Yuri Lyubimov is buried. His parents and brother David are buried here. So far, only a wooden cross and a plaque with his name and dates of life have been installed on the grave of the founder of the Taganka Theater. Hundreds of people came to the memorial service for Yuri Lyubimov at the church at the Donskoy Monastery.
"A skilled stage artist, an extraordinary figure theatrical arts and a person with a unique creative talent,” Patriarch Kirill called Yuri Lyubimov in a special address. The address of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' was read at the beginning of the memorial service, reports TASS. After this, the funeral service was held.
The Vakhtangov Theater was crowded. More than 3 thousand people came here to say goodbye to the talented director.
“Yuri Petrovich himself determined the funeral ceremony,” explained his widow Katalin. “He wanted the farewell to take place at the Vakhtangov Theater, his alma mater, where he began his journey into art.”
The coffin was installed on the stage of the Vakhtangov Theater. To his right was hung a portrait of Lyubimov with a black mourning ribbon, and to his left was an icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, under which two candles were burning.
At the back of the stage, part of the scenery from the director’s latest production at the Vakhtangov Theater “Demons” based on Fyodor Dostoevsky was displayed.
“An era has passed, a genius recognized during his lifetime who created a new direction in art,” she said at parting oldest actress Vakhtangov Theater Yulia Borisova. - Despite the political bias of the Taganka Theater, the works of Yuri Petrovich were highly artistic. Lyubimov thought deeply, soulfully. Some of the mise-en-scène in his performances were amazing and turned the soul upside down. And it was impossible not to cry. I believe that his name will stand next to Stanislavsky, Vakhtanov and Tovstonogov."
Yuri Lyubimov, Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky. He was one of the first to come to say goodbye to Lyubimov. The head of the Moscow Department of Culture Sergei Kapkov, actor Veniamin Smekhov, actress Yulia Borisova, and artist Boris Messerer also came to say goodbye.
At farewell, the music of Vladimir Martynov sounded, with whom for many years Lyubimov worked.
The last to stand on the mourning guard were Rimas Tuminas, director of the Vakhtangov Theater Kirill Krok, actor Sergei Yursky and children's doctor Leonid Roshal. They walked to the edge of the stage and bowed to the master.
Then Vladimir Martynov’s “Magnificat” sounded. At this time, the huge screen above the stage turned white and the curtain closed. But after some time the curtain opened again and the Pokrovsky ensemble, led by Rimas Tuminas, performed the spiritual verse “Hallelujah”.
While the Pokrovsky ensemble sang, the coffin with Lyubimov’s body was carried out of the hall. When saying goodbye in the theater, the director’s last wish was fulfilled: Lyubimov was escorted to last path carried out without funeral speeches, applause. wanted the founder of the Taganka Theater.
The funeral of Yuri Lyubimov was attended by his widow Katalin and son Peter, the head of the Vakhtangov Theater Rimas Tuminas, the widow of Alexander Solzhenitsyn Natalya Solzhenitsyna, actresses Lyudmila Maksakova, Alla Demidova, Marina Politsemaiko, directors Sergei Artsibashev, Anatoly Vasiliev, actors Veniamin Smekhov, Leonid Yarmolnik, composer Vladimir Martynov and many others.
At the Taganka Theater Lyubimov staged about 50 performances, including Hamlet, The Dawns Here Are Quiet..., The Fallen and the Living, Pugachev, The Life of Galileo, Listen, The Master and Margarita , “House on the Embankment”, “Boris Godunov”, “Sharashka”, “Electra”, “Suicide”, “Medea”, “The Chronicles of W. Shakespeare”, “Eugene Onegin” and others.
On July 11, 1984, by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, he was deprived of Soviet citizenship. Lyubimov's Soviet citizenship was returned only in 1989.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin supported the initiative of one of the city streets.
“My circle of life began here, and I want it to end here...”
How did you die? - many people ask in surprise, as if we are talking about young man, who suddenly passed away. You shouldn’t be surprised - this is exactly the case when everyone, for some reason, is sure that such a person will live forever and is generally immortal, contrary to common sense and the laws of nature. And yet, in the early morning of the fifth day of October, the heart of the founder of the famous Taganka stopped. Six days ago he celebrated his 97th birthday.
They will write: . And this will be the pure truth with the only difference that the era that not only passed away, but collapsed with his departure into the abyss. The era is special, impossible, unique. A scale corresponding to the scale of the country. Thinking that falls outside the country’s ideology. Art ahead of its time.
Peer October Revolution. Those who started with him were then surprised: “Wow, Yurka, he’s an artist, but he became like this...”, and then the words were difficult to choose - director, creator, artist, activist. And he is simply Lyubimov, and that says it all. In 1936 he entered the Vakhtangov Theater School, graduated in 1940, and in 1946 he became a theater artist at the Vakhtangov School, having previously served in the song and dance ensemble of the Military District. A handsome artist joined the troupe and immediately began to receive heroic roles. But according to the recollections of those with whom he worked, Yuri Lyubimov was also a remarkable artist of character.
