Rudolf Nureyev Rudik. Rudolf Nureyev: Scandal Man
Stories of successful people
Erokhin 07/31/2016
Friends, for those who are not yet familiar with the life story of Rudolf Nureyev, this information will be very interesting. The biography of Rudolf Nureyev causes a lot of controversy and different opinions, but leaves no one indifferent.
Photo by Rudolf Nureyev
Dossier: Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev (Nureev). Date of birth: March 17, 1938. Date of death: January 6, 1993 (age 54). Occupation: Soviet, English and French ballet dancer and choreographer.
In 1983-1989, Rudolf Nureyev was the artistic director of the Paris Grand Opera ballet. In 1991 he made his debut as a conductor in Vienna.
Citizenship: USSR, Austria. Awards: (France) Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters, Knight of the Legion of Honor. Height 1.73 m
Biography of Rudolf Nureyev - the path to success
Childhood and youth
Unusual and unlike others, Rudolf Nureyev was born also unusually - he was born on a train, somewhere near Irkutsk. Of four children, he was the only son.
His family was of Tatar origin, from the Soviet Bashkir Republic. His father was a military man. Soon after Rudolf's birth, he was assigned to Moscow.
Nureyev family
In 1941, the war began. Rudik and his mother and sisters moved from Moscow to Ufa. They lived in a wooden house with other families.
Living conditions were disgusting, the toilet was on the street. Everyone lived in extreme poverty, but the Nureyev family was the poorest of all.
History of the scar: in early childhood, Rudik was bitten by a starving dog. This happened at the moment when he brought a piece of bread to his mouth.
When Rudolph entered school, everyone bullied him because he wore his sister's coat and had no shoes.
Looking ahead, it should be noted that Rudolf Nureyev would later be one of the richest people in the world: a huge apartment in Paris, a huge apartment in New York, a personal island, unique collections of porcelain, sculptures and paintings.
On New Year's Eve 1945, Rudolf's mother managed to get all the children to see the ballet "The Song of the Cranes" with one ticket, which took place at the Ufa theater. This event changed Rudik's fate.
From that moment on, Nuriev decided to become a dancer. He began attending a school folk dance club. Then he studied at the House of Culture with the St. Petersburg ballerina Anna Udaltsova, who was in exile. Convinced of the boy’s abilities, he was given the idea of continuing his studies at the prestigious Leningrad Ballet School.
At the age of fifteen, Nuriev made his debut in the corps de ballet on the stage of the Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theater, and in 1954 he was accepted into the theater troupe.
Further studies in Leningrad seemed impossible, especially since the father forbade his son to go to dance classes under the pretext that this would interfere with schoolwork. But Rudolph was stubborn!
In 1955, despite the large age gap, he was admitted to the Leningrad Choreographic School. He studied in the class of Alexander Pushkin, a ballet dancer and outstanding teacher.
Rudolf did not have a good relationship with other students. They teased him and called him a hillbilly. Rudolf could not get along at the boarding school and had to live with his teacher.
Nuriev and Dudinskaya
After graduating from college in 1958, thanks to the prima ballerina Natalia Dudinskaya, he remained in Leningrad and was accepted into the Opera and Ballet Theater named after S. M. Kirov (since 1992 - the Mariinsky Theater).
Biography of Rudolf Nureyev
"Laurencia." Rudolf Nureyev and Natalia Dudinskaya
He made his stage debut as Dudinskaya's partner in the ballet Laurencia, performing the role of Frondoso. It was a stunning success! She was 49 years old, and Nuriev was 19!
"Defector"
On June 16, 1961, while on tour in Paris, by decision of the KGB “for violating the regime of being abroad,” Nuriev was removed from further tours of the Kirov Theater troupe in London. But he refused to return to the USSR and asked for political asylum.
Rudolf Nureyev became a “defector” - the first among artists. In connection with this, he was convicted in the USSR of treason and sentenced in absentia to 7 years in prison.
In Paris, Nureyev was immediately accepted into the touring troupe of the Marquis de Cuevas Ballet. But France refused to give him political refugee status and Nureyev went to Denmark, where he danced with the Royal Copenhagen Ballet, then moved to London.
Eric Brun and Rudolf Nureyev
In 1962, Nuriev met the famous Danish dancer Erik Brun, who had a great influence on the development of the dancer’s choreography and style. Brun is a huge Dane unearthly beauty, world famous dancer, considered one of the most outstanding dancers of the 20th century.
