2023-07-29 10:00:17
Portrait of F.I. Chaliapin. N.Novgorod. Photo location: Archive of audiovisual information of the Nizhny Novgorod Region
Dear friends!
We continue to publish fragments from the book of Sergei Isakov, a well-known scientist, professor at the University of Tartu (8.10.1931 –
01/11/2013), our countryman, “Essays on the history of Russian culture in Estonia”.
Fragments of the book, which are published in our newspaper, directly relate to Narva. We are sure that by reading them, you will learn even more about our city and even make discoveries for yourself.
We thank the relatives of Sergei Gennadievich for the opportunity. The book was published by Aleksandra publishing house, Tallinn 2005.
(start here)
The success of Chaliapin’s first two concerts necessitated a third, unplanned in advance. Chaliapin insisted that tickets for 20-60 marks for the third concert be cheap and, therefore, accessible to poor people who could not attend the first concerts because of the high cost of tickets. Moreover, Chaliapin’s impresario turned to the Estonian Central Council of Trade Unions with a proposal to take over the distribution of tickets among the workers, but the council, for reasons that are not entirely clear to us, refused. Nevertheless, the free sale of cheap tickets for the last concert of Chaliapin was specially provided for on the evening of May 14, so that people busy during the day at work could purchase them. Until 5 pm, ticket orders were accepted from representatives of schools and trade unions.
Chaliapin was also invited to perform in Tartu, but Vanemuine failed to get permission for the concert. The news about Chaliapin’s tour in Estonia gave hope to foreign entrepreneurs that he would be able to travel to other countries. Invitations addressed to Tallinn followed to the singer on tour to Stockholm and Helsinki, but Chaliapin was forced to answer that they were waiting for him in Russia.
There were other signs as well. Chaliapin recalled one of them in his memoirs. “The Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Birk, kindly invited me the next day (after the first concert – S.I.) to have dinner with him at the club. For reasons of etiquette, he considered it necessary to invite the Soviet envoy, a certain Gukovsky. I was pleasantly excited about the opportunity that I had not seen for a long time to see a free and unconstrained gathering of people of the members of the club, as I hoped. But disappointment awaited me: dinner was served to us in a tightly closed office. Correct or not, I felt that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia was not very disposed to appear to the public in the company of the Soviet envoy … “. But it was apparently not only that. The point is also that, despite Chaliapin’s quite successful speeches and the very warm reception of his listeners, the anti-Chaliapin campaign in the press did not stop.
All the authors of the publications faced the same difficulty: they had to give an answer to a simple question: if Chaliapin is so bad, then why were his concerts in Tallinn such a huge success? The answer most often given was this: the concert hall was filled with a specific audience – they were nouveau riches, upstarts, parvenu, people far from art who came to see a celebrity, and even Russians and Jews, hypnotized by the former glory of the singer.
Chaliapin most likely left Tallinn on 18 May, at least the news of his departure appeared in the newspapers on 19 May. The newspapers also talked about the fact that Chaliapin at first intended to stay in Estonia for the summer, but nothing came of it. I had to be content with something else: “Great joy awaited my family when I dragged a healthy box with all sorts of food from the station. For a while we stopped drinking carrot tea, which was made in the kitchen by our ladies. With the joy of idolaters, they now kneaded white flour dough and baked cakes. A tour trip to Estonia played an important role in the further fate of Chaliapin. This he himself admitted in his memoirs.
“Returning to St. Petersburg, on the way I summed up my Revel impressions:
1. Life abroad is much better than ours, contrary to what we were told in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
2. Tips are not held in high esteem by foreigners.
3. I am considered a Bolshevik because of malicious gossip and because I came from Russia, where I live and continue to live under the Bolshevik regime.
4. My songs were still well received.
If I break out to Europe, I can work and live … After a trip to Revel, which aroused in me vague hopes for a better future, I began to feel much more cheerful … “.
Chaliapin managed to carry out his intentions, which had become stronger after a trip to Estonia, to “break out to Europe” in 1922. But even before that, in March of the same 1922, Chaliapin’s impresario again negotiated with the board of “Estonia” regarding the singer’s performance in Tallinn “for season.” However, the tour did not take place.
