Stars of the Mariinsky Theatre in Chaliapin’s legacy

Chaliapin at the Mariinsky Theatre

On 1 February 1895, on his twenty-second birthday, Fyodor Chaliapin sang at a closed audition for singers at the Mariinsky Theatre. The same day, his contract had been signed, whereby the young artiste was to appear in three debut performances: Faust (Méphistophélès), Ruslan and Lyudmila (Ruslan) and Carmen (Zuniga). The singer appeared on the stage of the Imperial theatre for the first time on 5 April 1895 as Méphistophélès in Charles Gounod’s opera Faust. The newspapers reported muted praise: St Petersburg was not trustful of the singer… “I appeared with such enthusiasm and with such faith in this dear paradise, the Mariinsky Theatre. Here – I dreamed – I would develop my God-given powers. Here I will find quiet freedom and true art,” Chaliapin recalled. But in actual fact everything was more complicated than that. The board considered the singer too young and did not give him any major roles. Only once, at the end of his first season, wanting to help the young singer, did the bass Mikhail Koryakin feign illness on the day Alexander Dargomyzhsky’s opera Rusalka was being performed. Chaliapin was very familiar with the role of the Miller, yet he nonetheless decided to ask for acting advice from Mamont Dalsky, a performer at the Alexandrinsky Theatre and the darling of St Petersburg. The performance proved a tremendous success. At one of the young performer’s appearances one month earlier, he had been seen by Savva Mamontov and not long after that Chaliapin became a soloist with the Moscow Private Opera.
Chaliapin returned to the Mariinsky Theatre only several years later, late in 1899 when his name was well known throughout Russia. And one year later he was known all over the world. At the Mariinsky Theatre he sang his most glorious roles – Boris Godunov, Varlaam, Salieri, Dosifei, Galitsky, the Demon, Susanin, Farlaf, Holofernes, Don Basilio, Don Quichotte, Méphistophélès (Gounod) and Mefistofele (Boito).
In 1911 the singer decided to try his skills as a director, staging Modest Musorgsky’s Khovanshchina. The tenor Ivan Yershov, Chaliapin’s great colleague at the Mariinsky Theatre, confirmed that “If he is given the chance to direct our entire repertoire, what heights the Mariinsky Theatre would attain great heights!”

The Russian singing tradition from Chaliapin to the present day in the voice of Aleksashkin is, undoubtedly, tangible. He can concentrate on the vocal side of the role, subjecting his existence to the spirit of the music. Let us add to this his talent to undergo transformations, his ability to express through a gesture or facial expression the spiritual state of his character, the entire range of emotions from tormenting grief to the triumph of will power.
Sankt-Peterburgskie vedomosti

A rich, intense and majestic bass with powerful overtones, the powerful figure to match the voice and the subtle performance in terms of acting and singing. Vladimir Vaneyev carries the role without over-pressing it, without overusing the forte, without excess pathetique, but with inner power and conviction. His skill and immersion into the role seem to be absolute.
Kultura

...Listening to Nikitin’s powerful yet intense voice, admiring his perfect and free control of all the sound ranges and loving his heroic image that is no less bewitching than his voice, it is impossible not to think of Chaliapin. Nikitin conveys a sense of power combined with the broad scale of veiled compassion felt by the great performer towards his character.
MatthewParis.com