Eric Brun
It is difficult to say who was Nureyev’s first man lover, but the fact that Erik Brun became his first and greatest love of his life is undeniable. Moreover, Nuriev first fell in love with his dance, and then with him.
Eric was Nureyev's ideal. He was 10 years older than him, tall and handsome, like a god. From birth, he possessed those qualities that Nureyev was completely deprived of: calm, restraint, tact. And most importantly, he could do what Nureyev could not. Rudolph was the complete opposite of Eric. It is no secret that Nureyev had an obnoxious character; he could be quite rude and harsh.
Rudolph and Eric
Rudolph and Eric
Their stormy romance novel, which lasted a quarter of a century, finally collapsed when Rudolph learned that in Toronto (where Eric then directed the National Ballet of Canada) Eric began an affair with one of his students, who eventually gave birth to a daughter from him.
Rudolf Nureyev and Erik Bruhn My Creativity video
Upload date: Jun 15 2008
My Creativity video
Music and vocal: Diana Arbenina "Nochnye snajpery"
But although with love relationships everything was over between them, the spiritual connection lasted until the end of their lives, having survived all the betrayals, conflicts, and separations.
“My Danish friend Erik Brun helped me more than I can express,” Nureyev said in an interview. “I need him more than anyone.”
Brun died of lung cancer in 1986. He smoked a lot! Rudolf took Eric's death seriously and was never able to recover from this blow.
In 1962, Nuriev signed a contract with the Royal London Ballet, which was unprecedented: people without British citizenship were not accepted there. But an exception was made for Nureyev, and he became a partner with the brilliant English ballerina Margot Fonteyn.
Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev
In England, Fontaine was the only and brightest “star” (the wife of Panamanian lawyer and diplomat Tito de Arias). When she met Nureyev, she was 42 years old (he was 24) and was about to leave the stage. It was Nuriev who breathed incredible sensuality into her dance. They were considered the most harmonious ballet duet of their time.
Of course, it was a platonic and, first of all, creative union, but when you look at recordings of their dances today, you involuntarily come to the conclusion that they were connected by a very deep feeling.
~ Margot Fonteyn & Rudolf Nureyev - Romantic photo ~
For almost 10 years, until Fonteyn left the stage, Rudolph continued to be her constant partner.
Five years after Eric's death, Rudolph said goodbye to the lady of his heart, Margot Fonteyn. She died on February 21, 1991, twenty-nine years to the day since she and Rudolph first danced in Giselle. He was her partner in performances almost 700 times! According to her wishes, Margot was buried in the same grave with her husband, whom she outlived by two years.
Rudolf Nureyev and his men
Rudolf Nureyev was homosexual, but in his youth he also had heterosexual relationships. He wanted sex 24 hours a day! He was a bomb of temperament, energy and passion!
Rudolf Nureyev met with many partners, among whom they name (remember that no one held a candle here) Freddie Mercury, Mig Jagger, Elton John and Jean Marais, but Nureyev loved only one - Eric Brun. For Nureyev, he was more than a loved one. After Brun's death, Nureyev no longer had strong feelings to anyone.
Many will condemn Nureyev. But this is his personal life. As I said Thomas Nairwit (Conchita): “Only the individual is important, everyone should have the right to live as he sees fit, as long as it does not harm anyone.”
Date with mother
In 1987, he was able to obtain permission to enter the USSR to say goodbye to his dying mother - the visa was given for 48 hours, and the artist was not given the opportunity to contact everyone he knew in his youth.
Cause of death of Rudolf Nureyev
In 1983, HIV was discovered in the dancer’s blood. Diagnostics have shown the presence of the virus in the blood for several years. At that time, very little was known about the disease: the dancer did not begin treatment immediately and took experimental medications.
The disease progressed. Friends, this is monstrous when a person knows that he is doomed and will soon leave the surface of the earth, and that nothing can be done to correct this situation, even with a lot of money. Nureyev died from complications of AIDS on January 6, 1993, near Paris.
Rudolf Nureyev's grave
According to his wishes, he was buried in the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois near Paris. His grave is covered with a colorful mosaic oriental carpet.
Rudolf Nureyev's grave
Quotes from Rudolf Nureyev
- “I want to be able to work everywhere - in New York, Paris, London, Tokyo and, of course, in what I consider the most beautiful of theaters - the blue and silver Kirovsky in Leningrad. I am twenty four years old. I don’t want anyone to decide my future for me, to determine in which direction I “should” develop. I'll try to get to this point on my own. This is what I understand by the word “freedom”.
