Connexion
Maria Maksakova, Sr. est une personne Russe née le 8 avril 1902 à Astrakhan (Russie)
Maria Petrovna Maksakova, Senior (Мария Петровна Максакова, née: Sidorova; April 8, 1902, Astrakhan, Russian Empire – August 11, 1974, Moscow, USSR) was a Soviet opera singer (mezzo-soprano), a leading soloist in the Bolshoi Theater (1923-1953), who enjoyed great success in the 1920s and 1930s, in the times often referred to as the Golden Age of the Soviet opera. Maria Maksakova, the three times laureate of the Stalin's Prize (1946, 1949, 1951), was assignated the People's Artist of the USSR in 1971. She is the mother of actress Lyudmila Maksakova and the grandmother of Maria Maksakova, Jr.
of Pyotr Sidorov, an executive manager of the Volga Shipping company and a wealthy man. This large family's well-being ended with his death and Maria joined a local church choir at the age of 10, just to help her 27-year old mother make a living. There her gift was quickly noticed. "I educated myself. Inscribed scales upon my room's wall and was singing them days on end. In a two months time I was treated as a 'scholar' by peers and soon got much respect from the seniors as a full-blown choirist who could read music freely", she remembered. In a year's time Maria became a lead in the alto section of the choir where she sang until 1917. It was here that her most prominent qualities of the vocal technique (e.g. flawless intoning, unique way of carrying a note) started to take shape. After the Revolution, in late 1917, Maria Sidorova joined the Astrakhan musical college to study the piano. Having no instrument at her home, she had to stay at the school literally day and night to practice. In early 1918, she started studying vocal, first as a contralto. As one of the best in the class, she was often sent on obligatory 'tours' to sing for the Red Army soldiers and sailors. "I've had success and was extremely proud of it", she later wrote. One of her new teachers, Smolenskaya (herself a dramatic soprano) a member of the Astrakhan Opera troupe, started to train Maria as soprano, which Maria greatly enjoyed. "With her I studied for a year. Then the Astrakhan theater has been moved to Tsarytsin and I decided to join its troupe, so as to go on studying with my pedagogue", the singer later recalled. "She mastered a professional vocal range, demonstrating flawless precision in intonations and perfect sense of rhythm. What was most attractive in the young singer's performances was her musical and verbal expressiveness, her wholehearted involvement in lyrical content of a piece. All this, of course, was still in embryonic state, but any an experienced tutor could find here vast field of work upon further development", wrote Mikhail Lvov in his 1947 biography.
Rise to stardom
In the summer of 1919 Maria made her theater debut as Olga in Evgeny Onegin (an unlikely choice, considering the line of her later works). In the autumn the famous baritone Max Maksakov has come to the theater as a new director (and soloist) and gave her several new roles (in Faust and Rigoletto among others). Much admiring the girl's gift, the maestro was still critical of her techniques, so she went to Petrograd for further studying. There she met famous Glazunov, has been consulted by another professor who recognized a lyrical soprano in her and opted for a return, to ask Maksakov for private lessons. The two became close, he proposed, and in 1920 they married, forming a sparkling duet on stage. In 1923 Maria Maksakova came to Moscow, debuted (as Amneris, in Aida, substituting the famous Obukhova, who fell ill) on the Bolshoi stage and was instantly invited to join the star-studded troupe.
Sergey Lemeshev remembered this evening:
"Even then Maksakova fascinated us with her special way with words. Not only clear and crisp was her diction, but she mastered this truly dramatic expressiveness of phrase, charged with inner strife of passion and jealousy. Besides, Amneris was enchantingly feminine", Lemeshev added.
Max and Maria Maksakovs moved to Moscow and settled on Dmitrovka street, in a communal flat. According to daughter Lyudmila, " turned his young wife's life into hard labour. Every day a regular practice at home, with tears; at evening - a performance, late at night - lots of scolding with more tears... He was 33 years older but not for a moment did she come to regret those 15 years she spent with him", daughter Lyudmila remembered. The singer liked working hard. "Maksakova has been driven by all-consuming desire to become a real artist and she was not to be stopped. Once getting a new role, she started working upon it zealously and methodically, step by stepped, and never ceased until she saw the everything - vocal aspect, image development stage presence, - was being brought to a technically perfect form which could be charged with enormous intellectual and emotional content", colleague Natalia Schpiller recalled.
