Fedor Fedorovich Chaliapin - son of a famous father, biography, films

Wikipedia has articles about other people with the last name Chaliapin.

Fedor Fedorovich Chaliapin

(outside Russia known as
Fyodor Chaliapin Jr.
, English
Feodor Chaliapin, Jr.
, October 6, 1905 - September 17, 1992) - the son of the famous Russian opera singer Fyodor Chaliapin. He achieved success in his acting career both in Europe and in the USA.

Fyodor Fyodorovich Chaliapin was born in Moscow in the family of the opera singer-bass Fyodor Chaliapin and his first wife, the young Italian prima ballerina Iola Tornaghi. In addition to him, Chaliapin had five more children from this marriage, and the youngest Fyodor and Tatyana were twins. Fedor received an excellent education in Moscow, spoke three languages, and after the October Revolution he left his family and in 1924 moved to his father in Paris. Brother Boris became a famous artist.

Soon tired of living in the shadow of his illustrious father, he left France and went to Hollywood, where his acting career began. There he also found silent films, and his first roles were quite successful K: Wikipedia: Articles without sources (type: not specified)[ source not specified 4193 days

], as his noticeable accent could not be heard.
However, he did not get the main roles. The advent of the era of sound cinema also did not bring Chaliapin much fame. However, the role of Kashkin, dying in the arms of the hero Gary Cooper in the film “For Whom the Bell Tolls” (1943), performed by Chaliapin, was well remembered by the public. K: Wikipedia: Articles without sources (type: not specified)[ source not specified 4193 days
]. After World War II, he moved to Rome, where he continued his acting career, performing many character roles from the 1950s to the 1970s.

In 1960, for the first time in many years, he met his mother, who immigrated to him in Rome during the Khrushchev Thaw. Of all the valuables and works of art that belonged to her ex-husband, Iola Tornaghi managed to take only Chaliapin’s photo albums with her from Moscow. In 1984, Chaliapin Jr. managed to achieve the reburial of his father, whose ashes had rested in Paris all this time, at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.

He achieved success and recognition in cinema, already at an advanced age, when in 1986 he played the role of Jorge of Burgos in the film “The Name of the Rose” with Sean Connery in the title role. His other memorable role was the old Italian grandfather of Cher's character in the film Moonstruck in 1987. He then appeared in a number of films, such as “Cathedral” (1989) and “Stanley and Iris” (1990), and played his last notable role in the film “The Inner Circle” (1991), which tells the story of Soviet Russia during the dictatorship of Stalin .

Fyodor Chaliapin Jr. died in September 1992 at his home in Rome at the age of 86.

Shalyapin Fedor Fedorovich: biography

He was born on October 6, 1905 and lived until September 17, 1992. Moscow became Chaliapin's hometown. His father's first wife, Italian prima ballerina Iola Tornaghi, became the mother of twins Fyodor and Tatiana. By the way, in this marriage they had four more children.

Son Fedor received an excellent education in Moscow and could speak three languages. A little later, after the Bolshevik revolution (in 1924), he left his family and moved to his father in Paris. It is known that Boris, his brother, became an artist and quite famous.

Soon, however, Fyodor Fedorovich Chaliapin got tired of being in the shadow of his father and left France for Hollywood, where he began his acting career. Silent films were made back then. His career got off to a successful start and he was lucky because he spoke with a noticeable accent at the time.

Fedor Fedorovich Chaliapin: films

Surprisingly, success came to the younger Chaliapin when he was already at an advanced age. It all started with the film “The Name of the Rose”, starring Sean Connery, where Fedor played the role of Jorge of Burgos.

Then there was his other bright role in the film “Moonstruck” (in 1987), where he played an old Italian, the grandfather of the heroine, played by the popular American singer Cher. Then there were other films - “Cathedral” (1989), “Stanley and Iris” (1990).

He played his last role in “The Inner Circle” (1991), this film tells about life in the Soviet Union during the Stalinist dictatorship.

Fyodor Fedorovich Chaliapin died at the age of 86 (in September 1992) in his home in Rome.