- “I dance for my own pleasure. If you're trying to please everyone, it's not original."
- “Every step must bear the imprint of its own blood.”
The secret of success
The dramatic circumstances of his arrival in the West propelled Nureyev to first place, but he held on thanks to his strong personality.
Performing tirelessly, every evening, for months, for years, all over the world, in the widest repertoire, he touched more audiences than any other dancer. In 1975, the number of performances reached three hundred! He completely changed the passive role of the dancer in classical ballet.
Once in an interview, Rudolf Nureyev was asked what was the secret of the success of his work abroad. He replied: “I slept little and worked a lot.” And this determined his whole life.
Worldwide Network" - the talk show "ZhZL", co-hosted by the writer, actor, director and screenwriter Pavel Sanaev, promises to introduce new chapters in the history of studying "the lives of remarkable people."
Two opponents will meet in the program studio - author official biography and a supporter of an alternative opinion. The most striking and controversial episodes in the lives of famous people will receive an unexpected outcome.
An unexpected plot point of the project will be a communication session with the hero of the program, who, having been in the intangible world for a long time, will answer the five most important questions about himself. TV presenter Grigory Kulagin-Bobrov will act as a moderator of the mystical action.
A group of young scientists whose bold projects were undreamed of by their foreign competitors takes part in the experimental section "Espirito.net". What at first glance may seem like science fiction has become a reality with the help of cutting-edge technology. With the support of the Vremya channel, one of the secret developments, allowing you to look into the secrets of the distant past and find answers to questions that have occupied more than one generation of scientists in different fields. This is not a seance, not black magic, or a battle of psychics. This is a unique data processing system that allows you to simulate the actions and thoughts of any individual. (announcement of the channel "Time").
http://damy-gospoda.ru/biografiya-rudolfa-nurieva/
Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev
Outstanding ballet dancer of the 20th century, choreographer.
It is recognized that Rudolf Nureyev completely changed male dance in classical ballet.
Real name - Nureyev, Rudolf Hamit uly Nureyev (Tatar)
Rudolf Nureyev was born on a train heading to Vladivostok, in front of the Irkutsk station. The dancer's mother is Tatar, his father is Bashkir. Nureyev spent his childhood in Ufa. From the age of 7 he danced in a children's folklore ensemble, from the age of eleven he took lessons from Udaltsova, former soloist Diaghilev Ballet. At the age of 16, he was enrolled in the troupe of the Ufa Opera Theater, and a year later, in 1955, Rudolph was already studying at the Leningrad Choreographic School named after A. Vaganova.
After graduating from college, since 1958 - soloist of the ballet of the Leningrad Theater named after S.M. Kirov (now the Mariinsky Theater, St. Petersburg).
On June 16, 1961, while on tour in Paris with the Kirov Theater troupe, Nuriev decided to stay in the West. In Paris, Nureyev was engaged only in the last act of one of the ballets. The audience came to watch him, every performance was accompanied by an ovation.
Soon Nureyev began working with the Royal Ballet in London and quickly became a world celebrity. Received Austrian citizenship in 1982. He has performed all over the world (Europe, USA, Japan, Australia). He worked very intensively, for example, in 1975 the number of performances reached three hundred.
From 1983 to 1989 he was director of the Grand Opera ballet troupe in Paris, France.
Film debut - in the Soviet film-ballet "Corsair" (1958). He starred in European ballet films. He also played dramatic roles, most famously as silent film star Rudolph Valentino in the film Valentino (1977) by English director Ken Russell. Filmed on TV.
Shortly before his death, he visited Ufa and St. Petersburg several times. Died on January 6, 1993 in Paris. He was buried in the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois near Paris.
Rudolf Nureyev
Dance of a lifetime
Rumors that the Kirov Ballet was going on tour to Paris were creeping around the theater. Nureyev did not believe that they would take him. Paris was a dream. It was the spring of 1961. The theater was preparing for a tour, they said that after Paris they would go to London. Everything was unclear. His beloved partner Alla Shelest was removed from the trip at the very last moment. In the Leningrad troupe he danced with Alla Sizova, Irina Kolpakova, Ninel Kurgapkina, Alla Osipenko, but Alla Shelest was his deity. With her he danced “Giselle” and “Laurencia”. The inaccessibility of her jeep and Laurencia's pride inspired his rare gift. He also danced Laurencia with Natalia Dudinskaya, the first ballerina of the Kirov Ballet. Nureyev appreciated the skill of the great actress and was sensitive to her invaluable lessons, but he loved to dance with Alla Shelest; in the world of ballet she was called a great ballerina.
