Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin (Russian: Фёдор Ива́нович Шаля́пин, romanized: Fyodor Ivanovich Shalyapin) was a Russian opera singer. He was born on February 13, 1873 (Old Style: February 1, 1873), and died on April 12, 1938. Chaliapin had a deep and emotional bass voice. He had a successful international career at major opera houses. He is often credited with helping to create the tradition of realistic acting in opera.

Spelling note

He spelled his last name in the French style as "Chaliapine" in Western countries, and his name appeared on early His Master's Voice 78s as Theodore Chaliapine. In English writings, his first name is most often written as Feodor or Fyodor, and his last name is most commonly written as Chaliapin. However, in Russian pronunciation, the letter Ш is pronounced like the "sh" in "shop," not the "ch" in "chop." Some reference books use the spelling "Shalyapin" to show the official way to write the name in English. This spelling also reflects that the name is pronounced with three syllables (Sha-LYA-pin), not four.

Early life

Feodor Chaliapin was born on February 1, 1873, in Kazan, Russia, to a peasant family. He was born in the wing of a merchant named Lisitzin’s house on Rybnoryadskaya Street (now called Pushkin Street). This wing of the house no longer exists, but the main house and its surrounding yard remain. The next day, on Candlemas (also called the Meeting of Our Lord), he was baptized at the Epiphany (Bogoyavlenskaya) Church on Bolshaya Prolomnaya Street (now Bauman Street). His godparents were his neighbors: Nikolay Tonkov, a shoemaker, and Ludmila Kharitonova, a 12-year-old girl. His father, Ivan Yakovlevich, worked as a clerk for the Zemskaya Uprava (Zemstvo District Council). In 1878, the Chaliapin family moved to the village of Ametyevo (also called Ometyevo or the Ometyev settlements), which is now part of Kazan. They settled in a small house located behind the area of Sukonnaya Sloboda.

Early career

Fyodor Chaliapin's vocal teacher was Dmitri Usatov. He began his career in Tbilisi and at the Imperial Opera in Saint Petersburg in 1894. Later, he was invited to perform at the Mamontov Private Opera from 1896 to 1899. His first role there was Mephistopheles in Gounod's Faust, a performance that earned him widespread praise.

At the Mamontov Opera, Chaliapin met Sergei Rachmaninoff, who worked as an assistant conductor there. They remained close friends for many years. Rachmaninoff taught Chaliapin about music, such as how to study and understand musical scores. He also encouraged Chaliapin to learn not only his own roles but also all the other characters in the operas he performed. Through Rachmaninoff, Chaliapin learned the role of Boris Godunov in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, which became his most famous role. Chaliapin, in turn, helped Rachmaninoff develop a method for performing music by focusing on a key moment or "point" in each piece. He taught Rachmaninoff that performers must approach these moments with careful planning and accuracy, or the performance might lose its structure and become unclear. Rachmaninoff later used this technique in his own work as a concert pianist after World War I.

Because of his success at the Mamontov Opera, the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow hired Chaliapin. He performed there regularly from 1899 to 1914. During World War I, he also performed at the Zimin Private Opera in Moscow. In 1901, Chaliapin began touring in Western Europe. His first performance at La Scala in Italy was as the devil in Boito's Mefistofele, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, a famous opera conductor of the 20th century. Later in his career, Toscanini said Chaliapin was the most talented operatic singer he had ever worked with. Chaliapin's first performance at the Metropolitan Opera in 1907 was not well received because of his direct and honest acting style. However, he returned to the Met in 1921 and performed successfully for eight seasons, as New York audiences had become more open-minded by then.

In 1913, Chaliapin was introduced to London and Paris by Sergei Diaghilev, a successful organizer. This led to Chaliapin giving popular solo performances where he sang traditional Russian folk songs and more serious music. Some of these folk songs included "Along Peterskaya" (which he recorded with a Russian folk-instrument orchestra based in Britain) and "The Song of the Volga Boatmen," a song he made famous worldwide. In 1925, when Chaliapin performed in New York, his piano accompanist was Harry Lubin, who later became a composer for the television series The Outer Limits.

Later life

Fyodor Chaliapin toured Australia in 1926, giving performances that were widely praised. However, his personal life was troubled due to the Russian Revolution of 1917. At first, he was respected as a famous artist in the new Soviet Russia. But the difficult daily life under the new government, the instability caused by the Civil War, and the taking over of some of his property by Communist officials led him to stay outside Russia after 1921. He first moved to Finland and later lived in France. Paris, a city with many Russian immigrants, became his home and the place where he died. During this time, he was known for his lively and extravagant lifestyle, but he always remained committed to his art.

