Chaliapin F.I., (1873-1938), singer

Categories / Art/Music, Theatre/Personalia
CHALIAPIN Fedor Ivanovich (1873-1938), opera artist (bass), People's Artist of the Republic (1923). Received no formal musical education. Chaliapin appeared for the first time on the stage in 1890 in Ufa, playing the part of Stolnik in S. Moniuszko's Halka. In Tbilisi he took singing lessons from D.A. Usatov. In 1894, he took part in opera performances given at St. Petersburg's Arcadia garden. On 5 April 1895, he made his debut on the stage of the Mariinsky Theatre with the role of Mephistopheles. In 1896 he became a soloist for S.I. Mamontov's Moscow Private Russian Opera, where he achieved fame playing the part of Ivan the Terrible in N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov's Pskovityanka (The Maid of Pskov), Dositheos and Boris Godunov in Mussorgsky's Khovanshchina and Boris Godunov, and Holofernes in A.N. Serov's Judith. In 1899, he became a soloist at the Bolshoy Theatre in Moscow, continuing to perform at the Mariinsky Theatre, and then in 1914-18 at the Imperial Theatres, Petrograd People's House, and S.I. Zimin's Moscow Opera Theatre. Chaliapin toured abroad a lot, visiting Milan, Monte Carlo, Berlin, and Rome. He partook in S.P. Dyagilev's Russian Seasons (Paris 1908, 1913, London, 1913, 1914). After the October Revolution, he worked as the Mariinsky Theatre's art director (1918), was appointed elective member of the Mariinsky Theatre and the Bolshoy Theatre boards, and planned their reorganisation projects. In 1922, he went on tour to Europe, never to return to the Soviet Union, living the rest of his life in Paris. The most prominent figure of Russian performance art and a reformer of the opera stage, he established a tradition of performance associated with certain roles, such as that of Boris Godunov or Mephistopheles in operas by Ch. Gounod and A. Boito. He worked as an opera director, played in some films, and sang Russian songs and romances at concerts; he also painted, drew, and sculpted. He wrote an autobiography titled Pages from My Life, and a book called Man and Mask, and his literary works have been reprinted repeatedly. The building where Chaliapin lived in 1914-22 (26 Permskaya Street, today Graftio Street, memorial plaque installed) has housed Chaliapin's memorial flat since 1975.

References: Янковский М. О. Шаляпин и русская оперная культура. Л.; М., 1947; Дмитриевский В. Н., Катеринина Е. Р. Шаляпин в Петербурге - Петрограде. Л., 1976; Федор Иванович Шаляпин: В 3 т. М., 1976-1979; Летопись жизни и творчества Ф. И. Шаляпина: В 2 кн. 2-е изд., доп. Л., 1988-1989.

E. V. Tretyakova. Boito Arrigo
Chaliapin Fedor Ivanovich
Dyagilev Sergey Pavlovich
Gounod Charles
Mamontov Savva Ivanovich
Moniuszko Stanislaw
Mussorgsky Modest Petrovich
Rimsky-Korsakov Nikolay Andreevich
Serov Alexander Nikolaevich
Usatov D.A.
Zimin Sergey Ivanovich
Graftio St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 2, litera л. Б
Янковский М. О. Шаляпин и русская оперная культура. Л.; М., 1947
Федор Иванович Шаляпин: В 3 т. М., 1976–1979
Дмитриевский В. Н., Катеринина Е. Р. Шаляпин в Петербурге – Петрограде. Л., 1976
Летопись жизни и творчества Ф. И. Шаляпина: В 2 кн. 2-е изд., доп. Л., 1988–1989 Mariinsky Theatre
Imperial Theatres
1894