Natalia Dudinskaya was the wife of Sergeev, the first dancer of the Kirov Ballet. According to Nureyev, Sergeev did not like him. In any case, this is what he later wrote in his autobiography, which did not stop him from noting: “Both of them, Dudinskaya and Sergeev, were excellent dancers, but they were about fifty, and they had little chance of conquering the Parisian public.” They understood this and, in order not to take risks, prepared the young people for the tour.
Nureyev rehearsed Sergeev's and his own repertoire: Alberta in Giselle, Solora in La Bayadère, the title role in Don Quixote, the Blue Bird in The Sleeping Beauty, Andria in Taras Bulba. The amazing combination of lightness and strength, swiftness and refined style in his dance did not fit into the stereotype of a first-class dancer. Much was expected of him. The wonderful teacher Alexander Ivanovich Pushkin studied with him. Nureyev was his favorite student. Nureyev's zeal captivated Pushkin, as did his musicality. Before leaving for Paris, Rudolf practically lived with his teacher's family.
On May 11, 1961, the Kirov Ballet troupe flew to Paris, Nureyev never saw Alexander Ivanovich again, although he always remembered his cozy apartment in the courtyard of the Choreographic School. This was a home where he was loved.
Ten days later he first appeared on stage in Paris. Grand Opera: La Bayadère was on, Solor was his favorite part. His divine plasticity was immediately noted. “The Kirov Ballet has found its cosmonaut, his name is Rudolf Nureyev,” the newspapers wrote. Fans crowded around him. He became friends with Claire Mott and Attilio Labis - the "stars" of the French ballet instantly appreciated his rare gift - and especially with Clara Sainte, a ballet fan and one of the regulars backstage Grand Opera. It was she who was destined to play a special role in his fate. She was engaged to the son of the French Minister of Culture, Andre Malraux, and her connections in the highest spheres were immense. First of all, he took Klara to see his favorite ballet - “The Stone Flower” staged by Yuri Grigorovich; he himself was not involved in it. Grigorovich was not allowed into Paris, but Nureyev highly valued his talent as a choreographer.
He behaved freely, walked around the city, stayed late in restaurants on Saint-Michel, went alone to listen to Yehudi Menuhin (he played Bach at the Pleyel Hall) and did not take into account the rules within which Soviet dancers existed.
Rudolf Nureyev. Leningrad, 1950s.
Clara Saint was in trouble; Vincent Malraux, having gone to the South for several days, fell to his death in car accident. This brought her even closer to the Russian dancer. Having many acquaintances in Paris, Clara Saint was essentially a lonely person: she fled from Chile and with all her being understood the condition of Nureyev, a strange, unsociable young man originally from Bashkiria, who found himself in the center of attention of the Parisian secular crowd. Everything that happened at Paris Le Bourget airport on that distant day, June 17, 1961, was best described by Nureyev himself in his Autobiography: “I made a decision because I had no other choice. And whatever the negative consequences of this step, I do not regret it.” Newspapers vying with each other on the front pages gave loud headlines: “Star” of the ballet and drama at Le Bourget Airport,” “Leap to Freedom,” “A girl sees how the Russians are pursuing her friend.” This girl was Clara Saint, whom he called from the police station. She asked him not to come, they were snooping around her house Soviet agents, they were easily recognizable by their identical raincoats and soft velor hats.
At first, Rudolph was placed in a house opposite the Luxembourg Gardens, in a Russian family. Friends visited him. Newspapers wrote that he "chose freedom" and detailed the events at the airport. If he had not been offered to fly to Moscow, nothing would have happened. They decided to punish him for behavior that was too free, from the point of view of those assigned to the artists. His things were packed and were in the luggage heading to London. The whole world now knows what came of it. It was necessary to start a new life.
Boris Lvov-Anokhin in his article “The Prodigal Son of Russian Ballet” writes: “Having remained in Paris, he entered a completely new world of freedom for himself, the world of dance, not limited by the framework of classicism and the political demands of so-called “socialist realism.” In fact, the “world of freedom” turned out to be surprisingly complex. Two detectives accompanied him everywhere. The daily routine was scheduled strictly minute by minute; they were afraid of actions from the Soviet secret services: class, rehearsals, lunch at a nearby restaurant and home.
