The London Lounge

w Sergei Rachmaninoff

Forum's title says "Great Photos", but hopefully two paintings of Feodor Chaliapin will be accepted...





The first one is by Boris Kustodiev. This is the most famous picture of the most famous Russian singer.

But I really like the second one... Epitome of relaxed elegance, isn't it? Created by Konstantin Korovin.

Andrey

P.S.: I remember visiting Chaliapin's apartments in Saint Petersburg. There are two overcoats that belonged to him and still hanging in the closet. One of them is made from sturdy Scottish tweed... can be worn today with ease! -- not dated a single bit.

Andrey,

Those paintings are classics.


Chaliapin was the male Callas, probably the greatest voice and one of the greatest actors of the last century.

"He was the best. No one could make his weight as an actor and a presence."

-Orson Welles, who, as a young man, saw Chaliapin perform
(From _This Is Orson Welles_, by Peter Bogdonavich.)

The opera singer has to contend not with one, but with three arts at once -- vocal, musical, and theatrical. In this reside both the difficulty and the advantages of his creative work. The problem lies in the varied processes of mastering the three arts, though, this done, the singer has a greater and more variable ability to act upon the audience than do we dramatic actors. These three arts the singer must fuse into one, and direct into a common aim. To me, Chaliapin is an outstanding example of how the three forms of art can be fused. … Synthesis has rarely been achieved by anyone in the arts, particularly in the theatre. Chaliapin is the only example I can think of. My system is taken straight from Chaliapin.

--Constantin Stanislovsky

So the father of the modern method of acting, Stanislovsky, took his system from Chaliapin.

http://www.rfwilmut.clara.net/opera/xchaliapics.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ko5TiAEBZU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwu2j2Fc ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr85SD5K ... re=related

Required style reading: “Man and Mask”, Fydor Chaliapin

Cheers

Michael Alden

alden wrote:http://www.rfwilmut.clara.net/opera/xchaliapics.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ko5TiAEBZU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwu2j2Fc ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr85SD5K ... re=related

Required style reading: “Man and Mask”, Fydor Chaliapin

So, in addition to English (for obvious reasons) and French (Balzac), one has to posses knowledge of Russian in order to be elegant?

At last I have an advantage over [most] other members here!

Andrey

andreyb wrote:At last I have an advantage over [most] other members here!

Da
I think we can safely add Chekhov to the list.

The enthusiast


The wise man

At last I have an advantage over [most] other members here!

Abdrey , many advantages indeed ..just to name a few who leaved to be creative in a way I call elegant !!!

http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/his ... gorov.html
http://vygotsky.afraid.org/
http://criticaltheory-download-ebooks.b ... khtin.html

Vassilis