image of Boris Godunov changed from painting to painting, wrinkles and gray hair appeared. Chaliapin-Mephistopheles in Milan caused a real sensation. Fyodor Ivanovich was one of the first to apply makeup not only to his face, but also to his hands and even his body.
“When I went on stage dressed in my costume and made up, it caused a real sensation, very flattering for me. Artists, choristers, even workers surrounded me, gasping and delighted, like children, touching with their fingers, feeling, and when they saw that my muscles were painted on, they were completely delighted.”
Fyodor Chaliapin
And yet, the talent of the sculptor, like the talent of the artist, served only as a frame amazing voice. Chaliapin sang from childhood - in a beautiful treble. Coming from a peasant family, in his native Kazan he studied in the church choir and performed at village holidays. At the age of 10, Fedya visited the theater for the first time and dreamed of music. He mastered the art of shoemaking, turning, carpentry, and bookbinding, but only the art of opera attracted him. Although from the age of 14 Chaliapin worked in the zemstvo government of the Kazan district as a clerk, still free time he gave to the theater, appearing on stage as an extra.
A passion for music led Fyodor Chaliapin with nomadic troupes across the country: the Volga region, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. He worked part-time as a loader, a hookman, and was starving, but he waited for his finest hour. One of the baritones fell ill on the eve of the performance, and the role of Stolnik in Moniuszko’s opera “Galka” went to the chorister Chaliapin. Although the debutant sat past the chair during the performance, the entrepreneur Semyonov-Samarsky was moved by the performance itself. New parties appeared and confidence in the theatrical future grew stronger.
“I still think superstitiously: it’s a good sign for a newcomer to sit past the chair in the first performance on stage in front of an audience. Throughout my subsequent career, however, I kept a vigilant eye on the chair and was afraid not only of sitting past, but also of sitting in another’s chair.”, - Fyodor Ivanovich later said.
At the age of 22, Fyodor Chaliapin made his debut at the Mariinsky Theater, singing Mephistopheles in the opera Faust by Gounod. A year later, Savva Mamontov invited young singer to the Moscow Private Opera. “From Mamontov I received the repertoire that gave me the opportunity to develop all the main features of my artistic nature, my temperament”- said Chaliapin. The young summer bass gathered a full hall with his performance. Ivan the Terrible in "The Woman of Pskov" by Rimsky-Korsakov, Dosifey in "Khovanshchina" and Godunov in the opera "Boris Godunov" by Mussorgsky. “One more great artist”, - wrote about Chaliapin music critic Vladimir Stasov.
Fyodor Chaliapin in the title role in the 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 Woman of Pskov.” 1898 Photo: chrono.ru
Fyodor Chaliapin as Prince Galitsky in the production of Alexander Borodin's opera "Prince Igor". Photo: chrono.ru
"Tsar Bass" Fyodor Chaliapin
It was as if the art world was just waiting young talent. Chaliapin communicated with the best painters of that time: Vasily Polenov and the Vasnetsov brothers, Isaac Levitan, Valentin Serov, Konstantin Korovin and Mikhail Vrubel. The artists created amazing scenery that emphasized the vivid stage images. At the same time, the singer became close to Sergei Rachmaninoff. The composer dedicated the romances “You Knew Him” to Fyodor Tyutchev’s poems and “Fate” based on a poem by Alexei Apukhtin to Fyodor Chaliapin.
Chaliapin is a whole era of Russian art and since 1899 the leading soloist of the country's two main theaters - the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky. The success was so enormous that contemporaries joked: “There are three miracles in Moscow: the Tsar Bell, the Tsar Cannon and the Tsar Bass - Fyodor Chaliapin”. Chaliapin's high bass was known and loved in Italy, France, Germany, America, and Great Britain. Opera arias, chamber works, and romances received an enthusiastic reception from the public. Wherever Fyodor Ivanovich sang, crowds of fans and listeners gathered around. Even while relaxing at the dacha.
The triumphal tours were stopped by the First World War. Singer on own funds organized the work of two hospitals for the wounded. After the 1917 revolution, Fyodor Chaliapin lived in St. Petersburg and was the artistic director of the Mariinsky Theater. A year later, Tsar Bas was the first artist to receive the title of People's Artist of the Republic, which he lost when he went into exile.
In 1922, the artist did not return from a tour of the United States, although he believed that he was leaving Russia only for a while. Having traveled all over the world with concerts, the singer performed a lot at the Russian Opera and created a whole “theater of romance”. Chaliapin's repertoire included about 400 works.
