Ivan Kozlovsky
Encyclopedia
Ivan Semyonovitch Kozlovsky ( - December 21, 1993) was a Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
lyric tenor of Ukrainian
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
ethnicity, one of the greatest stars of Soviet opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
, as well a producer
Theatrical producer
A theatrical producer is the person ultimately responsible for overseeing all aspects of mounting a theatre production. The independent producer will usually be the originator and finder of the script and starts the whole process...
and director
Theatre direction
A theatre director or stage director is a practitioner in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production by unifying various endeavours and aspects of production...
of his own opera company, and longtime teacher at the Moscow Conservatory
Moscow Conservatory
The Moscow Conservatory is a higher musical education institution in Moscow, and the second oldest conservatory in Russia after St. Petersburg Conservatory. Along with the St...
.
Biography
Ivan Kozlovsky was born in the village of MarianivkaMarianivka (Kiev Oblast)
Marianivka is a village in the Kiev Oblast of central Ukraine.Marianivka is known for being the birthplace of Ivan Kozlovsky. It has a music school built by him in 1970....
near Bila Tserkva
Bila Tserkva
Bila Tserkva is a city located on the Ros' River in the Kiev Oblast in central Ukraine, approximately south of the capital, Kiev. Population 203,300 Area 34 km².-Administrative status:...
, Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
(now part of Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
) and began to sing at the age of seven in the chorus of the St. Michael's Monastery. He went on to study drama, piano and singing (with the famous soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
Olena Muravyova
Olena Muravyova
Olena Oleksandrivna Muravyova 22.V. 1867, Kharkiv 11.II.1939 Kiev.Ukrainian opera singer and vocal teacher. Merited Artist of Ukrainian SSR . Studied at the Moscow conservatory From 1890-1901 soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow...
) at the Mykola Lysenko Institute of Music and Drama in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
. He also sang with his brother in Oleksander Koshetz
Oleksander Koshetz
Oleksander Koshetz was a Ukrainian choral conductor, arranger, composer, ethnographer, writer, musicologist, and lecturer. He helped popularize Ukrainian music around the world...
's choir in Kiev. This instruction was cut short after two years, due to the outbreak of the civil war in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
. Kozlovsky sang in a vocal quartet under the direction of O. Svechnikov. His voice enabled him to join the army engineers, as a lead singer in a military band.
He made his operatic début in 1920 as Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
at the Poltava
Poltava
Poltava is a city in located on the Vorskla River in central Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Poltava Oblast , as well as the surrounding Poltava Raion of the oblast. Poltava's estimated population is 298,652 ....
theatre, where he sang until 1923. He followed this with engagements at the Kharkiv
Kharkiv
Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...
opera in 1923-4, and the Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District with a population of 1,350,136 , making it Russia's...
(then called Sverdlovsk) opera theatre in 1924-6, before becoming one of the leading tenors at the Bolshoi Theatre
Bolshoi Theatre
The Bolshoi Theatre is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds performances of ballet and opera. The Bolshoi Ballet and Bolshoi Opera are amongst the oldest and most renowned ballet and opera companies in the world...
in Moscow from 1926 to 1954. He had a memorable audition at the Bolshoi in 1924, reportedly reaching the highest notes of the register with ease (throughout his career, he developed a reputation for singing the highest note possible and hanging on to it for the added adulation). At the Bolshoi, he came under the mentorship of Leonid Sobinov
Leonid Sobinov
Leonid Vitalyevich Sobinov , was an acclaimed Imperial Russian operatic tenor. His fame continued unabated into the Soviet era, and he was made a People's Artist of the RSFSR in 1923...
, the leading Russian tenor at the time. Kozlovsky went on to sing in over 50 operas as the leading tenor of the Bolshoi.
In 1938, Kozlovsky organized and directed a concert ensemble of opera singers, directing himself in Werther
Werther
Werther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe....
by Jules Massenet
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
and Orfeo ed Euridice
Orfeo ed Euridice
Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck based on the myth of Orpheus, set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the azione teatrale, meaning an opera on a mythological subject with choruses and dancing...
by Christoph Gluck, among other productions. He was awarded the prestigious designation of People's Artist of the USSR
People's Artist of the USSR
People's Artist of the USSR, also sometimes translated as National Artist of the USSR, was an honorary title granted to citizens of the Soviet Union.- Nomenclature and significance :...
in 1940.
