Feodor Chaliapin

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The Russian opera singer Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin (Template:Lang) (February 13 (February 1, Old Style), 1873 – April 12, 1938) was the most famous bass in the first half of the 20th century. Because of his powerful and flexible voice, together with his mesmerizing stage presence and his superb acting ability, he is considered one of the greatest performers in the history of opera, and he is credited with establishing the tradition of naturalistic acting in opera.

Chaliapin was born in Ömet Tawı, near Kazan. Largely self-taught, he began his career at Tbilisi and the Imperial Opera, St. Petersburg in 1894; he was then invited to sing at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, where he appeared regularly from 1899 to 1914. From 1914, Chaliapin apeared regulary at the Zimin Private Opera in Moscow.

From 1901, Chaliapin begin appearing the West, making his debut at La Scala that year in a production of Boito's Mefistofele under the baton of Arturo Toscanini, who at the end of career observed that the Russian bass was the greatest operatic talent with whom he had ever worked. The singer's Metropolitan Opera debut in the 1907 season was said to have been unspectacular, but he returned in 1921 and sang there with immense success for eight seasons. In 1913, Chaliapin was introduced to London and Paris by Diaghilev, at which point he began giving well-received solo recitals in which he also performed traditional Russian folk songs. Among these songs are Along Peterskaya, which he recorded with a British-based Russian folk instruments orchestra, and the song he made famous throughout the world: The Song of the Volga Boatmen. Image:Kustodiyev Shalyapin.JPG

After the Russian Revolution, Chaliapin was at first treated as a distinguished artist of the Soviet Union, but disagreement with the Soviet government caused him to remain outside Russia after 1921, although he maintained that he was not anti-Soviet. Chaliapin fled to Finland and later lived in France.

Chaliapin's most famous role was the title role of Boris Godunov (excerpts of which he recorded 1929-31), but is remembered for Ivan the Terrible in Rimsky-Korsakov's Maid of Pskov, Mephistopheles in Gounod's Faust, Massenet's Don Quichote, and Bertram in Meyerbeer's Robert le diable. Thanks to his famous performances, Russian operas like Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina, Glinka's Ivan Susanin, Borodin's Prince Igor and Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride became well known in the West.

Image:Chaliapingrave.jpgIn 1932, Chaliapin published a memoir, Man and Mask: Forty Years in the Life of a Singer, prepared in collaboration with Maxim Gorky.

Chaliapin died in 1938 of leukaemia aged 65 in Paris. In 1984, his remains were transferred from Paris to Moscow for interment in the Novodevichy Cemetery.

His son, Feodor Chaliapin Jr. (1907-1992), had a notable career in film as a character actor.

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