Opera singer Lemeshev Sergey Yakovlevich: biography

Outstanding Russian opera singer Lemeshev Sergey, whose biography is filled with work, fame, love, lived an interesting, rich life. His path is the path of a single-minded person. Despite the obstacles, he was able to develop his gift and reach heights. The lyric tenor Lemeshev is one of the best domestic singers of the 20th century.

Childhood and family

Lemeshev Sergey Yakovlevich, whose biography began in the most ordinary way, not foretelling anything outstanding, was born June 27, 1902 (in the old style) in the village of Staroy Knyazevo, Tver province. In the family of peasant Yakov Lemeshev, there was a legend that their surname originated from the nickname of an ancestor who found an iron shoe in the field, which was a great fortune at that time, and became very rich after that. But on the wealth of Sergei's parents it did not affect.

Jacob secretly married the girl Akulina and therefore remained without a parental blessing and without inheritance. Yakov, to feed his family, worked in the city for a long time, but he died early when Sergei was only 10 years old. Akulina remained alone in her arms with her sons-pogodkami. Everyone in the family was very musical, had good voices, but singing was never seen in the village as a serious occupation.

Sergei since childhood worked hard to help my mother, who worked as a scrubber in the manor house. From the age of 7, the boy started going to school, and the teacher often praised him, advising his mother to send him to study in the city. When Sergei was 12 years old, she followed the advice and sent her son and her brother to Petrograd. There Lemeshev learned shoemaking and admired the metropolitan life with delight, he visited the circus, at the theater, but his career as a shoemaker was prevented by the coup of the 17th year, after which the youth had to return to Tver province.

Gaining the vocation

Lemeshev Sergey Yakovlevich is an example of a man who persistently went to his vocation. Biography for the children of this singer can be an example of a persistent desire for his dream. He showed a craving for singing when he was young, he went to the woods for firewood, mushrooms and berries and there he sang with pleasure. Lemesheva's mother also had a good voice, with an unusual timbre, she often sang folk sad songs that forever fell in love with Sergei. Once they with the brother who too had a good voice, already being young men, grazed horses in the field and voices songs. An engineer Nikolai Kvashnin passed by, who drove up to them and said: "Yes, you are a tenor! Come to my wife to study." The elder brother Alexey did not take this venture seriously, and Sergei took advantage of the offer and began to comprehend the basics of vocals. Also at this time he begins to read a lot, get acquainted with the world culture, thanks to the intelligent family of Kvashnins.

Years of study

The first lessons were given to him with great difficulty. Lemeshev recalled that it was very difficult for him to give vocal technique, but he firmly decided to become a singer and worked with all his might. Later, while studying in a craft school, he studies music notation, continues to learn voice skills. When he was 17 years old, the future singer made a walk on foot to Tver in 37 miles to sing on the stage of the local club, and the next day he went the same way back. In 1920, he received a referral from the Komsomol for study at the conservatory. In 1921 he entered the Moscow Conservatory, in the class of the famous professor N. Raisky. In this educational institution in those days, many famous masters taught. The first lesson showed that Lemeshev had big problems with the voice, he was very weak in voice and breathing. Therefore, he had to study very hard. In the last year, he works in parallel at the opera studio at the Bolshoi Theater under the leadership of K. Stanislavsky. It was there that for the first time he performed Lensky's aria from "Eugene Onegin" by P. Tchaikovsky. At the final exam from the conservatory, Lemeshev brilliantly performs the roles of Vaudemon from Iolanta and Lensky from Eugene Onegin.

Professional Path

In 1926, Lemeshev Sergey Yakovlevich, whose biography was now permanently associated with the opera, begins his professional career. The times were not easy, but the singer with interest rushed to a new life. He comes to serve in the Sverdlovsk Opera House, but he worked there only a year. After that, Lemeshev goes to Harbin, where he performs as a soloist of the Russian Opera at the Chinese-Eastern Railway. In 1929, he changed his place of residence again, now he is a soloist of the Tiflis Opera. In these theaters, Lemeshev is gaining experience, acquires some fame.

The Bolshoi Theatre

In 1931, a tenor was invited to perform at the Bolshoi Theater. For listening, he chose the party Berendey from "The Snow Maiden" and Gerald of "Lakme". Already the performance of the first aria decided his fate, lyrical tenor and infinite artistic charm opened the way to the main theater of the country. Lemeshev Sergey Yakovlevich, whose biography for many years will be associated with the Big, is rapidly gaining popularity. He has a whole army of fans who follow him everywhere, throw flowers and explain themselves in love. His vocal style was distinguished not only by the voice of the amazing timbre, but also by the profound meaningfulness of the performance. He was a very penetrating and charming singer, which provided him such success. As a soloist of the Bolshoi Theater Lemeshev worked for 25 years, he performed all the parts written for his voice, and left a bright mark in the history of Russian opera.

Repertoire and famous parties

In the repertoire of Lemeshev, all the best tenor games have found their place. He sang more than 30 operas, 23 outstanding performances with him for many years were in the repertoire of the Bolshoi Theater. The most famous, his "brand" party, was Lensky. It fully revealed the inner content and artistry of the singer. In total Lemeshev performed this game 501 times, and each time it was a dizzying success. Also the glory of his talent was composed of such operas as "The Snow Maiden", "Romeo and Juliet", "Bohemia", "La Traviata".