Koslovsky was well-known to be a favourite singer of Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
. Stalin used to invite Kozlovsky to come over whenever he wanted to listen to the sound of his voice, even in the middle of the night. So pleased was Stalin with Kozlovsky's singing, that he once kissed him and then himself sang to the piano accompaniment of Kozlovsky. Kozlovsky gained great renown throughout the Soviet Union, but was never allowed to leave its borders.
Kozlovsky had a friendly rivalry with Sergei Lemeshev
Sergei Lemeshev
Sergei Yakovlevich Lemeshev was one of the most well-known and beloved Russian operatic lyric tenors.-Early Life and Career:Lemeshev was born into a peasant family, and his father wanted him to become a cobbler. In 1914, he left a parish school and was sent to be trained to make shoes in St...
, another immensely popular Russian opera singer. They both often sang the same roles, and Russian opera lovers were divided into supporters of one or the other. The theatre lobby was a venue for scuffles between fans jokingly called the "lemeshistki" and the "kozlovityanki".http://www.peoples.ru/art/music/tenor/lemeshev/history.html
Kozlovsky married the popular actress Alexandra Herzig (1886-1964), who was 14 years older than he and much better known, causing the public to refer to him as "Herzig's husband". Later, when he attained greater fame, Herzig became known as "Kozlovsky’s wife". After his first marriage ended in divorce, Kozlovsky remarried, this time to an actress 14 years younger than he, Galina Sergeyeva
Galina Sergeyeva
Galina Ermolayevna Sergeyeva also Sergeeva was a Russian actress, Emeritus Artist of Russian Soviet Socialist Republic.From 1930 she was an actress at the Theatre-Studio led by Ruben Simonov. In 1939-1944 she was an actress of the Theatre of Leninsky Comsomol. In 1952-1956 she worked in the...
. Sergeyeva played the female lead in the films Pyshka (Пышкa) ("Boule de Suif
Boule de Suif
Boule de Suif is a short story by the late-19th century French writer Guy de Maupassant. It is arguably his most famous short story, and is the title story for his collection on the Franco-Prussian War, entitled "Boule de Suif et Autres Contes de la Guerre"...
," 1934), Lyubov Alyony (Любoв Aлйoни) ("Alyona’s Love", 1934), and Vesennie dni (Вeceннi днi) ("Spring Days", 1934). Although she bore him two daughters, the marriage with Kozlovsky did not last long.
Kozlovsky and solo performances
Kozlovsky gave many concerts throughout the Soviet Union, singing Russian and Ukrainian songs and romances, as well as German lieder by SchubertFranz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
, Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
, and Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
. He taught singing at the Moscow Conservatory
Moscow Conservatory
The Moscow Conservatory is a higher musical education institution in Moscow, and the second oldest conservatory in Russia after St. Petersburg Conservatory. Along with the St...
from 1956 to 1980. After 1954, Kozlovsky continued to appear occasionally at the Bolshoi, giving his final appearance in 1970 in the role of Yurodivy
Yurodivy
Foolishness for Christ refers to behavior such as giving up all one's worldly possessions upon joining a monastic order. It can also refer to deliberate flouting of society's conventions to serve a religious purpose — particularly of Christianity. The term fools for Christ derives from the writings...
(the Simpleton) in Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
. He continued to appear frequently in public and even sang on July 4, 1985 at Mark Reizen
Mark Reizen
Mark Osipovich Reizen, also Reisen or Reyzen — died November 25, 1992 Moscow, Russia) was a leading Soviet opera singer with a beautiful and expansive bass voice.-Life and career:...
's 90th birthday at the Bolshoi. The last concert given by Koslovsky took place in 1989 at the Central House of Writers in Moscow. He died in Moscow at the age of 93.
Kozlovsky and Ukrainian music
Kozlovsky throughout his life was an active proponent of Ukrainian music, and performed works by Ukrainian composers such as Mykola LysenkoMykola Lysenko
Mykola Vitaliiovych Lysenko was a Ukrainian composer, pianist, conductor and ethnomusicologist.- Biography :Lysenko was born in Hrynky, Kremenchuk Povit, Poltava Governorate, the son of Vitaliy Romanovich Lysenko . From childhood he became very interested in the folksongs of Ukrainian peasants and...
