Forgotten Opera Singers

Forgotten Opera Singers

May 31, 2021

Alexander Ilyich Mozzhukhin (Bass) (Village Sergievka, Saratov Province, Russian Empire August 11, 1878 (or March 11 (23), 1879) - AsnièreS-Sur-Seine, Near Paris July 1, 1952)



He was Born into a peasant family. He graduated from a theological school and a theological seminary in Penza. In 1900 he entered the Moscow Philharmonic School of Music and Drama, where he studied violin until 1903, teachers prof. M. I. Press and V. Bezekirsky. For the last year and a half of his studies there, he simultaneously took singing lessons from the singer prof. Y. Vishnevetskaya. Then he began his artistic career, performing in 1903 in a charity performance on the stage of the Moscow Bolshoi Theater as Ivan Susanin in "A Life for the Tsar " by M. Glinka. In 1904 he performed in Penza on the stage of the Summer Theater. Since that time, since 1904, he took part in concerts of the Circle of Russian Music Lovers. He entered the vocal department at the Moscow Conservatory (teacher M. Medvedev ). However, without completing his studies, in 1905 he began performing in private opera houses.

His career was developed as follows:

1906-1907 - M. K. Maksakov's entreprise, on the stage of the Moscow Solodovnikov Theater.

1908, 1909 - in Kazan

Winter 1909-1910 - in Saratov, Samara (as Boris Godunov); later he came on tour as part of the Yuzhin enterprise.

1909 - made his debut as Melnik in A. Dargomyzhsky 's Rusalka at the Bolshoi Theater.

1910 - in Tiflis.

1911-1914 or before 1921  - in St. Petersburg (Theater of Musical Drama). Since 1914 he performed mainly as a chamber singer.

1915-1920 - toured a lot, sang in the troupe of the permanent opera house under the direction of D. Kh. Yuzhin.

In 1921 he organized the Society of Chamber Music Lovers, where he taught.

1922-1923 - in Moscow, Zimin's Opera.

1923 - in Petrograd (People's House), Yekaterinburg.

He performed a number of concerts abroad together with the accompanist-wife of K. Carini:

May - September 1923-1924 - a tour of Europe: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, France, England, Italy.

October 1923 - May 1924 - in America.

1924-1925 - in China (Shanghai) and Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto).

1925 - in Tiflis and Baku.

From 1926 he lived abroad, in exile, where he continued his musical activity, performing both in opera performances and in concerts. Collaborated with the Russian émigré opera troupe A. Tsereteli.

He was buried in the cemetery Cemetery Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois.

His widow Cleo Carini, returning to Russia from Paris, brought archival materials (over 5 thousand documents) and the singer's things, which are now kept in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art ( f. 2625), in the Bakhrushin Museum (Moscow) and the Penza Regional Museum of Local Lore.


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