A great man with an even greater woman behind him

Now in Russia she is remembered more as Chaliapin’s wife than as a leading lady of the Italian theater who abandoned her career for the sake of family well-being. But the fact that the most famous Russian bass had two families is rarely remembered.

For Tornaghi, Russia became a second home: this Italian woman lived in our country for more than sixty years. And she returned to her homeland only a few years before her death. The only things the ballerina took with her were photo albums with photographs of Chaliapin.

Elena Menshenina, “AiF”

Father

Touching on the topic of his son, I would like to digress a little to the father of F.I. Chaliapin (1873, Kazan - 1938, Paris) - an unusually talented person who, in addition to a vocal gift, had other talents - an artist, graphic artist, sculptor and even acted in films.

His parents were ordinary peasants. As a child, Fedor Chaliapin (his biography contains these exact facts) was a singer. His artistic career began with joining the troupe of V. B. Serebryakov. Then there were wanderings and development of talent. One day, fate threw him to Tiflis, where he began to seriously study his voice, and all thanks to the singer Dmitry Usatov, whom Chaliapin could not pay for singing lessons, and he studied with him for free.

My yours don't understand

The young ballerina Iola Lo-Presti, performing under her mother’s maiden name, Tornaghi, was a real star in Italy. At 16, the girl became the prima of the Venetian theater “Fenice”, then she shone at the Milan theater, and at 22 she signed a contract for a season in Lyon, France.

At this moment, during the heyday of her creative career, the Italian ballet troupe was unexpectedly offered to perform in Russia, in Nizhny Novgorod. The artists were invited by Savva Mamontov, a famous entrepreneur, philanthropist and art connoisseur. The troupe agreed.

Our artists greeted the tour guests in Russia. Among them was a 23-year-old peasant son from the Vyatka province - Fyodor Chaliapin. The young singer innocently offered to help Tornaghi and her friend find housing, but the foreigners politely refused. Soon Chaliapin began to show signs of attention to the ballerina, but she remained cold towards him. The singer spoke no Italian at all; She didn’t understand a word of Russian. But this did not bother Chaliapin: he told her about his childhood and the poverty in which he had previously lived, using gestures.

Search for success

In 1893 he moved to Moscow, and a year later to St. Petersburg. Critics and audiences were stunned by his amazing voice. He began performing roles from the stage of the Mariinsky Theater.

Then the famous Moscow philanthropist S.I. Mamontov persuades him to go to the opera with him (1896-1899). Mamontov allowed the singer to do literally whatever he wanted in his theater - complete freedom of creativity. Since 1899, Chaliapin has been on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater.

In 1918, Chaliapin became the artistic director of the Mariinsky Theater and received a “People's Artist” award, and then, in 1922, he went to work in America. The country's leadership at that time was concerned about his long absence. He once donated money to the children of emigrants, but this was considered to be support for the White Guards, and Chaliapin was deprived of the title of “people’s” in 1927. Only in 1991, more than fifty years after the singer’s death, this order was regarded as unfounded and the title was returned.

Personal life

Chaliapin was married twice. He met his first wife, Iola Tornagi, in Nizhny Novgorod (more precisely, in the village of Gagino), and they got married in 1898. She bore him six children - Igor, Boris, Fyodor, Tatyana, Irina and Lydia.

Then Chaliapin had a second family with Maria Valentinovna Petzold, who already had two children from her first marriage. She gave birth to three more girls to the singer: Marfa, Marina and Dasia. He lived for two families. One was in Moscow, the other in Petrograd.

Officially, Chaliapin’s marriage to Maria Valentinovna was formalized in 1927 in Paris.

Chaliapin received many honorary awards, but since 1922 he performed and lived exclusively abroad.

Chaliapin: The Soul of the Father

Great Fathers / Fathers of the Great

In his famous memoirs “Mask and Soul”, which were published in Europe during Chaliapin’s lifetime, in 1932, and in the USSR - in a truncated form under Khrushchev and in full only under Yeltsin - the great singer writes almost nothing about his children. Why - God knows, who knows... Except, of course, the author himself. Maybe he was going to write something about them separately, but then, or maybe he thought that they would write something about him. However, be that as it may, Chaliapin not only loved his children very much, but cared for them in every possible way until the last days of his life. What, for example, so distinguished the great Russian bass from his older contemporary and great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. What does Tolstoy have to do with it?.. So he also had a lot of children. And, perhaps, only the author of the novel “War and Peace” was equal in fame to the first bass of the world. Well, or vice versa.