Outstanding tenor Lemeshev Sergey Yakovlevich, whose biography is closely connected with opera, also performed a lot of folk songs and romances. His performance was distinguished by cordiality, which penetrated the listener's soul and conquered it forever.

Lemeshev and Kozlovsky

In the Bolshoi Theater, Lemeshev had a serious rival - Ivan Kozlovsky. Both were lyrical tenors, both had great fame and popularity, and, naturally, a rivalry arose between them, which was strongly fueled by the confrontation between the fan clubs of the singers. Fans constantly competed with each other, sometimes it even came to collisions. Both singers performed the same parts and tried to "perepet" the opponent. This is especially noticeable in the performance of Lensky's party. Each of the singers turned out his character: more mocking and sharp in Kozlovsky, more lyrical and penetrating - in Lemeshev. By the number and speed of receiving awards Kozlovsky clearly outperformed Lemesheva, but he managed to work much longer on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater. Lemeshev Sergey Yakovlevich, whose photos often appeared in newspapers and magazines, had more fans because his appearance was more attractive for women. In 1958, the great tenor-rivals took to the stage on the anniversary of O. Chekhov-Knipper.

Director's work

In 1951, the opera director Lemeshev Sergey appeared in the country, he made his debut with the production of the play "La Traviata" in the Leningrad small opera house. Already at the end of his vocal career on the Bolshoi scene, he also staged the opera J. Massenet "Werther" and himself performed the title part. The opera director Lemeshev Sergey, whose biography is mostly related to vocals, was distinguished by a special ability to "reveal" the beauty of the voice of soloists and especially his own. In Werther, he was able to demonstrate the uniqueness of his talent.

Life outside the Greater

While still working as a soloist at the Bolshoi Theater, Lemeshev began to direct and direct pedagogy. Since 1951 he for ten years led the vocal group at the Moscow Conservatory, in charge of the department of opera training.

In 1940 Lemeshev appeared before the audience in the cinema, he starred in the tape "Musical History" in the role of taxi driver Petit Govorkov. He for several years led musical programs on the All-Union radio. In the early 60's, the singer took part in the creation of television versions of opera performances "Dubrovsky", "Demon", "Eugene Onegin."

In 1968, Lemeshev published an autobiographical book, The Way to Art, in which he told how difficult it was for him to be famous and successful. And of course, throughout his life he gave many concerts, performing not only opera repertoire, but also pop songs of Soviet composers.

Awards

Sergei Yakovlevich for his life received many awards. At 35 he became a deserved artist of the RSFSR, in 48 years - a People's Artist of the USSR. He was awarded the Stalin Prize for achievements in vocal art, he had three orders of Lenin, the Order of the Badge of Honor, many medals, including for work in propaganda teams in wartime. But he did not receive the title of Hero of Socialist Labor, unlike I. Kozlovsky, which he regretted in secret.

Memory

Opera singer Lemeshev Sergey remained in Russian culture in a variety of recordings, and video recordings of his performances, which today are watched by conservatory students and opera lovers, are preserved. Unfortunately, the country does not pay much tribute to the memory of its national heritage. So, in honor of Lemeshev, only a music school in one of the districts of Moscow is named.

Personal life

Lemeshev Sergey, whose personal life became a real legend, very early showed his magical effect on the female sex. At the age of 15 he met Grushenka, whom he wanted to marry. And a year later passionately fell in love with the daughter of his first benefactors Kvashnins. Galina Kvashnina was ready to secretly marry Sergei, but my father categorically forbade them to see him. But the rest of her life, she loved the singer, devoting poetry to him.

Lemeshev Sergey, whose personal life was extremely turbulent, was officially married five times. The first wife of the singer was Natalia Sokolova, the daughter of the conservative professor Lemeshev, but the relationship quickly disintegrated.

The second wife of Alice Korneva-Bagrin-Kamenskaya was older than the singer for several years, he was very educated and taught the young boy from the province to secular manners, developed his aesthetic taste. But this marriage did not last long, unable to withstand the many changes in the tenor, Alice left him.

The third wife of the singer was actress Lyubov Vazer, but one day after returning from a tour, she found Lemesheva with a new lady - so ended this marriage.

The fourth wife of the tenor was his partner on stage, opera singer Irina Maslennikova. From this marriage Lemesheva had a daughter, Maria, who also became a singer.

Only Lemeshev's fifth marriage became long. With Vera Nikolaevna Kudryavtseva, an outstanding opera singer, they lived happily for 25 years, and after the death of the tenor she did a lot to preserve and popularize his creative heritage.

The singer died on June 26, 1977, was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

Interesting Facts

Lemeshev Sergey, whose facts amaze with the scope of his creative talent, is known not only as an opera singer, he performed all one hundred romances by P. Tchaikovsky, of which five vocal programs of the singer were formed.

Fans of the tenor became the reason for the emergence of a new word in the music sphere, they were called "cheeses". The origin of the word is due to the fact that the watchdog singer near his house fans ran to bask in the store "Cheese". Later this word began to denote all the admirers of opera singers.

In 1978, an asteroid appeared with the name "4561 Lemeshev Sergey". Interesting facts from the life of a singer are often associated with his pathological concern for his health. He categorically did not want to go out in the rain, afraid to catch cold. He also never sang in the halls where the cleaners had just washed the floor, believing that the humidity would have a bad effect on his voice.