On June 29, 1922, Chaliapin set off from Petrograd abroad on the German passenger steamer Oberbürgermeister Hacken for treatment, rest and performances. At 6 o’clock in the morning on June 30, the steamer, without entering the harbor, stopped at the Tallinn roadstead, “at the second hour of the day she weighed anchor and went to sea.” No news about Chaliapin’s stay on the ship appeared in the local, Tallinn, press. Information has been preserved that Chaliapin met in Tallinn with his daughter Marina, who completed a course of treatment in Finland and came to meet with her father in the capital of the Republic of Estonia. It is possible: boats were running between the ship and the harbor.
Chaliapin never returned to Soviet Russia…
The singer once again managed to visit these parts, but, as in 1922, again, not on Estonian soil, but, so to speak, in the Estonian maritime space. In November 1935, Chaliapin set off on the Nordland steamer from the German city of Stettin to Helsinki. On the way on November 18, the steamer stopped at the Tallinn roadstead for an hour and a half, the passengers did not go ashore. A correspondent for the Estonian newspaper Vaba Maa, who heard that Chaliapin was on the ship, decided to interview him. The great singer greeted the journalist cordially and invited him to his cabin. Chaliapin’s interview in Vaba Maa has never been published in Russian, although it is of considerable interest. We offer it to readers with small reductions.
“The years showed on his face, but left no devastating marks. On the contrary, the wrinkles that appear ennoble him, they reflect reconciliation with himself and with the world, gray eyes radiate cheerfulness and strength. “We are heading with an impresario from warm lands to cold lands, from Yugoslavia, Vienna and Germany to Yugoslavia and Scandinavia,” Chaliapin explains. – Somehow the soul rejoices when you arrive in these countries. The native air that we Russians have been breathing for many years is flowing towards you. I was in Tallinn after the revolution, I remember very well: you have a very good hall here. I have wonderful memories of those days.” We are interested in how things are going with Chaliapin and in general with Russian masters of art abroad. “My business abroad is going better than ever,” Chaliapin explains. Everywhere in Europe and in other parts of the world, Russian masters of art are treated with great benevolence, in turn, Russian masters, for their part, strive to do everything to attract attention to themselves and deserve this attention. The old Russian theatrical school gave a lot to our masters, and it still dominates today.”
Further, Chaliapin talks about his house, while sad notes sound in his voice. “I don’t really have it. From the time I left Russia, I had to be on the road all the time, in constant wanderings. In Russia, I had my own theaters – imperial, in St. Petersburg and Moscow. There are no such theaters now. I travel around the world, although I consider Paris to be my main place of residence: my family lives there. In between, my new home was the United States of America, where I lived in New York and Chicago. I have not been in Soviet Russia for 14 years and have no right to judge it. I can’t say whether it’s good where there is no God and family and where only the sickle and hammer dominate – work. However, I heard that theaters live well there. I often listen to theatrical broadcasts from Soviet Russia on the radio, and I can’t say anything bad about them.”
Chaliapin again turns to his house. “Let’s write letters home,” he says to his impresario. – Let’s do it from Tallinn to please Lisa. She is Estonian. Lisa has been living with us for 14 years and has become, as it were, a member of our family. I took her as a nanny to my daughter fourteen years ago in St. Petersburg, and so she stayed with us. The name of Lisa Chaliapin, however, was forgotten.
Chaliapin promises to definitely come to Tallinn again, but he does not know when this can happen. “I have been working in the theater for 45 years, maybe I can make it to my 50th anniversary. After that, I’ll start fishing. Then, perhaps, I will come to live somewhere here, where in the days of old age I will breathe the native smell of the house, where in winter there would be fresh and invigorating white snow and a good Russian bath. I miss the latter so much in Western Europe.”
Turning again to the 50th anniversary of his stage activity, Chaliapin notices that he does not know where he will celebrate the anniversary. “I don’t have a homeland; maybe I can celebrate the anniversary in Paris or London. The French love me very much. However, I do not have the opportunity to sing in Russian for my people. I’m glad I can do it for foreigners. Although 90 percent of my listeners do not know a word of Russian, they still understand me, and therefore I am still “acceptable” to foreigners.”
Fedor Ivanovich Chaliapin allows himself to joke. He invites us to his 100th anniversary, which he intends to spend in St. Petersburg.
We leave the ship after repeated strong handshakes almost like good friends.
(To be continued.)
The post Passion around Chaliapin | About events more than 80 years ago first appeared on gazeta.ee.
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