“I love gramophone records. I am excited and creatively excited by the idea that the microphone symbolizes not a specific audience, but millions of listeners.", - said the singer and recorded about 300 arias, songs and romances. Having left a rich heritage, Fyodor Chaliapin did not return to his homeland. But until the end of his life he never accepted foreign citizenship. In 1938, Fyodor Ivanovich died in Paris, and half a century later, his son Fyodor obtained permission to rebury his father’s ashes at the Novodevichy cemetery. At the end of the twentieth century, the great Russian opera singer returned the title of People's Artist.
The great Russian singer Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin combined two qualities in his work: acting and unique vocal abilities. He was a soloist with the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theaters, as well as the Metropolitan Opera. One of the greatest opera singers.
“Chaliapin’s innovation in the sphere of dramatic truth of opera has had strong impact to the Italian theater... The dramatic art of the great Russian artist left a deep and lasting mark not only in the field of performing Russian operas Italian singers, but also in general on the entire style of their vocal and stage interpretation, including the works of Verdi..."
Gianandrea Gavazzeni, conductor and composer
The childhood of Fyodor Chaliapin
The future singer was born in Kazan on February 13, 1873. Fyodor Chaliapin's parents got married in January 1863, and 10 years later their son Fyodor was born.My father worked as an archivist in the zemstvo government. Fyodor’s mother, Evdokia Mikhailovna, was an ordinary peasant woman from the village of Dudintsy.
Already in childhood it became clear that little Fyodor musical talent. Possessing a beautiful treble, he sang in the suburban church choir and at village festivals. Later, the boy began to be invited to sing in neighboring churches. When Fedor graduated from the 4th grade with a certificate of merit, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker, then to a turner.
At the age of 14, the boy began working in the zemstvo government of the Kazan district as a clerk. I earned 10 rubles a month. However, Chaliapin never forgot about music. Having learned to read music, Fyodor tried to devote all his free time to music.
The beginning of the creative career of singer Fyodor Chaliapin
In 1883, Fyodor first came to the theater for the production of P.P. Sukhonin’s play “Russian Wedding”. Chaliapin became “sick” of the theater and tried not to miss a single performance. Most of all the boy liked opera. And the biggest impression on the future singer was made by M. I. Glinka’s opera “A Life for the Tsar.” The father sends his son to school to study as a carpenter, but when his mother fell ill, Fedor was forced to return to Kazan to care for her. It was in Kazan that Chaliapin began to try to get a job in the theater.Finally, in 1889, he was accepted as an extra in the prestigious Serebryakov Choir. Before this, Chaliapin was not accepted into the choir, but some lanky, terribly eyed young man was hired. A few years later, having met Maxim Gorky, Fyodor told him about his first failure. Gorky grinned and said that he was this charming young man, although he was quickly expelled from the choir due to his complete lack of voice.
And the first performance of the extra Chaliapin ended in failure. He was given the role without words. The cardinal, played by Chaliapin, and his retinue simply had to walk across the stage. Fedor was very worried and constantly repeated to his retinue: “Do everything as I do!”
As soon as he entered the stage, Chaliapin became entangled in the red cardinal's robe and fell to the floor. His retinue, remembering the instructions, followed him. The Cardinal was unable to rise and crawled across the entire stage. As soon as the crawling retinue led by Chaliapin was behind the scenes, the director gave the “cardinal” a kick with all his heart and threw him down the stairs!
Chaliapin performed his first solo role - the role of Zaretsky in the opera "Eugene Onegin" - in March 1890.
In September of the same year, Chaliapin moved to Ufa and began singing in the local operetta troupe of Semenov-Samarsky. Gradually, Chaliapin began to be assigned small roles in many performances. After the end of the season, Chaliapin joined Derkach’s traveling troupe, with which he toured the cities of Russia, Central Asia and the Caucasus.
Life of Fyodor Chaliapin in Tiflis
Like many other great representatives of Russian literature and art, Tiflis played a very important role in the life of Chaliapin. Here he met a former artist of the Imperial Theaters, Professor Usatov. After listening to the singer, Usatov said: “Stay to learn from me. I won’t take money for my studies.” Usatov not only gave Chaliapin his voice, but also helped him financially. In 1893, Chaliapin made his debut on the stage of the Tiflis Opera House.HEY, WHACK! Russian folk song. Performed by: FEDOR SHALYAPIN.
A year later, all the bass parts in the Tiflis opera were performed by Chaliapin. It was in Tiflis that Chaliapin gained fame and recognition, and from a self-taught singer turned into a professional artist.
