This amazing singer, who has a thrilling mezzo-soprano, spanning two and a half octaves, a voice that sometimes crumbles with silver trills, then gently envelops with a deep velvety timbre, “incomparable” Anastasia Vyaltseva devoted a lot of enthusiastic lines, although almost a hundred and fifty years after her birth . So her art is alive, and her life continues in him.
Start
Of course, in the Vyaltsev family, when a pretty girl Nastya was born in 1871, no one could have imagined what the future holds for her. When the father died, the family from the Altukhovo settlement near Orel moved to Kiev. I had to start working early. Anastasia Vyaltseva was a student in a ladies' dress workshop, a saleswoman of mineral water, a fellow at the hotel. Cleaning the rooms, she hummed. This voice and good looks were noted by the guest singer and told the 13-year-old girl that her place was on stage. She was accepted into the ballet group, but she could not dance well.
Petersburg
Anastasia Vyaltseva moved to the northern capital, and in 1893 she was accepted into the troupe of the Maly Theater. She sang in the choir, and now she was entrusted with the small role of a gypsy, in which she sang the song "I Want - I will love." The sweet coquetry of this performance enthralled the audience. But to become a real singer, the girl needed to study.
Lawyer N.I. Holev took part in her fate. The philanthropist gave money to dear vocal teachers, even sent her to Italy, then picked up her repertoire, worked out her
stage image and put her on stage in Moscow.
Moscow
In 1897, the first performance at the Hermitage Theater took place. The debut was received with enthusiasm by both the public and the press, with whom the young photogenic and friendly singer quickly found contact. So the star was born, and touring the cities of the country in Kursk, Orel, Kiev, Kharkov, Baku, Tiflis, Rostov-on-Don secured success and brought unheard of money. Such fees were only at Chaliapin.
Tour
This huge amount of money allowed Anastasia Dmitrievna to order a convenient railway carriage abroad. In it, in addition to the room for rest and accommodation, there was a bathtub, a kitchen, a place for servants. This was necessary, since, in addition to recording phonograph records, which diverged in insane circulations, Anastasia Vyaltseva continuously traveled around the country, winding a mile and a half. They recruited 175 thousand for her touring activities. And in every city, enchanting success. At the station she was met and escorted by enthusiastic fans.
She was loved by students, students, millionaires. Nemirovich-Danchenko spoke of her as an undoubted talent. But there were musical critics who negatively related to her work, considering it vulgar.
Singer of joy
Yes, Anastasia Vyaltseva, having a repertoire of about three hundred songs and romances, never sang the bitter share of the people. Very often she went to the audience in a dress decorated with hydrangeas. Lush flowers emphasized the grace of the performer.
The fragile beauty of flowers, a pensive singer is Anastasia Vyaltseva. The photo brought to us through time her poetic and gentle image. In her songs and romances, the public was accessible to the carefree world of flying triples, the sound of guitar strings, and easy, flirtatious love. Champagne was foaming there. It was a fairy-tale world that listeners liked so much that Anastasia Vyaltseva went on an encore twenty and thirty times. That is, she, not sparing herself, gave two concerts a night. Very often, her performances were “on request” when she did not select the program, but sang what the listeners asked. Performing, for example, “Give, dear friend, a hand for good luck ...”, she held out her graceful hands to the hall, and it seemed to everyone that she gave the hand to him and sent her a smile.
Especially fruitful was her work with composer N.V. Zubov, who wrote, without being a professional, the most popular romances, of which it is impossible not to mention "Do not leave, stay with me ...". In recent years, she has loved to perform in the Kurzal Sestroretsk Hall, designed for one and a half thousand seats.
The huge room accommodated so many fans of her talent. To this day, it has been preserved only in photographs.
Charity
In life, singer Anastasia Vyaltseva was very actively involved in charity work. To raise funds for Sedov’s expedition to the North Pole, she, along with Sobinov and Chaliapin, gave charity concerts. Her brother was a member of the Society for Homeless Children. And in her will, Vyaltseva asked to transfer her apartment buildings to Petersburg for the construction of an orphanage and hospital in them. During the Russo-Japanese War, she donated part of the money from concerts to support the wounded.
Love and marriage
In 1910, love entered her busy life. And despite the serious obstacle that stood in the way of the lovers, and these were class differences, they got married in Moscow.
The young guard officer, Vasily Viktorovich Biskupsky, a nobleman, was forced to resign - his colleagues considered this marriage a misalliance. But before he managed to get a serious wound in the stomach in the Russo-Japanese War. Their happiness was interrupted by a serious blood disease, which was discovered by the singer. Then all the eminent doctors were invited, even the Tibetan healer Badmaev, who was treating Rasputin, but no one was able to help.
Death
Knowing that the disease was fatal, she behaved with dignity. Not everyone can do this - to make a will, choose a dress for a funeral, a hairstyle, indicate how to furnish a room in which farewell will take place. The whole Petersburg came to bury the singer - 150 thousand people went behind the coffin. Matilda Kshesinskaya and Anna Pavlova became on guard of honor .
So, on a chilly February day of 1913, “the queen of romance, Anastasia Vyaltseva, passed away. The biography of the “Russian Cinderella”, as it was sometimes called, served as the basis for the book “Green Coast” and the feature film “Incomparable”.