Igor and Boris

Chaliapin loved her madly. His pride, a simple Volga peasant, was so flattered that his wife was Italian. And - beauty! They met at the Russian Private Opera, she is a ballerina, he is an opera singer. For him, this was only the beginning of his rise to the greatest fame; for her, it was approaching the end of a beautiful dancing career. But is it worth considering each other for glory, is it something to think about when life is at such a high point!..

They have a son, Igorek, and two daughters, Irina (who became the goddaughter of the still young, but already famous throughout Russia, Rachmaninov, Chaliapin’s best friend) and little Lydia.

The first-born son is everyone's favorite. Three years old - and how artistic he is already, how musical and flexible... the latter, of course, from his mother - whatever you say, but a ballerina... Adored and loved by everyone - both parents and sisters. ...Everything happened somehow unexpectedly and suddenly. An attack of appendicitis - a serious and merciless disease at that time... Just a few hours of excruciating pain, which could not possibly accommodate the endless suffering of the unfortunate parents. And did it ever fall silent - this grief of loss, did this pain of deprivation calm down even a little, even many years later?

A little later they said that the young father wanted to commit suicide out of grief. From grief and from... misunderstanding - FOR WHAT? Why does he - successful, rich and happy - have so much grief? Or did he experience it little, being a peasant’s son? When did you go hungry for days while learning the simple craft of shoemaking? The death of his son almost killed the career of Chaliapin, whose name was already thundering throughout vast Russia; Russian vocal art had never known its equal.

“My son, my dear child...” Words from the dying aria of Tsar Boris (his favorite, crown part for all times - contemporaries who saw the singer in Mussorgsky’s “Boris Godunov”, every single one said that it was beyond human capabilities) - suddenly acquired a different terrible meaning and smothered, smothered the unfortunate father with moans and cries.

Chaliapin as Boris Godunov

... We were taken to Novodevichye. In the Shalyapin pantheon at the famous Moscow cemetery, Igor became the first...

It was impossible for the father, distraught with grief, to stay any longer in the apartment on Leontyevsky Lane, because everything here reminded him of his son - the boy whom God had given only 4 years of life. Everything here was completely filled with pain, everything here breathed loneliness, melancholy and the sorrow of emptiness. The stage... well, what about the stage - after all, it gives oblivion only for short hours of the evening performance... The singer’s passionate nature did not find peace in its torments. I wanted to run—to run away from these walls!..

The family moved to Ostozhenka. And then - oh, miracle! - the first event in the Chaliapin family was the birth of a child, a son, Boris, named after his beloved Tsar.

He was born in the hall of the first floor of a large and bright mansion in the Empire style, which the singer bought, as they said, on the advice of the abbess of the neighboring monastery, the Conception Monastery, the house was adjacent to the fence of which. Chaliapin experienced the birth of his son as if he himself had been born again. Yes, indeed, that’s how it was. After a long series of sad days caused by the loss of his beloved son, life for the artist Chaliapin began anew.

Chaliapin with his son Boris

Games after midnight

The most famous “Zachatievsky” family grew by leaps and bounds. This was the name of the singer of the Court of His Imperial Majesty Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin in the royal family. So, following Boris, who almost from infancy did not leave the easel and just drew and painted (and later became a famous artist), the twins Fedor and Tatyana were born.

Five children, and at that time, a hundred years ago, when families with one child were a real rarity, was considered quite a lot. Especially if we were talking about the city. And here is the capital. It may be the second, but it is the largest city in Russia. Everything around is expensive and everything around is very difficult. However, the happiness was that Chaliapin loved children. No, I didn’t even love her, I adored her. And therefore he worked tirelessly, depriving himself of rest, worked endlessly, using all the reserves of his powerful body, so that his family would not need anything. And with all this, he always found time to not only tell the children a bedtime story (and Chaliapin knew a lot of them, including from Afanasyev’s “academic” collection), but also to play with them, and sometimes even take a walk.

