FEDOR CHALIAPIN SCRAPBOOK INCLUDING SIGNED PHOTO c1924

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FEDOR CHALIAPIN SCRAPBOOK INCLUDING SIGNED P0STCARD 1924-26 This is a scrapbook of press cuttings, original photographs and other images and items relating to the operatic career of Fedor (sometimes Feodor) Chaliapin, the great Russian bass. The scrapbook was assembled by the Polish Consul General to Australia L. de Noskowski, who was an avid and passionate devotee of Chaliapin's magnificent bass performances. Noskowski and Chaliapin became close friends during his tour of Australia and the scrapbook contains original photographs of Chaliapin, Noskowski, his family and friends during the Sydney tour. This item is sure to please opera collectors and is a unique and rare collection of ephemeral articles, playbills, advertisements and images relating to Chaliapin. Fedor Ivanovich Chaliapin remains the most famous and celebrated Russian bass of the early twentieth century. Towards the end of his professional career Toscanini himself proclaimed Chaliapin the greatest operatic talent with which he had ever worked. The widespread fame of many Russian operas, including Mussogorsky's Boris Gudunov and Borodin's Prince Igor can be attributed to the career of Chaliapin and his enduring popularity with Western audiences. Born in humble circumstances in 1873, Chaliapin toured with an opera company during his adolescence and was later tutored by Dimitri Usatov (1847-1913). His St. Petersburg debut was in 1894 followed by Moscow in 1896. In 1901 he made his first triumphant appearance in the West at La Scala as Mestofele under Toscanini. In 1913 he was introduced to Paris and London by the brilliant Russian ballet producer Diaghalev. Political differences with the Soviet state led him to reside permanently in the West after 1921 and he toured extensively within Europe and internationally until his death in Paris in 1938. Chaliapin wrote about his passionate and exciting life in an autobiography written with the assistance of Maxim Gorky and published in 1932. Chaliapin wrote to Gorky on the seventh of September 1926 from Sydney. He describes the state of cultural affairs at the time: "I sang in three Australian cities, Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide; ten, eight and three concerts respectively. I cannot help shedding at least one tear of joy, especially in Australia w it's baseball and football and cricket and boxing and other physical pastimes, which I sometimes think, makes English hearts and brains harder and harder. Life with them, even at a distance, is dull, off-putting. They are rich, they know nothing, they are not interested in anything except sport. They consider us Russians savages, as they do out music. It requires a great deal of spiritual concentration and, I don't mind adding, ability to make them listen to Russian music in Russian. Things may improve in the future but, alas, I shall not be t" The scrapbook measures 200x320mm and contains 72 pages of clippings and cuttings. A large number of additional items are loosely inserted at the rear of the album. Of special interest in the scrapbook: Title page signed and inscribed by Chaliapin. Numerous images from the popular press at the time showing Chaliapin in a number of dramatic roles including Don Quixote, Mephisto, Boris Gudunov etcetera. A wide variety of press clippings, numbering into the hundreds, collected from American, British and Australian newspapers and popular music magazines of the era including The Sydney Mail. Advertisements from record companies promoting Chaliapin's various operas available on record. An autobiographical article covering 21 pages of the scrapbook penned by the great bass and clipped from The Ladies Home Journal 1924 and 1925. Colour portrait of Chaliapin without costume clipped from a popular magazine of the time (not stated which). Numerous pages of songs and lyrics from the operas Chaliapin helped immortalize. Clippings from the souvenir programmes for the Sydney shows. Seven original photographs of the great bass showing the ... read more

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