When did he cross the line that separates acting from directing? When from the artist serving high hopes, broke out great artist? No one knows for sure - this process is secret and not subject to rational calculation. Lyubimov the director was born with “The Good Man from Szechwan,” which he staged with his students in Shchuk. What was that?! A typhoon, a tsunami, a bolt from the blue - all of Moscow, professional and snobbish, was eager for this student job. " kind man» walked across the main road Soviet theater, was too open in his convictions, impudent in the boldness of his statements. Like some kind of eccentric, not familiar with the rules of behavior in society, he shouted the truth that no one in the USSR was allowed to say. And his aesthetics were somehow unusual... And then he came with his students to Taganka, by that time a quiet, unpopular theater, and began to build his own.
Taganka is an entire era, although it took only a few decades. But what kind! And how they influenced the domestic and world theater! Thanks to his theater, the street, which previously appeared mainly in thieves’ folklore (“Taganka, all nights are full of fire, Taganka, you ruined me...”) and on maps designated as “an ancient street of Moscow,” turned into a sociocultural concept. You say “Taganka” and a whole synonymous row comes out: Vysotsky, Filatov, Zolotukhin, Trofimov, Demidova, Farada, Gubenko, Slavina, Shapovalov, Polizeimako, Yarmolnik and many, many more. Fates made and broken. And also performances that shocked the world. One was called “Ten Days That Shook the World.” “Alive”, “The Master and Margarita”, “House on the Embankment”, “Hamlet”, “Pugachev”, “And the Dawns Here Are Quiet”.
With the advent of Lyubimov’s Taganka it was, and now it will finally be: Taganka is he. A short man with a wrestler's back. Gray-haired (got gray early), elegant. Paradoxical, sharp, witty. Furious, but kind, not kind. As time will tell, he is generous: he knows how to forgive. Here he is sitting in his office, behind him is a wall of autographs of the greats. Strong man, brave: he makes the theater of truth. But not the one that can now be concocted by anyone who brazenly calls himself a director - it’s enough to dump all the dirt of life into the hall from the stage with obscenities, elements of the social bottom, or reading the roles of posts and reposts from social networks. His truth is deep, based on powerful literature and music, good taste and impeccable professionalism. His art rethinks life, and this art is highly artistic. One does not contradict the other - only a few can do this, and each in their own way: Efremov, Efros, Lyubimov.
Lyubimov is a theater tragedy, which, although he survived, it is a fact that it shortened his life. The artists raised by him, raised from nothing, essentially kicked their “father” out of the house. On this day, I don’t at all want to remember the heinousness of that act that Prague witnessed, or rather, its main drama theater. The artists staged a public showdown over fees, there was an uproar, and Lyubimov was confused and did not believe in the reality of what was happening. But he did not stoop to showdowns with petty people - he slammed the door and left the house. What happened in it later only confirmed whose side the truth was on: Taganka as a theater, as a phenomenon, died without Lyubimov.
And he, who miraculously survived this blow, found the strength to work. The Vakhtangov Theater, where he once started as an artist, called his Master, and he produced there a huge performance based on Dostoevsky’s “Demons.” The premiere took place in March 2012. Not only the participants in the production, but also all the theater workers were shocked (there is no other word) how this almost 95-year-old man conducted the rehearsals. In the morning he came to the theater with the rehearsal score literally written out to a tee, and worked with the artists for three hours. Then he went to the buffet, and after a break he resumed rehearsals. His assistant was actor Ruben Simonov, to whom Yuri Petrovich gave instructions - to check the readiness of the artists, just like the poster was hanging in the theater. One day Ruben couldn’t stand it: “Yuri Petrovich, you’ve completely driven me” - “Ruben, how old are you? Over 50? Why, my dear, at your age I only did Petka (son).”
The premiere aroused great interest and was a great success. There, in Vakhtangovsky, they celebrated the 95th anniversary of the Master. There were many distinguished guests, many words were said. Yuri Petrovich seemed pleased - after all, it began in this theater in 1946 acting life.
At that banquet, he confessed to Vakhtangovsky’s artistic director Rimas Tuminas and director Kirill Krok:
“Thank you very much for everything,” Yuri Petrovich told us. “My circle of life began here, and I want it to end here,” Kirill Krok told MK: “I will not set foot in the Taganka Theater - neither during life nor after death. Just let everything pass here.”
Certainly, last word will be for the relatives of Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov - his wife Katalin and son Peter: as they decide, so it will be. But until they get in touch: one can understand that it is difficult to survive such a loss. I ask director Vakhtangovsky:
— Is your theater ready to fulfill Yuri Petrovich’s wishes?
- Of course, this is not even discussed. Everything will be done to the highest standard.
And here is the latest information: Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov will be buried at the Donskoye Cemetery - this is his will. His family lies there - mother, father and brother David. And the farewell to the great director will take place on Wednesday from 10 to 12 at the Vakhtangov Theater. Just as the Master wanted.
And lastly, Lyubimov’s family categorically refused financial assistance for the funeral from the Moscow Department of Culture. As his wife Katalin Lyubimova said, the department did not protect the honor and dignity of her husband and, together with artists and trade unions of cultural workers, expelled the Master from his theater (the cultural department at that time was headed by Sergei Khudyakov). The statement of the current director of the Taganka Theater Vladimir Fleisher, who said that the theater is on tour and is mourning, looks strange. Fantastic hypocrisy - “you need to mourn according to your conscience together with the trade union of cultural workers,” says director of the Vakhtangov Theater Kirill Krok.