, Yakiv Stepovy
Yakiv Stepovy
Yakiv Stepovy - was a Ukrainian composer, teacher, and music critic. Stepovy was born Yakiv Yakymenko in Kharkiv, in the Russian Empire . Stepovy's older brother, Theodore Yakymenko, was also a composer. Stepovy was a representative of the Ukrainian musical intelligentsia of the 20th century...
, Kyrylo Stetsenko
Kyrylo Stetsenko
Kyrylo Hryhorovych Stetsenko was a prolific Ukrainian composer, conductor, critic, and teacher. Late in his life he became an Ukrainian Orthodox Priest and head of the Music section of the Ministry of Education of the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic.- Early life and Education :Kyrylo...
, and Mykola Arkas
Mykola Arkas
Mykola Mykolayovych Arkas was a Ukrainian composer, writer, historian, and cultural activist. Arkas completed his studies in physics and mathematics at the University of Odessa and served in the Black Sea Fleet...
. In 1924 he sang the role of Yontek in Moniuszko's "Halka" in Ukrainian. In 1940 he directed the first performance of the Ukrainian opera Kateryna by Mykola Arkas, and in 1954 Mykola Lysenko's Natalka Poltavka
Natalka Poltavka (opera)
Natalka Poltavka is an opera in three acts by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko, based on the play Natalka Poltavka by Ivan Kotlyarevsky, first performed in 1889.-Background:...
. In 1970 he funded the construction of a music school in his home village of Marianivka. He recorded 22 records of Ukrainian folk songs, romances and arias in Ukrainian. Kozlovsky was also the author of numerous Memoirs about Ukrainian singers O. Petrusevych, Mykhailo Donets, M. Mykysh, Borys Hmyria and others.
Legacy
Kozlovsky's voice was distinguished for its beautiful high register and rich palette of shadings. He sang more than 50 operatic roles, and was especially famous as Lensky in Eugene OneginEugene Onegin (opera)
Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, is an opera in 3 acts , by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by Konstantin Shilovsky and the composer and his brother Modest, and is based on the novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin....
, Berendey in The Snow Maiden
The Snow Maiden
The Snow Maiden: A Spring Fairy Tale is an opera in four acts with a prologue by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, composed during 1880–1881. The Russian libretto, by the composer, is based on the like-named play by Alexander Ostrovsky .The first performance of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera took place at the...
, Levko in May Night
May Night
May Night is an opera in three acts, four scenes, by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov from a libretto by the composer and is based on Nikolai Gogol's story May Night, or the Drowned Maiden, from his collection Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka....
, the Indian Guest in Sadko
Sadko (opera)
Sadko is an opera in seven scenes by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The libretto was written by the composer, with assistance from Vladimir Belsky, Vladimir Stasov, and others. Rimsky-Korsakov was first inspired by the bylina of Sadko in 1867, when he completed a tone poem on the subject, his Op. 5...
, Vladimir in Prince Igor
Prince Igor
Prince Igor is an opera in four acts with a prologue. It was composed by Alexander Borodin. The composer adapted the libretto from the East Slavic epic The Lay of Igor's Host, which recounts the campaign of Russian prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the invading Polovtsian tribes in 1185...
, Nero in the opera by Rubinstein
Rubinstein
Famous people named Rubinstein include:* Anton Rubinstein , a Russian pianist, composer and conductor, brother of Nikolai Rubinstein* Arthur Rubinstein , a famous Polish-American pianist, not related to Anton....
, Dubrovsky in the opera by Napravnik
Eduard Nápravník
Eduard Francevič Nápravník was a Czech conductor and composer, who settled in Russia and is best known for his leading role in Russian musical life as the principal conductor of the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg for many decades...
, and so on. He also was outstanding in the western repertoire: Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
(Gounod), Werther
Werther
Werther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe....
, Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
, Barber of Seville, Lohengrin
Lohengrin (opera)
Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner, first performed in 1850. The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself...
, Orfeo ed Euridice
Orfeo ed Euridice
Orfeo ed Euridice is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck based on the myth of Orpheus, set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the azione teatrale, meaning an opera on a mythological subject with choruses and dancing...
