Bolskaya, Adelaide Yulianovna

Until 1880, she studied at the closed monastic guesthouse Königliche Musikschule in Munich, first playing the piano, and later singing. In 1883 - 1888 at the Moscow Conservatory with Giacomo Galvani and Fedor Kommissarzhevsky ^[1] . During her studies, she took part in concerts of the Russian musical society with works and under the direction of P.I. Tchaikovsky . She graduated from the conservatory with a small silver medal and then during the year she improved her vocal skills in Italy. She made her debut in the Dal Verme theater in Milan, also performed in Lodi , participated in concerts by conductors Charles Lamoureau and Edouard Colonna .

Upon returning to Russia with the active participation of Tchaikovsky, she was accepted to the Bolshoi Theater ^[2] ; sang under the name Skkomskaya. In 1889 , she made her debut on the stage in the roles of Pamina ( The Magic Flute ), Gorislava ( Ruslan and Lyudmila ) and Tatyana ( Eugene Onegin ). She performed at the Bolshoi Theater until 1892; April 17, 1892 performed the part of Leonora in the premiere of Anton Simon 's opera Rolla. It was Skompska who wanted to give Tchaikovsky the title role in the new opera Iolanta , which they were planning to stage in St. Petersburg ^[3] ( Medea Figner sang at the premiere on December 18), but she was forced to quit due to illness before the contract expired and go to France for treatment.

In 1893, Adelaide Skompskaya married Count Alexander Dienheim-Schavinsky-Brokhotsky, in 1894 gave birth to a daughter, Maria Wanda. Continuing to study vocals, she took lessons in Paris from the famous French singer Miolan-Carvalho in Paris. In Paris, she performed in salons and private collections under the pseudonym ***, where she was heard by the composer Massenet and strongly advised to take the stage name and speak in public. Since the singer refused foreign names, the composer proposed a pseudonym - Bolska, taking the surname of the hero of "Adventures of Ladislav Bolsky" ( Fr. L'aventure de Ladislas Bolski ; 1864 ) Victor Cherbullier .

At the insistence of friends in 1896, she resumed concert activity, having performed with great success at the Liceo Theater in Barcelona in the party of Ophelia. Of the engagement proposals proposed to her after this, Bolska preferred the invitation of the Director of the Imperial Theaters, I. A. Vsevolozhsky, to the Mariinsky Theater . For the singer’s engagement, the tsarist government allowed the temporary entry of the husband of Bolsk, Count Dingheim-Schavinsky-Brokhotsky, into the territory of the Russian Empire, who left Poland after the uprising of 1863.

She made her debut in St. Petersburg in the part of Tatyana ( “Eugene Onegin” by Tchaikovsky ) on September 22, 1897 and performed on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater in leading parties until 1918. Among the premieres of Bolskoy are Volkhov in Sadko (January 26, 1901) and Martha in the Tsar’s Bride (October 30, 1901) Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov , Damayanti in Nala and Damayanti Anton Arensky (September 9, 1908) .

For the first time she performed in Russian the part of Ziglinda in Valkyrie (November 24, 1900) and the part of Eva by the Nuremberg Mastersingers (March 20, 1914) by Richard Wagner . During summer vacations she toured in the cities of the Russian province: Tiflis (entreprise of P. Zurabov and M. Valentinov), Kharkov, Kiev and Odessa (entreprise of M. Valentinov), Taganrog, Cherkassk, Ekaterinoslav, Chisinau, Kislovodsk, Vilna, Riga. She also performed in Warsaw every year. She performed in Paris, London ( Covent Garden ). Over the years, she took singing lessons from Bertrami in Paris, where she constantly resided.

In 1918, Bolsky’s contract with the Mariinsky Theater was prematurely broken. The singer performed occasionally in concert programs. Since 1918, an Italian citizen. From 1920 to 1923 she was a vocal class professor at the Petrograd Conservatory . In 1923 she left for Warsaw, where she also taught at the conservatory .

She died in Tallinn , was buried in Warsaw at the Old Powzki cemetery.

Bolskaya was also a chamber performer. According to contemporary music critic,

The fact that Adelaide Bolskaya, “the soloist of His Majesty”, whose voice in the opera was a “cascade of pearl sprays”, was the best performer of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov’s romances, gives an idea of ​​the exact place of this singer on the Russian stage at the end of the last - beginning of this century ^{[4 ]} .

Bolsky’s chamber repertoire also included the works of Mikhail Glinka , Anton Rubinstein , Caesar Cui , Sergey Taneyev , Alexander Grechaninov , Alexander Glazunov , Reinhold Glier and others.