The ballet troupe of the Marquis de Cuevas, which accepted him, instilled hope that he would dance whatever he wanted. But the situation in which he found himself only contributed to depression, Pushkin was not around, there were no classes to which he was accustomed, there was no familiar discipline that created the life of the body, without which it was impossible to become an ideal dance master. And he strived for this. Mediocrity and bad taste reigned here; there were few good dancers.
It turned out that he knew very little about Western life and Western ballet. It seemed to him that this world was magnificent, but now he was faced with reality: weak schools, handicraft performance. The young man became a skeptic. A six-month contract was immediately signed with the troupe of the Marquis de Cuevas. On June 23, six days after he stayed, he was already dancing the Blue Bird in The Sleeping Beauty. A month ago he danced it with the Kirov ballet troupe on the Paris stage Grand Opera. The next day he performed as the Prince in the same Sleeping Beauty. Nureyev's partner was Nina Vyrubova. It was a prologue to the future. He was becoming a citizen of the Western world, tearing himself away from what was behind him. Here, in the troupe of the Marquis de Cuevas, everything was different.
There was no familiar atmosphere, no traditions that had previously made up his life. At times he was overcome by despair: had he made a mistake? The Soviet embassy sent him a telegram from his mother and two letters: one from his father, the other from Alexander Ivanovich Pushkin. Pushkin wrote to him that Paris is a decadent city, that if he remains in Europe, he will lose moral purity and, most importantly, the technical virtuosity of dance, that he must immediately return home, where no one can understand his actions. The father's letter was short: his son betrayed his homeland, and there is no justification for this. The mother’s telegram was even shorter: “Come home.”
Twenty-seven years will pass, and the world-famous Rudolf Nureyev will come to Ufa to say goodbye to his dying mother. Then, feeling it approaching own death, will go to Leningrad and dance “La Sylphide” on the stage of the Kirov Theater. It will be a new time, Leningrad will become St. Petersburg, the Kirov Theater will become the Mariinsky. The audience in the hall went crazy, but he could no longer dance, and the applause belonged to the past, to all his legendary life in the West, which began in that hot June 1961. In his Autobiography, Nureyev writes:
After the troubles in the troupe of the Marquis de Cuevas, I spent several days in the south of France and returned to hot, empty, beautiful Paris. In August I had to dance in Deauville, and before that life was uneventful. The only person The person I met during this time was the American photographer Richard Avedon, who left an indelible impression on himself. He invited me to his studio and took several portraits of me. When I saw them, I realized that I had found a true friend who felt my condition.
He danced in Deauville, in Biarritz on small stages in small theatres, flew to Frankfurt to perform on television and then went to Copenhagen to take lessons from Vera Volkova. In Frankfurt he was to dance Giselle and The Vision of a Rose in a program prepared by Swiss choreographer Vaslav Orlikowski, partner of Yvette Chauvire. At the studio they were convinced that he was familiar with the choreography of Fokine’s ballet, but he had never seen it.
The ballet, created by Fokine during the Russian Seasons at the Monte Carlo Theater in 1911, was seen in the Soviet Union only in 1964 during a tour of the Cuban National Ballet. Naturally, Nureyev found himself in a difficult position in the television studio. He was shown several photographs of Nijinsky and, with the help of friends who explained the order of movements, he danced “The Vision of a Rose.”
Vera Volkova previously lived in Russia, as a child she studied in the same class with Alexander Ivanovich Pushkin with Nikolai Gustavovich Legat (among his students were Fokin, Karsavina, Vaganova, Fyodor Lopukhov), and then studied with Vaganova. Rudolf needed Volkova, he suffered from dancing on small stages, he needed classes with those who knew the secrets of the Russian school of classical dance, and he asked the head of the Marquis de Cuevas troupe, Raimondo de Lorraine, to give him time off.
He was drawn to Copenhagen by his dream of meeting Erik Vroon, an outstanding dancer who captivated Russian audiences during a tour of the American Ballet Theater in 1960. Irina Kolpakova once admitted in a conversation that she had never seen such a perfect classical dancer as Eric Brun. Nureyev was captivated by him, his manner, his elegance, the classicism of his art, and his human qualities. Eric Brun was ten years older than Rudolf. Eric's photograph always stood on his desk. Even after the death of the famous Danish dancer, Nureyev never forgot him; he meant too much in his life.