The heyday of Fyodor Chaliapin's creativity
In 1895, Fyodor Chaliapin came to Moscow, where he entered into a contract with the management of the Mariinsky Theater. Initially, on the stage of the Imperial Theater, Fyodor Ivanovich performed only minor roles.A meeting with the famous philanthropist Savva Mamontov marked the beginning of the flowering of Chaliapin’s creativity. Mamontov invited the singer to work at the Moscow Private Opera with a salary three times higher than the salary at the Mariinsky Theater.
In the private opera, Chaliapin's multifaceted talent was truly revealed, and the repertoire was replenished with many unforgettable images from the operas of Russian composers.
In 1899, Chaliapin was invited to Bolshoi Theater, where he was a resounding success. Stage life the singer turned into a grandiose triumph. He became everyone's favorite. The singer's contemporaries assessed his unique voice this way: in Moscow there are three miracles - the Tsar Bell, the Tsar Cannon and the Tsar Bass - Fyodor Chaliapin.
Fyodor Chaliapin. Elegy. Romance. Old Russian Romance.
Music critics wrote that, apparently, Russian composers of the 19th century “foresaw” the emergence of a great singer, which is why they wrote so many wonderful parts for bass: Ivan the Terrible, Varangian Guest, Salieri, Melnik, Boris Godunov, Dosifey and Ivan Susanin. Largely thanks to the talent of Chaliapin, who included arias from Russian operas in his repertoire, composers N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, A.S. Dargomyzhsky, M. Mussorgsky, M. Glinka received worldwide recognition.
During these same years, the singer gained European fame. In 1900 he was invited to the famous Milanese La Scala. The amount that was paid to Chaliapin under the contract was unheard of high at that time. After his stay in Italy, the singer was invited every year to tour abroad. World War of Revolution and civil war in Russia they “put an end to” the singer’s foreign tours for 6 long years. In the period from 1914 to 1920, Chaliapin did not leave Russia.
Emigration period
In 1922, Chaliapin went on tour to the USA. IN Soviet Union the singer never returned. In their homeland, in turn, they decided to deprive Chaliapin of the title of People's Artist. The path to Russia was completely cut off.
Abroad, Chaliapin tries his hand at a new art - cinema. In 1933, he starred in the film “Don Quixote” directed by G. Pabst.
Personal life of Fyodor Chaliapin
Fyodor Chaliapin was married twice. The singer met his first wife, Italian ballerina Iona Tornaghi, in 1898 in Nizhny Novgorod. In this marriage seven children were born at once. 
Later, without dissolving his first marriage, Chaliapin became close to Maria Petzold. At that time, the woman already had two children from her first marriage. They met secretly for a long time. The marriage was officially registered only in 1927 in Paris.
Memory
Chaliapin died in the spring of 1938 in Paris. The great singer was buried in the Batignolles cemetery in Paris. Only almost half a century later, in 1984, his son Fyodor obtained permission to rebury his father’s ashes in Moscow, at the Novodevichy Cemetery.The second funeral was held with all honors.
And 57 years after the artist’s death, the title of People’s Artist of the USSR was posthumously returned to him.
Thus, finally, the singer returned to his homeland.
Russian opera and chamber singer (high bass).
First People's Artist of the Republic (1918-1927, title returned in 1991).
The son of the peasant of the Vyatka province Ivan Yakovlevich Chaliapin (1837-1901), a representative of the ancient Vyatka family of the Shalyapins (Shelepins). Chaliapin's mother is a peasant woman from the village of Dudintsy, Kumensky volost (Kumensky district, Kirov region), Evdokia Mikhailovna (nee Prozorova).
As a child, Fedor was a singer. As a boy, he was sent to study shoemaking with shoemakers N.A. Tonkov, then V.A. Andreev. Received 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 to be 1889, when he entered the drama troupe V.B. Serebryakov, initially as a statistician.
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 Stage Art Lovers. Throughout May and early June 1890, he was a chorus member of V.B.’s operetta company. Serebryakova. In September 1890, he arrived from Kazan to Ufa and began working in the choir of an operetta troupe under the direction of S.Ya. Semenov-Samarsky.
Quite by accident I had to transform from a chorister into a soloist, replacing a sick artist in Moniuszko’s opera “Galka” in the role of Stolnik.
