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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Ukrainian Shaliapin

13 November, 2012 - 00:00

By Valentyna BUDIONNA, director of Lebedyn Museum
of Regional Studies

Until 1996 the name of Ivan Steshenko was hardly known; recognition
came through the efforts of those who care for Ukrainian art and culture,
for the destiny of their nation, and an exposition dedicated to his life
and works which opened in Lebedyn Museum of Regional Studies. One of the
enthusiasts who took part in that holy act was the late music researcher
Vasyl Bryl, who died recently.

It was on January 24, 1894, when in Lebedyn (now in Sumy oblast) in
the family of merchant Nykyfor Steshenko a son was born. He was named Ivan,
and the fate gave him both world fame as a singer and a long period obscurity
in the Soviet epoch in the 1930s and forties

Ivan Steshenko's father had a  good voice, and his mother alsosang
in church, although she preferred to listen to Ukrainian folk songs. Ivan
was a singer in the choir of Lebedyn Uspenska Church (destroyed in 1940).
His clear, crystal treble impressed the local grandee, Count Kapnist, a
descendant of Hetman Pavlo Polubotok.

Later the count invited the boy to his own choir that performed in the
village of Mykhailivka. After the patron's death his son Oleksiy Kapnist
took care of the talented boy. He decided that Ivan should become a professional
singer.

"Do you want to study singing?" Kapnist asked the boy.

"Oh yes," he answered, "and I dream of going to Italy."

"Good," the Count laughed. "Mean while you will go to Petersburg to
study with Tartekov and Bukhtoyarov."

The count kept his word. Later, together with A. Kharytonenko, who owned
sugar-refineries and was an art patron, he sent the youth to Italy where
Steshenko studied for three years improving his skills with the best Italian
teachers.

In Italy Steshenko met General Orlov's daughter Emiliya, who later became
his wife. She also came to Italy to study singing, was highly educated,
and spoke several foreign languages. Emiliya never accepted the Communist
revolution of 1917, worked not a single day for the Soviet state, and all
her life was expecting that the state would give her back - as illegally
expropriated - residential buildings in the center of Kyiv that belonged
to her mother. Emiliya died in 1973.

In 1914 Ivan Steshenko won first prize at an international contest of
young singers in Parma, and that opened his way to the opera. Our compatriot
successfully debuted in the opera theaters of Italy and won the favor of
critics. But the First World War interrupted his career, and he had to
return to Kyiv and then to Lebedyn together with his family.

In 1916 in Lebedyn their second daughter Valentyna was born. Elder daughter
Tamara had been born in 1914 in Italy (which was a major problem for her
under the Soviet regime). Even in her passport in the column place of birth
the "village" of Milano was indicated. She graduated from Kyiv Music College
and worked as head of the Krasny Rezinshchik (Red Rubber Workers) amateur
group of a Kyiv factory. She died in 1986.

Valentyna graduated from the Kyiv Conservatory. She was a good singer
but did not make it her career. After World War II she lived in Riga, then
in Odesa where she worked as a music teacher. She took the name of her
husband, Buhayova, and never mentioned her maiden name: it was stigmatized
by the Soviet regime and caused too many problems. She died in 1973 and
was buried in Odesa.

The couple's youngest son, Heorhy, was born in 1917. Just before the
outbreak of World War II he graduated from a Leningrad geological institute.
He had an exemption but volunteered to go to the front. He served in the
artillery as a major. His commanders twice recommended him for the Gold
Star of Heroism, and twice (!) top Soviet officials turned him down: "He
is the son of that Steshenko." After the war he moved to Tashkent
together with his wife and worked as a geologist. He died in 1965.

But let us return to the hectic years of civil war. The Kyiv Operatic
Theater was then still working. Ivan Steshenko performed for four seasons,
creating vivid characters from the world classics: Prince Danylo of Galicia
in Prince Igor by Aleksander Borodin, Mephisto in Charles Francois
Gounod's Faust, and others. In 1921 he fell ill and went abroad
for treatment. Later he started performing in Warsaw, Lo/dz, and other
cities.

"What a beautiful voice," a Warsaw critic wrote, "a real Southern voice
which went through a wonderful Italian school, kept the gentle warmth of
the Southern sun, acquiring wonderful breathing, smoothness, and equal
beauty of sound in all registers. And a wonderful performance." The Ukrainian
singer was a great success, and the fame of his mastery spread throughout
Europe and even reached America. In 1922 he moved to the United States.
His first performances were very successful and had a good press. He was
compared to Shaliapin.

Our compatriot performed on opera stages in Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington,
New York, and Boston, always in triumph. Along with the operatic repertoire
he also performed chamber music, Ukrainian songs (among them were "Oh,
the Three Wide Roads" by Mykola Lysenko, "The Days Pass, the Nights Pass"
by Zaremba, "In the Valley Lies a Village" by Stepovyi, and Ukrainian folk
songs). But the audience liked best the opera Boris Godunov by Mussorgsky,
and it was the peak of his career. Ivan Steshenko always performed in the
original languages: he sang arias in eight languages and songs in eleven.

But he dreamed of returning to Ukraine, and in 1931 his dream came true.
He performed in the Kharkiv opera. But in the 1930s it was hard to work
for someone like Steshenko who had returned from abroad. Harassment, hounding
and envy began.

He was transferred to the Kharkiv Philharmonic and went on to Soviet
cities, even to the Far East. The people who attended his concerts were
immensely grateful to the singer. Consider an excerpt from a newspaper
after Steshenko's performance at the Ilich Mine: "Ivan Stesheko's art is
beyond all comparison. He disturbs and enraptures the listener not only
with his voice: he gets to the heart of a song, takes its soul, the depth
of its contents, and conveys it to the listener using all dramatic means.
Ivan Steshenko's are major cultural events."

Ivan Steshenko also visited his native Lebedyn, his mother and relatives,
but local authorities forbade him to sing in the city concert hall, so
he had to sing for his compatriots in a garden. Thus local authorities
met the famous singer: the secret police directive worked.

Kidney disease, terrible conditions during his final years, harassment,
and hounding brought Steshenko's sudden death. He was 43 when he died on
May 2, 1937. Not a single newspaper in the Soviet Union and Ukraine mentioned
it. Only Izvestiya printed a couple of lines of an obituary notice.

The years passed, and nobody remembered the great singer even on the
centennial of his birth. Only now he is called the Ukrainian Shaliapin
from Lebedyn. On the building where the singer was born a memorial plaque
has been placed. Unfortunately, we have not managed to find a record of
his voice. We would be very grateful to our compatriots, Ukrainians from
the Diaspora in various countries, who will be sending to our museum materials
concerning Ivan Steshenko.

 

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