Shaliapin in Scandinavia
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Title | Shaliapin in Scandinavia |
| Author | Nickolay Gorbunov | |
| ISBN | 978-590183836-Х | |
| Publisher | Kruk | |
| City | Moscow | |
| Year | 2008 | |
| Pages | 615 | |
| Copies | 1 000 |
In 1920s - 1930s the great Russian singer Feodor Shaliapin adored to visit Scandinavian countries. He was attracted by nothern nature, calm and self-sufficient people, the public admired him too and it all resembled him the Russia he had left. It was obviously not a coincidence that his first performance after he had left for the West took place in Scandinavia. In 1922 Shaliapin held concerts in Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Later the singer frequented the region where he was being constantly invited and where he was a welcomed guest. Though there has not been made a single general research of his visits to Scandinavia during a dozen and a half years.
The book of the international journalist Nickolay Gorbunov "Following the Scandinavian path of Shaliapin" is the first in Russia and abroad to fundamentally research the creative work of the singer in the Nothern European countries. Having spent there many years, the author had a unique opportunity to collect numerous pieces of evidence of Shaliapin's days there.
For over 20 years the author was devoted to the topic, he thoroughly researched the archives of national libraries of Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway, Sweden's State Music Library, archives of National Opera in Helsinki, the Royal Theatres in Stockholm and Kopenhagen as well as many other museums and libraries. The author had an opportunity to study some private archives including the family archive of Alexander Dobrovein (Norway), the son of the well-known conducter and composer Isaia Dobrovein who used to be a great friend of Shaliapin.
As a result of that complex archive work Nickolay Gorbunov found a lot of articles, reports, interviews devoted to Shaliapin's performances in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. All of them were published in Danish, Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian press and have never been published in Russia.
During his research Mr.Gorbunov found rare photoes of Shaliapin, his drawings made exclusively for the Scandinavian editions and unknown for modern researchers.
Nickolay Gorbunov is the only Russian researcher who met the singer's granddaughter Natasha Fierfield-Shaliapin (in Stockholm), Shapiapin's pianist George de Godzinski (in Helsinki), his partner in one of the performances singer Irja Aholainen (in Helsinki), ballerina Ellen Rush who co-staged with Shaliapin in an opera in Stockholm, and Shaliapin's daughter's best friend Nina Prihnenko in Paris. Each of them shared their memories and thoughts of the graet Russian bass with the author.
The author met the singer's daughter Maria Shaliapin-Freddi in Rome. Their conversation became somehow unique, for the Russian journalist was the first to hear her story of her father's trip to her during her medical treatment in Finland in 1921.
The author managed to meet a lot of other people who took part in his performances in Scandinavia. Nickolay Gorbunov discovered a "Shapiapin House" in Stockholm where its owners Ingegerd and Manfred Mullers have saved his auto-charge that the singer himself drew on the wall of thir home.
All those documents became the basis of the book "Following the Scandinavian path of Shapiapin" where the story of the singer's every performance is discribed as well as his meetings, places where he dwelled, his treatment by the public and the press.
Along with the chapters devoted to Shaliapin's performances, the author included a detailed chronology of Shaliapin's whereabouts in the Northern European countries as well as an extensive bibliography of publications about him in Scandinavian editions in 1920s-1930s, that is also a very important result of the author's work.
The book "Following the Scandinavian path of Shaliapin" is the second major work of Nickolay Gorbunov concerning Shaliapin's work and life abroad. The first one is "Feodor Shapiapin in Japan and China" published by the Russian Academy of Science's Institute of World Literature in 2002. It admiringly describes with a lot of psycological and everyday details the singer's performances in Japan and China in 1935-1936. It was written on the basis of the extensive exclusive material collected by the author and deserved high praise of the specialists while even being a manuscript. After the publishing it attracted great interest of specialists and readers.
There is no doubt that Nickolay Gorbunov's book "Following the Scandinavian path of Shaliapin" as well as the author's first work, is a pioneer's enterprise and has a great value for the research of the singer's life and work abroad. Its publishing definitely became a big event in the world of Shaliapin's studies.
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