Chaliapin’s connection to Paris did not stop him from performing internationally in England, the United States, and other countries. In May 1931, he performed in the Russian Season in London’s Lyceum Theatre, directed by Sir Thomas Beecham. His most famous role was Boris Godunov, which he recorded between 1929 and 1931, as well as earlier. He is also remembered for his performances as Ivan the Terrible in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Maid of Pskov, Salieri in Mozart and Salieri, Mephistopheles in Gounod’s Faust, Don Quixote in Massenet’s Don Quichotte, and King Philip in Verdi’s Don Carlos.

Because of his efforts, Russian operas such as Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina, Glinka’s Ivan Susanin, Borodin’s Prince Igor, and Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride and Sadko became well known in the West.

Chaliapin appeared in one sound film, Don Quixote (1933), directed by G. W. Pabst. The film was made in three versions—French, English, and German—as was common at the time. Chaliapin starred in all three, which shared the same script, sets, and costumes but had different supporting actors. The English and French versions are most commonly seen and were released on DVD in May 2006. Pabst’s film was not based on the Massenet opera but was a dramatic adaptation of Miguel de Cervantes’ novel, with music by Jacques Ibert.

In 1932, Chaliapin wrote a memoir titled Man and Mask: Forty Years in the Life of a Singer. While touring Japan in 1936, he had a toothache, and a hotel chef created a very tender steak for him. This dish is still called a Chaliapin steak in Japan today.

Chaliapin’s final stage performance was as Boris Godunov at the Monte Carlo Opera in 1937. He lived in Paris at 22 Avenue d’Eylau and died of leukemia. He was buried in Paris’s Batignolles Cemetery until 1984, when his remains were moved to the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.

He owned a beautiful villa on Sainte-Barbe Hill in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, overlooking the Bay of Biscay.

Personal life

Fyodor Chaliapin was married twice. He met his first wife, Italian ballerina Iola Tornaghi (1873–1965), in Nizhny Novgorod. They married in Russia in 1898 and had six children: Igor, Boris (1904–1979), Irina, Lidia, and twins Feodor Jr. (1905–1992) and Taniya. Igor died at the age of four. Feodor Jr. became a character actor in Western motion pictures, including Moonstruck and The Name of the Rose, where he acted alongside Sean Connery. Boris was a well-known graphical artist who painted the portraits used on 414 covers of Time magazine between 1942 and 1970.

While married to Tornaghi, Chaliapin lived with Marina Petsold (1882–1964), a widow who had two children from a previous marriage. She had three daughters with Chaliapin: Marfa (1910–2003), Marina (1912–2009), and Dasya (1921–1977). Chaliapin’s two families lived separately, one in Moscow and the other in Saint Petersburg, and did not interact. He married Petsold in 1927 in Paris.

Chaliapin had his portrait painted many times by the Russian artist Konstantin Korovin. They met in 1896 and became close friends.

Gallery

• A photograph of Chaliapin as Mephisto, taken by Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky
• A depiction of Chaliapin as Boris Godunov
• The bell tower of the Epiphany (Bogoyavlenskaya) Church in Kazan. The Chaliapin Chamber Hall is on the second floor of the bell tower.
• A portrait of Chaliapin by Boris Kustodiev, created in 1921

Honours and awards

• 1902 – Received the Order of the Golden Star of Bukhara, 3rd class
• 1907 – Awarded the Golden Cross of the Prussian Eagle
• 1908 – Appointed Commander of the Officer's Rank
• 1910 – Named Soloist of the Russian Emperor
• 1912 – Named Soloist of the King of Italy
• 1914 – Received a British award for special achievements in the arts
• 1914 – Awarded the Order of St. Stanislaus, 3rd class (Russia)
• 1916 – Given the title of Officer
• 1918 – Honored as People's Artist of the Republic; the Soviet government removed the title in 1927
• 1934 – Appointed Commander of the Legion of Honour (France)
• 1935 – Elected to the Royal Academy of Music and received an academician diploma, along with Arturo Toscanini
• 1984 – Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
• 1991 – Restored the title of People's Artist of the Russian Federation Republic by the Russian Federation

