Vera Kudryavtseva was a rather gifted and promising Leningrad opera singer. She performed on the stage of the Maly Opera House in the second half of the last century. Despite the fact that Vera Nikolaevna was really very talented, today many remember her only thanks to her spouse.
They became the greatest opera singer - Sergey Lemeshev, who was known not only for his unique voice, but also for his bright personal life.
Kudryavtseva unfairly went down in history as his last official wife, with whom the singer lived for 27 years.
Vera Kudryavtseva: biography, family and childhood
The future opera singer was born in a large family and became the thirteenth child. She was born in 1911 in the town of Staraya Russa, which at that time belonged to the Novgorod province. It is worth noting that Vera Kudryavtseva was brought up in a fairly educated family. Her father - Nikolai Onisimovich - was a graduate of the Physics and Mathematics University of Petrograd. Her mother - Mariamna Fedorovna, was a woman with a difficult fate. She gave birth to a wife of 13 children, the last of which was the future singer. At the same time, three children of Mariamna Fedorovna died as a child, but only ten survived, grew up and received education.
Vera's father, although he was known as a talented teacher, had the glory of a man with a difficult character. He was incorruptible and very principled, which often complicated his relationship with the senior management. This became the reason for the frequent relocations of a large family, along with which, naturally, little Verochka, who in the future was known to the general public as Kudryavtseva-Lemesheva Vera Nikolaevna, also moved.
Youth in Opochka
Once Nikolai Onisimovich received another distribution. This time he was sent to a small town called Opochka. There, he became chairman of the board of trustees at a female gymnasium and combined this appointment with the post of director of the city school. In 1918, Nikolai Kudryavtsev moved the whole family to his Opochka. Thus, it was in this city that Vera Kudryavtseva spent her youth.
Family love of music
Many years later, in her memoirs, Vera Nikolaevna will speak about this time with special warmth. She will tell that their family then lived in a large and spacious two-story house. Almost everyone had their own separate room, and there was also a large room with a piano, on which they often played music. One of Vera's older sisters sang quite well, and the head of the family himself, Nikolai Onisimovich, sang very well. Vera Nikolaevna recalled that various performances and musical plays were often performed in their house. Of course, in such an atmosphere, not absorbing the love of music was almost impossible.
First public speaking experience
Kudryavtseva Vera Nikolaevna shares her memories that, while still a schoolgirl, she already had a specific goal in life - to become a singer. The girl from an early age showed her talent: she had an excellent ear and a strong voice. Once she was even entrusted with singing solo in the Assumption Cathedral, and her whole class came to church to listen to how Verochka would sing.
Received education
Being a very strict person, the head of the Kudryavtsev family did not approve of the youthful passions of his daughters in music and theater. It would be more correct to say that he did not want his daughters to associate their future profession and destiny with the creative direction, since all this seemed to him frivolous and unpromising.
Largely because of this, the first professional education received by Vera was far from music and art. After moving to Leningrad, the girl receives a technical profession, completing courses under the loud name "Technique - to the masses." Vera gets a job as a laboratory assistant at the Lithopone Plant, but despite this, she does not give up her dream of connecting life with music and regularly continues to sing independently. While working at a chemical plant, she simultaneously decides to go to study at the Leningrad evening working conservatory.
There, the girl proved herself very well. In 1936, she was transferred to study at the Leningrad Conservatory as one of the best students, and she was immediately enrolled in the 2nd year. She falls into the classroom of the teacher Sofya Akimova-Ershova and, being a student, gets a great opportunity to perform on the same stage with her husband - the outstanding opera singer Ivan Ershov. Verochka had a happy opportunity to perform two operas from Wagner in a duet with Ershov. A talented student, Vera Kudryavtseva-Lemesheva (which the general public will later know by this double name) even won the Stalin scholarship for excellent studies at the 5th year of the conservatory.
Heavy war years
After the successful completion of the Leningrad Conservatory, Vera Kudryavtseva intended to continue her studies in graduate school. Of course, they take her there, and in parallel with her studies, Kudryavtseva is already performing at the Opera Studio. Further, she plans to perform at the Small Opera, but her plans are corrected by the outbreak of World War II. Together with all the graduate school of the conservatory, she is forced to evacuate to Tashkent. In addition, it is worth noting that at the time of the outbreak of the war and the evacuation of Kudryavtseva was pregnant.
As a student, Vera met Mikhail Dovenman, the soloist of the Maly Opera House, who later became her husband. And it was in the evacuation of this couple that a son was born. While in Tashkent, she constantly worked in a local theater and gave concerts in military hospitals tirelessly.
Vera also became close to her teacher Akimova-Ershova and helped her in every possible way in pedagogical activity. Unfortunately, many of Kudryavtseva’s relatives remained in Leningrad during the blockade. For them, it all ended tragically: Vera’s parents died, and her brother and 4 sisters passed away.
Return to Leningrad from evacuation
In 1944, after breaking the blockade, Vera returned to Leningrad. She settles in the Small Opera and in a short time begins to play the main parts. Her repertoire was very difficult in terms of playing roles, including: Eleanor in the Troubadour, Natasha Rostova, Tsarevna in Koschey the Immortal and Elena in the Sicilian Vespers. But fateful for Vera was the fulfillment of the role of Tatiana in "Eugene Onegin."
Kudryavtseva’s partner in this performance was the legendary Sergey Lemeshev, a singer who any opera diva dreamed of singing a duet with.
Fatal acquaintance
When Sergey Yakovlevich arrived on tour in Leningrad, he, of course, immediately met his partner, and she almost immediately impressed him. Before each rehearsal, he went to Kudryavtseva and wondered how she was doing. But, despite the fact that their sympathy was mutual, Vera Nikolaevna kept a certain distance for a long time. By that time, Lemeshev Sergey Yakovlevich was really insanely popular, he had crowds of ardent female fans who simply deified him. Moreover, at the time of his acquaintance with Vera Nikolaevna Lemeshev was already only officially married 4 times, and he had much more informal connections.
Kudryavtseva understood that a man who was a real idol for thousands of women was always spoiled by female attention. Therefore, she tried to pretend that the opera singer with an angelic face was completely indifferent to her.
Sergey Lemeshev - singer and beloved husband of Vera Nikolaevna
Despite all the tricks of Vera Nikolaevna, with time Lemeshev nevertheless achieved her favor. Their relationship was very complicated by the fact that at the time of meeting and falling in love, each of this couple was officially married. But feelings prevailed, and in 1948 Lemeshev made Kudryavtseva an offer of marriage. Naturally, he divorced his previous wife. Vera Nikolaevna also broke up with her first husband, Sergei Dovenman, who understood that holding her would be useless.
Despite all the difficulties, Kudryavtseva and Lemeshev got married, and from 1950 until the death of Sergey Yakovlevich this couple was together. They lived together for a long 27 years. Unfortunately, there were people who were not very happy about this union, and Vera Nikolaevna for a long time refused to give a transfer from Leningrad to Moscow. She was forced to practice her performance in Leningrad and race by train to her husband in the capital in order to spend as much time with him as possible.
Such a life, half of which takes place on trains, can very quickly tire any person, and Kudryavtseva was no exception. She decided to leave the Maly Opera, and despite the fact that she was just to be awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR. Thus, for the sake of Lemeshev, she sacrificed her entire career, but she never regretted it.
Subsequently, of course, she performed on opera stages, mainly working on contracts, but of course she did not receive world fame and well-deserved recognition. The general public remembered her exclusively as the last wife of the great and talented Sergei Lemeshev.
Vera Nikolaevna passed away in 2009. She was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery, next to her husband, whom she survived for 13 years.