This debut brought forward a 17-year-old boy, who was occasionally assigned small opera roles, for example, 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 came to Ufa, and Chaliapin joined it. Traveling with her led him to Tiflis, where for the first time he managed to take his voice seriously, thanks to the singer D.A. Usatov. Usatov not only approved of Chaliapin’s voice, but, due to the latter’s lack of material resources, began to give him singing lessons for free and generally took a great part in it. He also arranged for Chaliapin to perform in the Tiflis opera of Ludwig-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 Lentovsky's opera troupe, and in the winter of 1894-1895. - in the opera partnership at the Panaevsky Theater, in the Zazulin troupe. Beautiful voice aspiring artist and especially his expressive musical recitation in connection with his truthful playing attracted the attention of critics and the public.
In 1895, he was accepted by the directorate of the St. Petersburg Imperial Theaters as a member of 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 expressed in comic opera « Secret marriage» D. Cimarosa, but still did not receive proper assessment. It is reported that in the 1895-1896 season he “appeared quite rarely and, moreover, in parties that were not very suitable for him.” Famous philanthropist S.I. Mamontov, who was holding at that time opera house in Moscow, the first to notice Chaliapin's extraordinary talent, he persuaded him to join his private troupe. Here, in 1896-1899, Chaliapin developed into 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 modern music 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 “Pskovianka” N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov; Varangian guest in his own “Sadko”; Salieri in his “Mozart and Salieri”; Miller in “Rusalka” 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, Dosifey in his “Khovanshchina” and in many other operas.
At the same time, he worked hard on roles in foreign operas; for example, the role of Mephistopheles in Gounod’s Faust in his broadcast received amazingly bright, strong and original 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 creative life as the most important: “From Mamontov I received the repertoire that gave me the opportunity to develop all the main features of my artistic nature, my temperament.”
Since 1899, he again served in the Imperial Russian Opera in Moscow (Bolshoi Theater), where he enjoyed enormous success. He was highly praised 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 proceeds from his performances to workers. His performances with folk songs(“Dubinushka” and others) sometimes turned into political demonstrations.
Since 1914 he has been performing in private opera companies 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 Lev Mey’s drama “The Pskov Woman”).
In 1917, in the production of G. Verdi’s opera “Don Carlos” in Moscow, he appeared not only as a soloist (the part of Philip), but also as a director. His next directorial experience was the opera “Rusalka” by A.S. Dargomyzhsky.
In 1918-1921 - artistic director Mariinsky Theater.
Since 1922, he has been on tour abroad, in particular in the USA, where his American impresario was Solomon Hurok. The singer went there with his second wife, Maria Valentinovna.
Chaliapin's long absence aroused suspicion and negative attitude in Soviet Russia; so, in 1926 V.V. Mayakovsky wrote in his “Letter to Gorky”:
Or live for you
how Chaliapin lives,
splashed with scented applause?
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 resolution 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 title of artist was awarded to him” 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 performs main role in the film “Don Quixote” by Austrian film director Georg Pabst novel of the same name Cervantes. The film was shot in two languages at once - English and French, with two casts, the music for the film was written by Jacques Ibert. Location shooting of the film took place near the city of Nice.
In 1935-1936, the singer went on his last tour to Far East, giving 57 concerts in Manchuria, China and Japan. During the tour, his accompanist was Georges de Godzinsky. 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: “To cancel 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. This was the young Italian ballerina Iola Tornaghi (Iola Ignatievna Le Presti (after Tornaghi’s stage), died in 1965 at the age of 92), 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, Tatyana, Irina, Lydia. Fyodor and Tatyana were twins. Iola Tornaghi lived in Russia for a long time and only in the late 1950s, at the invitation of her son Fedor, she moved to Rome.
Already having a family, Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin became close to Maria Valentinovna Petzold (née Elukhen, in her first marriage - Petzold, 1882-1964), who had two children of her own from her first marriage. They have three daughters: Marfa (1910-2003), Marina (1912-2009) and Dasia (1921-1977). Shalyapin's daughter Marina (Marina Fedorovna Shalyapina-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, Maria Valentinovna’s marriage to Chaliapin was formalized in 1927 in Paris.
prizes and awards
1902 - Bukhara Order of the Golden Star, III degree.
1907 - Golden Cross of the Prussian Eagle.
1910 - title of Soloist of His Majesty (Russia).
1912 - title of Soloist of His Majesty the Italian King.
1913 - title of Soloist of His Majesty the King of England.
1914 - English Order for special services in the field of art.
1914 - Russian Order of Stanislav III degree.
1925 - Commander of the Legion of Honor (France).