Autobiographical works

In 1917, Chaliapin worked with Maxim Gorky to write his autobiography. He had started writing his life story earlier, while living in the Crimea. In 1917, while Chaliapin was in southern France, a French journalist encouraged him to write an autobiography, hoping to help write it. Gorky, who was a close friend and living in Capri at the time, asked Chaliapin to stay with him there. With the help of a secretary, they collected many details, which Gorky used to create a long manuscript. This was published in Russia in 1917 as a series of articles in the journal Letopis. At the same time, Chaliapin tried to sell the manuscript to an American publisher, but the publisher refused it after learning it had already been published in Russia. This caused a disagreement with Gorky. Later, Chaliapin worked with another editor to create a new version of his story. This new book, titled Pages of My Life, was published in America in 1927 by Harper and Brothers, New York. It only covered events up to 1905 and did not have the same depth or style as Gorky’s version. In 1932, Chaliapin published another book, Man and Mask, to mark the 40th anniversary of his first stage performance. The original manuscript of Gorky’s version was first translated into English in 1967 by Nina Froud and James Hanley. It was published by Stein and Day, New York, as Chaliapin: An Autobiography as Told to Maxim Gorky. The book included an appendix with original letters, some of which discussed Gorky.

Recordings

Fyodor Chaliapin had a deep and rich bass voice with a unique sound that was clearly recorded. He made many records for the Gramophone Company, starting in Russia with early recordings made at the beginning of the 20th century. He continued recording during the later period when microphones were used. Some of his performances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London were recorded live in the 1920s, including a memorable version of "Death of Boris" from the opera Boris Godunov. His final recording, made in Tokyo in 1936, was of the famous song The Song of the Volga Boatmen. Many of his recordings were released in the United States by RCA Victor. His recordings are now available on CDs from companies such as EMI, Preiser, Naxos, and others. In 2018, all of his recordings were released on 13 CDs by Marston Records. These include songs and a variety of arias from Italian, French, and Russian operas.

Opinions on his art

• Opera commentator/historian Michael Scott says: "Chaliapin is considered among Caruso and Maria Callas as one of the three greatest singers and most powerful and influential artists of the twentieth century."

• "At the Met, he performed the role of Basilio in Rossini's The Barber of Seville as a rude, unpleasant, and messy priest who constantly picked his nose and wiped his hands on his robe. Audiences were shocked. Chaliapin explained in an interview that Basilio 'is a Spanish priest. I know this type well. He is not the modern American priest, who is clean and neat; he is dirty and messy, and this is what I make him, a funny character.' " (Harold C. Schonberg)

• Some people claimed Chaliapin fought in the后台 (backstage). Rachmaninoff agreed. "Feodor is a fighter. Everyone is afraid of his strong presence. He shouts suddenly or even hits someone! His punches are powerful… He can protect himself. How else should one act? Backstage at our own theater, it is like a bar. People shout, drink, and use strong language." In a letter from November 1910 to the editor of Utro Rossii, the publication that supposedly quoted the above remarks and credited them to Rachmaninoff, the composer strongly denied the quote and wrote: "The article published words of mine about the Bolshoi Theater and Chaliapin without my permission… I said that we often have problems backstage at the Bolshoi Theater… I also said that I heard rumors that since Chaliapin was made manager of the operas in which he sings, there is more peace backstage. That is all I said… S. Rachmaninoff."

• Met singer Geraldine Farrar said Chaliapin had a voice like "melodious thunder" but warned that he sometimes acted unexpectedly to draw attention onstage. "Chaliapin was a great opera partner, but one had to be careful for sudden changes from the plan, and the creative choices that only helped Chaliapin stand out."

• Dale Carnegie, referencing a story by impresario Sol Hurok, said Chaliapin was often difficult, even acting like a "spoiled child." When the bass singer complained that his throat was sore and he could not sing at a scheduled performance at the Metropolitan Opera, Hurok immediately agreed to cancel the event, saying: "It will only cost you a few thousand dollars, but that is nothing compared to your reputation." Chaliapin left open the possibility that he might still perform if he felt better later, and Hurok checked on him twice before the concert. Finally, Chaliapin agreed to perform, provided that Hurok would tell the audience that Chaliapin "had a very bad cold and was not in good voice." Carnegie commented: "Mr. Hurok would lie and say he would do it, for he knew that was the only way to get the bass singer on stage."