The records of Adelaide of the Bolshoi firm "RAOG" - two duets with A. Labinsky - are preserved. Among Bolskaya’s other partners on the opera stage were such outstanding artists as Fyodor Chaliapin , Leonid Sobinov , Fyodor Stravinsky , Nikolai Figner , Lev Sibiryakov , Mattia Battistini , Ivan Ershov , Felia Litvin , brothers Yan and Eduard Reshke .

Bolskaya was a trustee in a charity at the Roman Catholic Church of St. Catherine in St. Petersburg. Often participated in charity concerts. In 1901 , in response to a question from Emperor Nicholas II , how could he thank her for her talented singing, Bolskaya asked permission to erect a monument to Frederic Chopin in Warsaw - before that, all attempts to erect a monument to the great composer were unsuccessful; by the end of the same year, the singer and her husband composed a committee for the construction of the monument, approved by the Warsaw Governor General. Bolskaya helped to raise money for the monument, including fees from her performances, organized concerts in St. Petersburg, Warsaw, London, the funds from which went to the committee fund. In 1926 , a monument to Chopin (architect Vaclav Szymanowski) was erected in Warsaw in the Lazienki Park .

• Lyudmila and Gorislava “Ruslan and Lyudmila” M. Glinka
• Tatyana "Eugene Onegin" P. Tchaikovsky
• Volkhov's "Sadko" , the Snow Maiden "The Snow Maiden" N. Rimsky-Korsakov
• Francesca “Francesca da Rimini” by E. Napravnik
• Katarina Bragadini "Angelo" C. Cui
• Sephize “Revenge of Cupid” by A. Taneyev
• Eurydice "Orpheus and Eurydice" by K. V. Gluck
• Pamina “The Magic Flute” , Zerlin “Don Juan” by V. A. Mozart
• Agatha “The Magic Shooter” by K. M. Weber
• Pebbles "Pebbles" Art. Monyushko
• Elsa “Lohengrin” , Elizabeth “ Tannhäuser ” Wagner
• Violetta La Traviata D. Verdi
• Mimi "Bohemia" D. Puccini
• Margarita "The Huguenots" by D. Meyerbeer
• Margarita “Faust” , Juliet “Romeo and Juliet” S. Gounod
• Juliet and Anthony "Tales of Hoffmann" by J. Offenbach
• Esclarmonda "Esclarmonda" J. Massenet .
• Lisa "The Queen of Spades" P. Tchaikovsky
• Masha "The Captain's Daughter" C. Cui

1. Bazylev L. Poles in St. Petersburg. - St. Petersburg: Blitz, 2003.
2. Yearbook of the imperial theaters . Season 1901-1902
3. Leningrad State Order of Lenin Academic Opera and Ballet Theater named after S. M. Kirov: [Album]. - L .: Music, 1983.
4. Moscow Conservatory: 1866-1966. - M., 1966.
5. Music and musicians. Creative and biographical materials in the collections and collections of the manuscript department of the Pushkin House of the XVIII — XX centuries. - SPb., 2003 .-- S. 293.
6. Musical Encyclopedia. / Comp. L.Z. Korabelnikova. - M .: Owls. Encyclopedia, 1973. - P.520.
7. Stark E. (Siegfried) . Petersburg opera and its masters. 1890-1910. - L.-M., 1940.
8. Tchaikovsky and the theater. - M.-L., 1940.
9. Tchaikovsky on the Moscow stage. The first productions in the years of his life. - M.-L.: Art, 1940. - S.177-179.
10. P.I. Tchaikovsky S.I. Taneev. Letters. / Comp. V.A. Zhdanov. - M.: Goskultprosvetizdat, 1951. - P.149, 152, 512.
11. Ivanova M.V. Monument to Frederic Chopin. SPb, 2011

Books in a foreign language.

1. Kronenberg LJ Wspomnienia. Warszawa: F. Hoesick, 1933.S. 205.
2. Mechaisz Janusz Młynarski. Suwałki: Suwalskie towarzystwo muzycznego, 1994.S. 19.
3. Enciclopedia della spettacolo. Roma. 1954-1962. T.II. S.745-746.
4. Księga adresowa / Polski kalendarz piotrogradzki na rok 1916. S. 7.
5. Słownik muzyków polskich. Kraków, 1964.S. 52.
6. Słownik biograficzny teatru polskiego 1765-1965. Warszawa, 1973. S. 54.