True, the walks were always short-lived. As Irina Shalyapina recalled, the artist was immediately recognized on the street, immediately surrounded and demanded an autograph. It was impossible to walk peacefully. And I still had to return home.

But there, at home, the games sometimes became so interesting, noisy and long that they left already after midnight, while it was time for the children to sleep (and the eldest, Irina, had to go to the gymnasium the next morning), and the mother spoke in broken in Russian (although all the children from the cradle, as they say, spoke Italian) irritably drove the little ones under the blanket, and the father - like a kind giant towering over everyone - smiled affectionately, upset for only one reason: that the house had become small and it was impossible to turn around in it already for broad Russian amusement. Soon they moved.

Chaliapin with his children in the village. 1912

With daddy's money

Being the first star of the imperial stage, Chaliapin was also the richest Russian artist. And therefore, when the mansion in Zachatievsky stopped accommodating the entire growing family (and more and more servants), the singer fulfilled his cherished dream and bought a much more luxurious house in an extra-expensive Moscow quarter - on Novinsky Boulevard.

It was as close from here to the fashionable Flerovskaya gymnasium, where Boris and Fyodor Chaliapin studied, as from Zachatievsky. Both Chaliapins did not stand out among their comrades, although occasionally, as classmates recalled, they behaved a little condescendingly, as if making it clear with whom their counterparts were dealing. Their father never came for them himself, because he was constantly busy at rehearsals, all kinds of filming, or was somewhere outside the Empire on tour.

But he pampered his children in every possible way with the most fashionable outfits, which he brought most often from abroad. At times this even caused public censure and reproaches for bad manners. But, like many who had a hard time, Chaliapin was almost panicky afraid of the poverty that he experienced in childhood. In particular, he was afraid that his children might find themselves in such a situation. Over time, these fears became almost manic. Therefore, already in emigration, when the children grew up, received an education and could simply serve in their profession, he still continued to earn money for their maintenance, too. And there were so many children!

Iola Tornaghi with children

For two houses

Yes, yes, Chaliapin no longer had five children. A - twice as much. Chaliapin was not only successful and rich, but also handsome as a man. And although his manners were not particularly distinguished by refined gallantry, the ladies liked him not for this at all, but for his rare appearance, remarkable strength and even a certain (sometimes, however, deliberately feigned) simple manliness. A daring Russian man, and at the same time with talent and known throughout the world - and really, what more do you need?!

However, of all the novels that Chaliapin had, only one more resulted in a marital union. He could not resist the charms of the energetic and rich beautiful widow Maria Petzold, with whom Chaliapin happened to be a neighbor at the races. And, as they say, he even took her with the children from her first marriage. When Maria Valentinovna gave birth to her husband three more - Marfa, Marina and Dasia - arithmetic became completely simple. Ten!

Well, what can you do, ten is ten. The artist had no intention of leaving his first family. Yes, he stopped loving Iola, but is it the children’s fault?.. He supported them as before. The wise and delicate Tornagi came up with some completely innocent legend together with her husband, and the children used it until they grew up. And then - then they understood everything. Like all (or almost all) children who become adults.

In St. Petersburg, where Chaliapin moved to Maria Petzold, he changed several addresses until the family settled for almost 10 years in a luxurious apartment next door to Kamenny Island, where the richest people settled then (as, indeed, in our time) northern capital. The artist returned here after performances at the Mariinsky Theater. If you didn’t go by night train to Moscow.

Chaliapiin with his second wife Maria and their daughter Marina

That’s how I lived – in two houses. Every now and then, thereby arousing unpleasant rumors. However, the singer didn't seem particularly bothered by this. If something “like that” sounded in his presence, then the careless narrator of the greasy tale most often faced a real beating. And what were they gossiping about, as they say, behind his back... The reputation of the artist Chaliapin could no longer suffer from this. The artist Chaliapin was already a true national treasure of Russia. A true “living legend”.

And the children?.. Well, the most wonderful relationship has developed between them. And although they did not travel to each other from one capital of Russia to another, when they grew up and almost all lived abroad, they were friends and met often. Family squabbles and troubles never affected the Chaliapins. Neither the father, who was above this, nor his children, whom he taught this.