Source : Wikidata
Maria Maksakova, Sr.
Nationalité Russie
Naissance 8 avril 1902 à Astrakhan (Russie)
Mort 11 aout 1974 (à 72 ans) à Moscou (Russie)
Récompenses Artiste du peuple de l'URSS, Ordre de Lénine, Prix Staline
Naissance 8 avril 1902 à Astrakhan (Russie)
Mort 11 aout 1974 (à 72 ans) à Moscou (Russie)
Récompenses Artiste du peuple de l'URSS, Ordre de Lénine, Prix Staline
Biographie
Maria was born in the city of Astrakhan, one of six childrenof Pyotr Sidorov, an executive manager of the Volga Shipping company and a wealthy man. This large family's well-being ended with his death and Maria joined a local church choir at the age of 10, just to help her 27-year old mother make a living. There her gift was quickly noticed. "I educated myself. Inscribed scales upon my room's wall and was singing them days on end. In a two months time I was treated as a 'scholar' by peers and soon got much respect from the seniors as a full-blown choirist who could read music freely", she remembered. In a year's time Maria became a lead in the alto section of the choir where she sang until 1917. It was here that her most prominent qualities of the vocal technique (e.g. flawless intoning, unique way of carrying a note) started to take shape. After the Revolution, in late 1917, Maria Sidorova joined the Astrakhan musical college to study the piano. Having no instrument at her home, she had to stay at the school literally day and night to practice. In early 1918, she started studying vocal, first as a contralto. As one of the best in the class, she was often sent on obligatory 'tours' to sing for the Red Army soldiers and sailors. "I've had success and was extremely proud of it", she later wrote. One of her new teachers, Smolenskaya (herself a dramatic soprano) a member of the Astrakhan Opera troupe, started to train Maria as soprano, which Maria greatly enjoyed. "With her I studied for a year. Then the Astrakhan theater has been moved to Tsarytsin and I decided to join its troupe, so as to go on studying with my pedagogue", the singer later recalled. "She mastered a professional vocal range, demonstrating flawless precision in intonations and perfect sense of rhythm. What was most attractive in the young singer's performances was her musical and verbal expressiveness, her wholehearted involvement in lyrical content of a piece. All this, of course, was still in embryonic state, but any an experienced tutor could find here vast field of work upon further development", wrote Mikhail Lvov in his 1947 biography.
Rise to stardom
In the summer of 1919 Maria made her theater debut as Olga in Evgeny Onegin (an unlikely choice, considering the line of her later works). In the autumn the famous baritone Max Maksakov has come to the theater as a new director (and soloist) and gave her several new roles (in Faust and Rigoletto among others). Much admiring the girl's gift, the maestro was still critical of her techniques, so she went to Petrograd for further studying. There she met famous Glazunov, has been consulted by another professor who recognized a lyrical soprano in her and opted for a return, to ask Maksakov for private lessons. The two became close, he proposed, and in 1920 they married, forming a sparkling duet on stage. In 1923 Maria Maksakova came to Moscow, debuted (as Amneris, in Aida, substituting the famous Obukhova, who fell ill) on the Bolshoi stage and was instantly invited to join the star-studded troupe.
Sergey Lemeshev remembered this evening:
"Even then Maksakova fascinated us with her special way with words. Not only clear and crisp was her diction, but she mastered this truly dramatic expressiveness of phrase, charged with inner strife of passion and jealousy. Besides, Amneris was enchantingly feminine", Lemeshev added.
Max and Maria Maksakovs moved to Moscow and settled on Dmitrovka street, in a communal flat. According to daughter Lyudmila, " turned his young wife's life into hard labour. Every day a regular practice at home, with tears; at evening - a performance, late at night - lots of scolding with more tears... He was 33 years older but not for a moment did she come to regret those 15 years she spent with him", daughter Lyudmila remembered. The singer liked working hard. "Maksakova has been driven by all-consuming desire to become a real artist and she was not to be stopped. Once getting a new role, she started working upon it zealously and methodically, step by stepped, and never ceased until she saw the everything - vocal aspect, image development stage presence, - was being brought to a technically perfect form which could be charged with enormous intellectual and emotional content", colleague Natalia Schpiller recalled.