Platonova Y.F., (1841-1892), singer

Categories / Art/Music, Theatre/Personalia
PLATONOVA (nee Garder; married Tvaneva) Yulia Fedorovna (1841-1892, St. Petersburg), opera singer (lyric drama soprano), chamber singer. Studied singing under Postel, Director of the Mitavsky Musical Society. In 1863-75 was a soloist at the Mariinsky Theatre (debuted with the role of Antonida in A Life for the Tsar by M.I. Glinka), and remained there until 1876, with over 50 roles in her repertoire. A.S. Dargomizhsky had a great influence on Platonova. Platonova is best remembered for the role of Natasha in the Water-Nymph because of the intensity of her dramatic execution, intonation, and expression. Her style was noted for the exactness of phrasing, forethought of every detail, and dramatic meaningfulness. Platonova's voice was not strong, and had a soft tone and wide range. Boris Godunov by M.P. Mussorgsky was staged for the first time in 1874 on the initiative of Platonova. After 1875 she began giving solo concerts; she sang romances by Dargomizhsky, N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, M.P. Mussorgsky (who participated in her farewell concert in 1877). Between 1876 and 1892 she taught, organising a private singing school, working in the Pedagogical Museum of the Salt Settlement, and staging opera performances with her pupils. She wrote an autobiography, parts of which were published in the book M.P. Mussorgsky in Recollection of his Contemporaries (Moscow, 1989). She was buried at Smolenskoe Cemetery.

References: Старк Э. А. Петербургская опера и ее мастера, 1890-1910. Л.; М., 1940; Гозенпуд А. А. Русский оперный театр XIX века, 1857-1872. Л., 1971.

E. V. Tretyakova. Dargomyzhsky Alexander Sergeevich
Glinka Mikhail Ivanovich
Mussorgsky Modest Petrovich
Platonova Yulia Fedorovna
Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolay Andreevich
Старк Э. А. Петербургская опера и ее мастера, 1890–1910. Л.; М., 1940
Гозенпуд А. А. Русский оперный театр XIX века, 1857 - 1872. Л., 1971 Mariinsky Theatre
Solyanoy Settlement