During the tour of the American Ballet Theater in Leningrad, Nureyev was in Germany, but he had the opportunity to watch a film with Brun's participation. Nureyev said that “Eric has reached the point where his body can be treated like musical instrument. He was distinguished by a rare purity of dance and was never satisfied with himself, always in search of new means of expression.” For Nureyev he turned out to be true friend and an assistant, especially at the beginning of his journey in the West.
Rudolf Nureyev and Eric Bruhn in a dance class, 1960s.
Classes with Vera Volkova disappointed him; apparently, she studied with Vaganova when the famous teacher was just developing the vocabulary of her system. For Rudolf, this was already a passed stage. He greatly appreciated the art of Dudinskaya, Kolpakova, Vaganova’s last student, with her he danced “Giselle” and followed the lessons of his partners and teachers. By nature, Nureyev had a long stride, soft expressive movement and rare flexibility. Pushkin helped him develop his jump and strengthen his coordination of movements. “Pushkin was a wonderful teacher,” said Nureyev. “He was able to penetrate deeply into the character of each of his students. Sensing their characteristics, he created for them combinations of movements designed to arouse in them a passionate desire to work. He always tried to pull out of us everything that was good in us, never concentrated attention only on our shortcomings, did not deprive us of faith in ourselves, did not encroach on our individuality, did not try to break them, subjugate or remake them. He respected our individuality, and this gave us the opportunity to add our own colors to the dance that reflected our inner lives. In the end, it is the artist’s personality that makes classical ballet alive and interesting.” To be honest, the classes with Volkova were far from what he had already used in his dance. But meeting her was useful. She was a kind and sympathetic person, and Rudolf later remembered her very warmly. At first, he really needed attention to himself. Rosella Hightower, the Bulgarian Sonya Arova, who became a famous English ballerina, and Eric Brun, the king of male dance in the West, took care of him in those years. Brun studied with him for a long time.
Friendship with Vera Volkova led him to meet Margot Fonteyn, her student. One day a phone call rang in Volkova’s apartment, Margot Fonteyn asked Rudolf to answer the phone and invited him to come to London to perform on November 2, 1961 at the Royal Theater in a gala concert. Margot Fonteyn had been president of the Royal Academy of Dance for several years and, since 1958, had organized a gala concert once a year. She dreamed of inviting Ulanova, but Galina Sergeevna appeared on the Bolshoi Theater stage for the last time in Chopinian in December 1960 and flatly refused Fontaine’s offer. Now Fontaine decided to invite Nureyev. He was flattered. Of course, he wanted to dance with her, but she had obligations to her former partner, the English dancer Michael Soames, and it was decided that Nureyev would dance a solo, choreographed especially for him by Frederick Ashton, and a pas de deux from the third act of Swan Lake "with Rosella Hightower.
He flew to London. I stayed at the Panamanian embassy - Margot Fonteyn's husband was the Panamanian ambassador to England. “From the first second I realized that I had met a friend. It was the brightest moment in my life from the day I found myself in the West,” he later wrote. London made a strong impression on him. He arrived under the false name of Roman Jasmine, fleeing the press. At the Royal Ballet School he introduced himself as a Polish dancer, but was quickly recognized. A reception was given in his honor at the Panamanian embassy. He seemed reserved, self-confident and quite charming. He looked like a boy, and he was 23 years old. The performance in London became a sensation. This was the beginning of his brilliant career. “The whole of London” was in the hall, all the experts. Frederick Ashton choreographed a solo for him to Scriabin's music. Nureyev impressed with his energy and sensuality. Scriabin was a greater success than the pas de deux from Swan Lake.
Margot Fonteyn was forty-two years old at this time. She once announced that she would leave the stage at thirty, but over the years this was forgotten. Now she was alarmed by her partner's problem. Michael Some left the stage, David Blair, whom she chose, was 29 years old. She was going to dance Giselle with him in February 1962. After consulting with her husband, she decided to offer Albert Nureyev’s role. Rudolf gladly accepted this offer. The performance was supposed to take place on February 21.
