Leonova D.М., (1829-1896), singer

Categories / Art/Music, Theatre/Personalia
LEONOVA (Gildmeister after her first marriage) Daria Mikhaylovna (1829, according to other reports, 1834-1896, St. Petersburg), opera singer (contralto), actress, chamber singer, and teacher. Lived in St. Petersburg from 1839, she studied singing under N. F. Vitelyaro in the Petersburg Theatre School from 1849. She made her debut as an opera singer in 1850 performing the part of Vanya in M. I. Glinka's Life for the Tsar in the Alexandrinsky Theatre, where she also worked as an actress. She improved her performance under the leadership of Glinka from 1852, the latter preparing the part of Vanya for her debut in the Petersburg Circus Theatre and composing vocalisations for her too. She then studied under D. Meyerbeer in Berlin and D. Auber in Paris in 1856. She toured Germany, France, Belgium, and the Kingdom of Poland until she returned to St. Petersburg to work in Mariinsky Theatre in 1858-73. She performed a total of 26 parts in Russian and foreign operas. She had a broad range with he voice and was very artistic and interpreted her parts so profoundly that contemporaries qualified her performances as bold realism. Her best roles include Vanya and Ratmir in Glinka's Life for the Tsar and Ruslan and Lyudmila, the Princess in A. S. Dargomyzhsky's The Mermaid, Rogneda in A. N. Serov's Rogneda, and the Tavern's Hostess and Marfa in M. P. Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov and Khovanschina. She toured Russia and abroad, including China, Japan, the USA, etc. Her work was associated with Mussorgsky from 1878. They toured together and were involved in educational work to arrange private vocal courses in St. Petersburg in 1880. She then worked as a teacher in the Moscow Theatre School in 1888-92. Back in St. Petersburg in 1893, she gave private lessons. She published Reminiscencies of D. M. Leonova, Artist of the Imperial Theatres in Historical Bulletin, volume 43, in 1891. She was buried at Necropolis of Artists.

Reference: Штейнберг А. Д. М. Леонова: (К 50-летию со дня смерти) // Сов. музыка. 1946. № 2/3. С. 121-123; Яковлев В. В. Д. М. Леонова. М.; Л., 1950. Гозенпуд А. А. Русский оперный театр XIX века, 1836-1856. Л., 1969. С. 380-384, 447-449.

E. V. Tretyakova. Dargomyzhsky Alexander Sergeevich
Glinka Mikhail Ivanovich
Leonova Daria Mikhailovna
Meyerbeer Giacomo
Mussorgsky Modest Petrovich
Serov Alexander Nikolaevich
Vitelyaro N.F.
Штейнберг А. Д. М. Леонова: (К 50-летию со дня смерти) // Сов. музыка, 1946
Яковлев В. В. Д. М. Леонова. М.; Л., 1950
Гозенпуд А. А. Русский оперный театр XIX века, 1836-1856. Л., 1969 Theatre College
Alexandrinsky Theatre
Mariinsky Theatre
Necropolis of Artists