Feodor Chaliapine in the Balkans

Triumph in Serbia and Croatia

 

	Title	Feodor Chaliapine in the Balkans
	ISBN	978-5-900815-95-8
	Publisher	Kruk
	City	Moscow
	Year	2014
	Pages	272
	Copies	500

Annotation

The great Russian Artist Feodor Shaliapin left Russia in 1922. He lived abroad 16 years and died in Paris in 1938. During that period he performed numerous concerts in Europe, Asia, North and South America, Australia and New Zealand. Often he was received as a King, named as Bass-Tsar.

And only in one country we see other characteristics – also the top ones. “The Sun of Russia”, “Emperor of the Opera” – those names he received only in Yugoslavia.

Shaliapin’s arrivals were always treated with great attention by the press and the public, he was always welcome. And people have always made big preparations for him. He was always open as well – receiving invitations for meetings, receptions, contacts. Always available for the journalists.

He paid special attention for meetings with his compatriots. That was his way to get in touch with Russua that he couldn’t visit after 1922.

While working on the books on Shaliapin during that 16-year long period I managed to find many materials on his meetings with Russians in different countries and on different continents.

His concerts in Yugoslavia were special. The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians (since 1929 – Yugoslavia) became in 1919-1923 one of the most welcome countries in Europe that received many Russians – civilians and military – who fled via Black Sea through Turkey, Greece, Malta and Egypt. According to the census data we could conclude that around 44 thousand Russians found their new home there.

That historical fact was very important for creating the atmosphere for the Artist in Belgrade and Zagreb in 1930 and 1935.

My aim was to reflect that atmosphere as closely as possible, the atmosphere around Shaliapin’s concerts in Belgrade and Zagreb, to show how Shaliapin’s school is developing on that basis.

I dare to suppose that nowhere abroad there is such a drive to find the modern reading and to implement the principles of Shaliapin’s school as in Serbia and Croatia.

With the help of my friends and the lovers of Shaliapin’s creation work in those countries I would like to pay my modest share to the efforts to bring through years and decades to the readers a piece of the great Russian Artist’s heritage and to bring that to life in the Balkans.

 

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