Vera Kudryavtseva - opera singer, wife of Sergei Yakovlevich Lemeshev: biography

Vera Kudryavtseva was a gifted and promising Leningrad opera singer. She performed on the stage of the Small Opera House in the second half of the last century. Despite the fact that Vera Nikolaevna was really very talented, today many people remember her only thanks to her husband.

They became the greatest opera singer - Lemeshev Sergey Yakovlevich, who was known not only for his unique voice, but also for his bright personal life.

Kudryavtseva unfairly entered history as his last official spouse, with whom the singer lived for 27 years.

Vera Kudryavtseva: biography, family and childhood

The future opera singer was born in a large family and became the thirteenth child. She was born in 1911 in the town of Staraya Russa, which at that time belonged to the Novgorod province. It is worth noting that Vera Kudryavtseva was brought up in a fairly well-educated family. Her father, Nikolai Onisimovich, was a graduate of the faculty of physiology at the Petrograd University. Her mother, Mariamna Fedorovna, was a woman with a difficult fate. She gave birth to a spouse of 13 children, the last of which became the future singer. At the same time, three children Mariamna Fedorovna died in infancy, and only ten survived, grew up and received education.

Father Vera, although he was known as a talented teacher, had the glory of a man with a difficult character. He was incorruptible and very principled, which often complicated his relations with the higher leadership. This was the reason for the frequent travels of a large family, along with which, of course, little Verochka moved in the future, known to the general public as Kudryavtseva-Lemesheva Vera Nikolaevna.

Youth, held in Opochka

Once Nikolay Onisimovich received the next distribution. This time he was sent to a small town called Opochka. There he became chairman of the board of guardians at the women's gymnasium and combined this appointment with the post of director of the city school. In 1918, Nikolai Kudryavtsev moved his entire family to Opochka. Thus, it was in this city that Vera Kudryavtseva spent her youth.

Family love for music

Many years later, in her memoirs, Vera Nikolaevna will speak about this time with particular warmth. She will tell you that their family lived in a large and spacious two-story house. Almost everyone had their own separate room, and there was also a large hall with a piano, on which music was often played. One of the elder sisters of the Faith sang very well, and the head of the family himself, Nikolai Onisimovich, sang well. Vera Nikolaevna recalled that in their house often there were various performances and musical plays were staged. Of course, in such an atmosphere not to absorb the love of music was almost impossible.

The first experience of public speaking

Kudryavtseva Vera shares her memories that, while still a schoolgirl, she already had a specific goal in life - to become a singer. The girl showed her talent from an early age: she had an excellent ear and a strong voice. Once she was even entrusted to sing a solo in the Assumption Cathedral, and her entire class came to church to hear how Vera would sing.

Education received

Being a very strict person, the head of the Kudryavtsev family did not approve of the youthful hobbies of his daughters with music and theater. It would be more correct to say that he did not want his daughters to connect their future profession and destiny with a creative direction, since this all seemed to him to be frivolous and unpromising.

In many respects because of this, the first professional education received by Vera was far from music and art. After moving to Leningrad, the girl receives a technical profession, graduating from the courses under the great name "Technique - to the masses." Vera arranges to work as a laboratory assistant for the Lithopone plant, but, despite this, she does not part with her dream to connect life with music and regularly continues singing alone. Working at a chemical plant, she simultaneously decides to go to study at the Leningrad evening conservatory.

There the girl very well herself has recommended. As one of the best students in 1936, she was transferred to study at the Leningrad Conservatory, and she was immediately enrolled for the second year. She enters the classroom with the teacher Sofya Akimova-Ershova and, being a student, gets a great opportunity to perform on the same stage with her husband - an outstanding opera singer Ivan Ershov. Vera had a happy opportunity to perform in a duet with Ershov two operas from Wagner. A talented student, Vera Kudryavtseva-Lemesheva (whom the general public will later know exactly under this double surname) for her excellent studies at the 5th year of the Conservatoire even received a Stalin scholarship.