Before this significant event, Rudolf needed to fulfill the obligations under the contract he signed with the troupe of the Marquis de Cuevas. He still danced in Cannes, went on tour to Israel, which reminded him, as he wrote in his Autobiography, of “southern Ukraine, it was warm and there were Russians everywhere, many of whom had arrived quite recently.” Then, in 1961, it was still difficult to imagine that emigration would take on a huge scale. He danced two, sometimes three times a week. The repertoire was small: The Sleeping Beauty and the third act of Swan Lake. He was annoyed that he had to dance in cabaret theaters located in the nightclub area. Israel was replaced by Germany. He danced in Hamburg, taking the time to go to Munich to see Erik Vroon dance the Prince for the first time in Swan Lake. He himself, while on tour in Germany, met on stage with the famous French ballerina Yvette Chauvire. They danced "Giselle". He remembered her from Russia; her “Dying Swan” was unforgettable.
Everything turned out so well that he had to dance with ballerinas much older than himself. Shovira was forty-three years old, Fontaine was forty-two, however, he was no stranger to it; he danced “Laurencia” with Dudinskaya when he was nineteen years old and she was forty-nine.
After “Giselle” with Chauvire, he went on tour to Italy: Turin, Genoa, Bologna. It was winter, Northern Italy it was cold, uncomfortable, and he wanted to quickly leave the troupe of the Marquis de Cuevas. In Venice he performed with her for the last time. The city was dazzlingly beautiful, but covered in snow. He lived in a fairly average hotel, where there was no heating, and he had to sleep in clothes. The future seemed uncertain. Freed from his obligations, he became free. Friends formed a “union of four”: Eric Brun, Sonya Arova, Rosella Hightower and Rudolf Nureyev. The concert group rehearsed in England and began dancing in Cannes. Then we moved to Paris, and then Eric Brun injured his leg during a performance, and he had to fly to New York and dance the pas de deux from Bournonville's ballet "Flower Festival of Cinzano" with Maria Tachiff on television. Nureyev replaced him. He immediately learned the game and flew to the USA for the first time in his life. The journey from Ufa to New York, in fact, turned out to be quite short, less than six months had passed since he remained in the West, and so many countries and people had already changed. It was as if he was destined to be always on the go.
In New York he was introduced to Balanchine. In Russia, Nureyev saw his “Apollo” and “Theme and Variations,” which were brought by Alicia Alonso’s troupe. In Paris, he saw “Symphony in C Major” to the music of Wiese and “Night Shadow” to the music of Bellini. The performances made a strong impression on him, and now in New York he saw Agon and the early Apollo Musagete. He was at the mercy of Balanchine's art, he was amazed by the structure: the soloists alone with the empty stage space. No spectacular or decorative row. “Strict discipline of emotions” (expression by V. Gaevsky). Nureyev immediately felt that the choreographer was very confident in his ideas.
During his short visit to New York, he also met Jerome Robins, whose “Cage” to the music of Stravinsky and “New York Export Opus Jazz” touched him very much with its expression. He fell in love with New York, which seemed quiet and cozy to him. Skyscrapers and green neighborhoods nearby, quiet streets in lower Manhattan, gardens, squares, friendliness. He was sure that he would return here. He never wanted his life to flow along a once and for all established channel; the need to try, explore, search was strongly developed in him. He wanted to touch everything with my own hands, from childhood he wanted to determine his own path.
Then, in February 1962, the main performance was “Giselle”, which he had to dance with Margot Fonteyn. American critic Clive Warne in his book “Nureyev” writes:
Fonteyn was never an absolute success in Giselle. When she was 17, she was fragile but lacked artistic maturity. Now that she was getting older, this part was not very clear in her usual repertoire. On that famous evening of February 21, she was unexpected: deeply feeling, enthusiastic, more meaningful. There was a feeling that her career could start again with her new Russian partner.