, La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
, La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
, and so on.
Asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
No. 4944 was named Kozlovskij in 1987 in honor of Ivan Kozlovsky's career; his famous rival Sergey Lemeshev received the same honor upon his death in 1978.
Quotations
"They say that Ivan Kozlovsky considered his voice as his one and only possession and prayed every morning thanking the Lord for the priceless gift He gave him..." (Olga Fyodorova, Music portraits, see the link below)"Lemeshev is a far more lyric and tender Gherman than those to whom we’ve become accustomed. He and Kozlovsky were long-time rivals; each sings Lensky’s aria, with quite different emphases." (Stefan Zucker)
"October 31, 2005, 17:31. Monument to known Ukrainian singer Ivan Kozlovsky to be erected in Kyiv (Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
). This decision was made by Kyiv City Hall. It was decided that Pechersk
Pechersk
Pechersk Raion is a larger administrative district of the city which lies majorly within the historical neighborhood, while also including some other historical areas. Pechersk neighborhood is located on the hills adjoining the right bank of the Dnieper River. The two geographic entities are...
district state administration is to erect the monument at its expense." (From the official news)
Interesting facts
Kozlovsky was never allowed to perform in the West because his brother Fedor Kozlovsky, who was also a singer, had left Ukraine to tour Europe with Oleksander KoshetzOleksander Koshetz
Oleksander Koshetz was a Ukrainian choral conductor, arranger, composer, ethnographer, writer, musicologist, and lecturer. He helped popularize Ukrainian music around the world...
in 1919. Upon hearing of the Bolshevik takeover of Ukraine he refused to return. Fedor became a Ukrainian Orthodox priest and lived on the outskirts of New York.
Discography
- The Great Russian Tenor - Ivan Kozlovsky: Pearl GEM0221, Released February 7, 2005 ADD
- Russian Opera at the Bolshoi: The Vintage Years: DVD Region 1 (playable worldwide) #FD2019, Russian, English subtitles. 112m. B& W/Color, Dolby Digital audio.
- TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
, Eugene OneginEugene Onegin (opera)Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, is an opera in 3 acts , by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by Konstantin Shilovsky and the composer and his brother Modest, and is based on the novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin....
Aleksandr Ivanovich Orlov: Melodiya D 0253/60 (1952), D 09377/82(1962), Chant du Monde LDX 8088/90, Bruno 23001/3, Colosseum CRLP 10270, 80 and 90 - MussorgskyMussorgskyMussorgsky can refer to:*The Mussorgsky family of Russian nobility;*Modest Mussorgsky, a Russian composer belonging to that family.*Mussorgsky , a 1950 Soviet film about the composer...
, Boris GodunovBoris Godunov (opera)Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
, Melodiya D 0305/12 (1952), D 05836/43 (1959); Ultraphone 159/62; Bruno 23025/7; Colosseum 124/6; Period SPLP 554 (1952), 1033
Also this link
Sound samples
- At this link you can listen to the voice of Ivan Kozlovsky: Dubrovsky's Aria О дай мне забвенье - O dai mne zabvenye (O give me oblivion) from the opera DubrovskyDubrovsky (opera)Dubrovsky is an opera in four acts Op. 58, by Eduard Nápravník, to a Russian libretto by Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky after the novel of the same title by Alexander Pushkin.-Creation and performance history:...
by Eduard NápravníkEduard NápravníkEduard Francevič Nápravník was a Czech conductor and composer, who settled in Russia and is best known for his leading role in Russian musical life as the principal conductor of the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg for many decades...
. Recorded in 1952 (mp3 file). - At this link you can listen to (or download) the tracks of 2 CDs with Kozlovsky performance 2 CDs.
External links
- Music Portraits
- Russia in US
- Grandi tenori
- Archive Music
- The Rivals
- Filmography
- Biography in English
- Biography in Russian
- CD review
- The family matters 1
- The family matters 2
- On Alexandra Herzig, from Ukrainian WikipediaUkrainian WikipediaThe Ukrainian Wikipedia is the Ukrainian language edition of the Wikipedia encyclopedia. The first article was written on January 30, 2004. On October 1, 2005, it reached the 20,000-article mark and is currently the...
- On Galina Sergeyeva
- History of the Tenor - Sound Clips and Narration