Heavy War years

After the successful graduation from the Leningrad Conservatory, Vera Kudryavtseva intended to continue her education in postgraduate studies. Of course, it is accepted there, and in parallel with the studies Kudryavtseva is already performing at the Opera Studio. Then she plans to perform at the Maly Opera, but her plans are corrected by the Second World War. Together with the entire post-graduate course of the Conservatoire, she is forced to evacuate to Tashkent. In addition, it should be noted that at the time of the outbreak of war and evacuation Kudryavtseva was pregnant.

As a student, Vera met with Mikhail Dovenman, the soloist of the Small Opera House, who later became her husband. And it was in the evacuation of this married couple son was born. While in Tashkent, she constantly worked in the local theater and without a hitch gave concerts in military hospitals.

Also, Vera approached her teacher Akimova-Ershova and helped her in pedagogical activities in every possible way. Unfortunately, many of Kudryavtseva's relatives remained in Leningrad during the siege. For them, everything ended tragically: Vera's parents died, also her brother and four sisters left her life.

Return to Leningrad from the evacuation

In 1944, after the breakthrough of the blockade, Vera returned to Leningrad. She arranges at the Maly Opera and in a short time starts performing the main parts. In her repertoire were very difficult in terms of performance roles, including: Eleonora in "Troubadour", Natasha Rostov, Princess in "Koshchei the Immortal" and Elena in "Sicilian Vespers". But fateful for Vera was the role of Tatiana in "Eugene Onegin".

Kudryavtsevoy's partner in this presentation was the legendary Sergey Lemeshev - a singer, to sing a duet with which any opera diva dreamed.

Fatal acquaintance

When Sergei Yakovlevich came on tour to Leningrad, he, of course, immediately met his partner, and she almost instantly made an impression on him. Before each rehearsal, he went to Kudryavtseva and asked how she was doing. But, despite the fact that their sympathy was mutual, Vera Nikolayevna kept a certain distance for a long time. By the time Lemeshev Sergey Yakovlevich was really insanely popular, he had crowds of ardent fans who simply deified him. Moreover, at the time of his meeting with Vera Nikolaevna, Lemeshev had already been officially married 4 times, and he had much more informal ties.

Kudryavtseva understood that a man who was a real idol for thousands of women was always spoiled by female attention. Therefore, she tried to pretend that the opera singer with an angelic face is completely indifferent to her.

Sergey Lemeshev - singer and favorite spouse of Vera Nikolaevna

Despite all the tricks Vera Nikolaevna, eventually Lemeshev still achieved her favor. Their relationship was complicated by the fact that at the time of dating and falling in love, each of these couples was in an official marriage. But the feelings prevailed, and in 1948 Lemeshev made Kudryavtsev a proposal of the hand and heart. Naturally, he divorced his previous wife. Vera Nikolaevna also parted with her first husband - Sergei Dovenman - who understood that it would be useless to keep it.

Despite all the difficulties, Kudryavtseva and Lemeshev got married, and since 1950 and until the death of Sergei Yakovlevich, this couple was together. They lived together for 27 long years. Unfortunately, there were people who were not very happy about this union, and Vera Nikolaevna for a long time refused to give a transfer from Leningrad to Moscow. She was forced to work out a performance in Leningrad and rush a train to her husband in the capital to spend as much time with him as possible.

Such a life, half of which takes place in trains, can very quickly weary any person, and Kudryavtseva was no exception. She decided to leave Maly Opera, and this despite the fact that she just had to be awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR. Thus, for the sake of Lemesheva, she sacrificed her entire career, but she never regretted it.

Later, of course, she performed at opera stages, mainly working on contracts, but, of course, she did not receive world fame and deserved recognition. The general public remembered her exclusively as the last wife of the great and talented Sergei Lemeshev.

Vera Nikolaevna passed away in 2009. She was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery, next to her husband, whom she survived for 13 years.