October 25: In memory of opera singer Evgenia Mravina
A 50-year-old woman died in Yalta Evgeniya Mravina. Opera singer, prima ballerina of the Mariinsky Theatre. "The Ideal Snow Maiden." Half-sister of the revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai.
Real surname - Mravinskaya (later shortened it for her stage career).
Evgenia Mravina: Early Years and Debut in Italy
Born in 1864 Petersburg, into an influential noble family. Her father was a military engineer and major general. She possessed a fine lyric soprano. She took lessons from a renowned opera singer and teacher. Ippolita Pryanishnikova.
At 21, she made her triumphant debut in Italy in Verdi’s opera Rigoletto (the part of Gilda).
I sing joyfully, carefree and cheerfully, happy. Everyone (even in stores) calls me "la prima donna" [the prima donna]. My success is dizzying. I receive a ton of letters with offers to quit the stage and marry some Italian marquises and counts.
The Mariinsky Theatre and "The Ideal Snow Maiden"
At 22, she made her first appearance on the stage of the Mariinsky Theatre as Marguerite in the opera Faust. Her performance was so brilliant that everyone in the audience Alexander III invited her to the box and offered her a contract as a soloist of the Imperial Opera.
Her very first role in her new status – Lyudmila in Glinka’s opera “Ruslan and Lyudmila” – became a “star” role.
The success is enormous, sincere, and unfueled. I'm inundated with roles.
Evgenia Mravina's repertoire
Mravina's repertoire included more than 30 roles. Among them were Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, Antonida in A Life for the Tsar, Violetta in La Traviata, and Snegurochka in Rimsky-Korsakov's opera of the same name (he called her "the ideal Snegurochka"). She was the first to perform Oksana in his opera Christmas Eve.
In 1890, according to the recollections of contemporaries, the 21-year-old Tsarevich Nicholas (the future Tsar Nicholas II) became infatuated with 26-year-old Mravina. She refused, after which the heir switched to Matilda Kshesinskaya.
One must know how honorable and advantageous it was for an actress to be the mistress of a tsar or a crown prince to appreciate this display of basic feminine dignity in Mravina. Every time she appeared on stage, we applauded wildly. I gazed with delight at her sweet, pure face and laughed inwardly, imagining the taut nose of the crown prince, forced to realize that not everything in the world was within his reach.
(writer Vikenty Veresaev)
Refusal of the Tsarevich and persecution by the directorate
The refusal cost Mravina her career. The management of the Imperial Theatres couldn't dismiss the public's favorite overnight and subjected her to years of harassment. In 1900, they refused to renew her contract, citing "the deterioration and loss of her voice." According to critics, the 36-year-old Mravina was at the peak of her vocal form.
Touring, illness and moving to Yalta
She toured Russia with concerts. During her tour in Irkutsk She became seriously ill with smallpox. According to one version, fearing that the pockmarks would disfigure her face, she asked doctors to treat her with anything to spare her appearance, including harsh mercury- and iodine-based medications. Her face was saved, but at the cost of severe rheumatism.
In 1903, she went through a divorce from her husband, a retired Polish officer, Ludwig Koribut-Dashkevich (she bore his surname) - he received half of her fortune.
Around the same time, tuberculosis added to her rheumatism. Mravina moved to Yalta, hoping for a healthier climate. She gave charity concerts for the sick and needy.
Farewell concert and last days
In 1906, at 42, she left the stage, giving a farewell concert in St. Petersburg.
The hall was packed. She still sang marvelously, but a sense of sorrow hung over the room. Still beautiful, dressed in a charming black gown, she stood on the stage, and there was something inexpressibly poignant, doomed, and lonely about her entire figure. It seemed as if the melodious spirit was being ejected from her body, exhausted by suffering.
(poet and Mravina's second cousin Igor Severyanin)
She died of heart failure. Shortly before her death, she appeared on stage in a luxurious white dress and diamonds.
A hoarse, sick voice was heard, she burst into tears and, miserable, barely able to stand on her feet, left the stage, after which she fell ill and did not want to hear any consolation
(from the memoirs of contemporaries)
In her will, she asked that climbing roses, wisteria, and lilacs be planted on her grave.
I ask my dear family and friends not to accompany me to the funeral, especially in bad weather.