Far from home

It is impossible to say that Chaliapin loved one of the children more than others. Some will say that it was Dasia, because she was the last child, others - Marina, who was distinguished by incredible external beauty, had impeccable manners and innate charm. (Marina Fedorovna lived 97 years and died only five years ago in Rome, where she lived almost her entire life, smoking her favorite strong Marlboro and driving a car until her last day).

Marina - the middle of Chaliapin's daughters from his second marriage (which was officially registered only in the late 20s in France) - was the first from the family to go abroad - to Finland - to treat tuberculosis, which happened to her during the war years communism in Russia. Then gradually the rest moved to France.

In the USSR, only Irina and Lydia Chaliapin remained with their mother. Irina was only allowed to go to her father in France once. The meeting turned out to be very touching, except for the fact that the eldest daughter of the emigrant singer, who did not at all favor “Sofya Vlasyevna” (as Soviet power was half-whispered on one-sixth of the land), had a fight to the death with her father on a political topic. Before she left for Moscow, however, they made peace...

And Chaliapin told fairy tales as before. And Marina - frightening her with an evil forest witch - when he came to visit his sick daughter in Finland (and gave her a Baba Yaga carved from wood by the famous sculptor Konenkov), and very little Dasya - about the magical country of Russia - already in Paris, where by the mid-20s 's the whole family gathered.

Despite his age, and Chaliapin was already over 50, he continued to take every opportunity to sing in opera or perform in concert, and also recorded on gramophone records, which were increasingly becoming fashionable. “We need to give children a good education and open the way for them in life,” Chaliapin told Maria Valentinovna, going on his next tour. And he never returned without gifts.

Knowing Dasi’s special love for animals, he once brought her a black dog from London, which the singer’s youngest daughter immediately christened with the name Vicky - in a purely English manner. Chaliapin himself called the funny animal Mikitka. Even here, the Russian artist to the core wanted it to be in the “Russian manner.” Chaliapin yearned for his homeland endlessly.

The first wife and her daughters Irina and Lydia (despite the fact that after Chaliapin refused to return to Stalin’s homeland, he was no longer welcome there) tried with all their might to preserve the mansion on Novinsky Boulevard for the future museum. And many, many years later, when they were all dead, their dream came true. A museum was also created in the St. Petersburg apartment. Including with the participation of Marina Shalyapina, who scrupulously advised the creators of the memorial apartment.

Having twice lost huge fortunes earned through hard work (the first time - after leaving Russia abroad and the second time - during the years of the “Great Depression”), Chaliapin, despite his age and deteriorating health, nevertheless restored everything that had been lost. But I was still afraid...to lose my voice. “I’ll get old, I’ll lose my voice and no one will need me, and again, like in my youth, I’ll have to humiliate myself...” the singer said. And it worked again and again. So that daughter Marina could become a ballerina, studying in the studio of Kshesinskaya herself, so that son Fyodor could succeed as a film artist - even in small roles (our audience knows him for his role as an old monk in the film “The Name of the Rose”), so that Dasya could become a journalist, and Boris is a real artist.

Fortunately, all of Chaliapin’s children became public. Boris even became a famous artist, and Marina, although she did not become a ballerina, spoke five languages ​​flawlessly and ... was simply the most beautiful woman of her time. When she became Miss Russia in 1931, the father, proud of his daughter’s success, only pretended that it was almost indifferent to him.

Last duty

Through the long, long efforts of Chaliapin's children and most of all the efforts of Fyodor Fedorovich, the ashes of the brilliant performer were transferred from the small Parisian Batignolles cemetery to Moscow Novodevichye, where he has been resting for 30 years not far from the graves of Igor and Irina Chaliapin.

On the trip to Moscow, the coffin with the singer’s remains was accompanied by the artist’s children. It was a cloudy, rainy autumn day... And Novodevichye was closed to visitors. Everything happened somehow half in secret. However, not because of bad weather, of course. But simply so that the Soviet people do not become too involved in the event associated with the name of the emigrant artist.

Today, at Chaliapin’s grave there is a huge white monument... Fyodor Ivanovich himself bequeathed: “Wherever I die, even abroad, let them bury me on the Volga...”