Everyone understood that something extraordinary was happening, that the audience was present at the birth of a new ballet couple, which is destined to become a milestone in the world of ballet. Nureyev was immediately invited to join the Royal Ballet, which no dancer was given unless he was a citizen. British Empire. Ninette de Valois, the wisest director of the Royal Ballet, did everything to make the theater a home for the Russian dancer; unfortunately, she left this post in 1963. Nobility and lyrical restraint usually distinguished the dance of Margot Fonteyn. With Nureyev she experienced new feelings. She said: “When I dance with him, I don’t see Nureyev on stage, whom I know and with whom I communicate every day, I see a stage character, the character that Nureyev dances today.” All the feelings that were characteristic of Nureyev’s dance - gusts of sensuality, anger, despair, passion - contrasted sharply with Fonteyn’s manner, and her dance benefited from this. On the contrary, she instilled in him a taste and a desire for harmony. Their duet, known all over the world, breathed new energy into her, brought latent dormant forces to the surface, and gave him the opportunity to become the “first dancer” in the West. The “Iron Curtain” prevented the Western viewer from recognizing Chabukiani, Ermolaev, Messerer, Korny in the prime of their talent, now he became interested in Nureyev. Neither Vasiliev, who was essentially the “first dancer” of the Bolshoi Theater, nor Baryshnikov, who became the idol of America, had, when they danced, the fame that fell to Rudolf Nureyev. Today in any bookstore in the West you can see huge albums dedicated to Anna Pavlova, Vaslav Nijinsky, and Rudolf Nureyev. It all started in London in the winter of 1962.
The duet of Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev made both of them famous; after Swan Lake at the Vienna Opera in October 1964, they were called to the stage eighty-nine times. Stagehands had to pay extra wages because they could not dismantle the scenery and were delayed in the theater. Each one couldn't do it alone
would achieve what they achieved together. On stage, their duet was dynamite, exploding the auditorium. Anna Pavlova is a symbol of ballet, Caruso is a symbol of a tenor singer. Fontaine and Nureyev became "stars" in their own right, having achieved success through their work and talent, but, unlike their great predecessors, they were also the darlings of the "café world", the crowd of those rich enough to spend time in " social life" The press compared their names to those of Frank Sinatra and Brigitte Bardot.
But victories were not easy for Nureyev. Entering into a contract with Covent Garden, he secured the right to dance not only with the Royal Ballet troupe. In March 1962, he made his debut on the American stage. With Maria Tallchiff he danced in the USA for the first time on television, now he had to dance the pas de deux from the ballet Don Quixote on the stage of the Brooklyn Academy of Music with Sonya Arova. Great success there wasn't. Critics reacted very coolly to his performance. New York did not come without a struggle. The fact that he jumped over the barrier at the Paris airport is not yet a reason to capture the attention of the New York public, so the press wrote. But the curiosity about him was great, his whole behind-the-scenes life aroused insane interest. He becomes a regular guest on gossip columns, with someone calling him “the first pop star of the ballet world.” His love for the talent of Eric Brun acquired a scandalous hue. They were indeed very close in those years.
A boy from Ufa demonstrated to the Western world a dance style that was unusual for the West. Nureyev accepted ballet novelty with amazing ease, but strict classical dance was absolutely in his power.
The School of Russian Ballet, its achievements were obvious. Nature endowed Nureyev with a remarkable mind; very quickly he began to understand the laws of Western life. I knew who should be given an interview and when, and who shouldn’t be given one. Two years after he “chose freedom,” he had already gotten the hang of answering the questions magazines asked him in different ways. Time And Newsweek. Both wanted to publish long article-interviews about him. He understood that if he gave an interview to one magazine, the other would refuse, so he managed to attend two receptions on the same day, the day of the performance, meet with the press at both, and the so-called “burn covers” about him appeared simultaneously in two magazines with a circulation of five million each. The sensation was great. The name Nureyev entered the zone of mass consciousness; it no longer belonged only to the world of ballet. Clive Barnes, a famous American ballet critic, wrote that it is unlikely that anyone knows the art of communicating with the press better than Nureyev.
Scandals were also associated with him; as is known, they are an integral element of the concept denoted by the word “star”. In 1965, news spread throughout the Western world that at a reception in Spoleto, Nureyev threw a glass of wine and splashed it on a white wall. Some magazines wrote that it was not wine, but whiskey, the glass of which he threw on the floor in irritation, others described in detail how the wall was flooded. In fact, eyewitnesses said that Nureyev accidentally dropped his glass. Once at a reception in the presence royal family in London he danced solo, his shoes pinched him, he calmly kicked them off and continued dancing barefoot. No dancer could afford this. He could be very rude to conductors, partners, producers, himself supporting and emphasizing the rumors spread about his terrible character. But he worked like an ox, and no one in ballet could compare with his ability to work and professional discipline. He studied for hours in class, in the rehearsal hall, working tirelessly even after the performance.
Rudolf Nureyev at the Martini party, 1965
Nureyev died on January 6, 1993, France buried him. The funeral ceremony lasted one hour. Soloists Grand Opera They carried the coffin up the stairs and placed it on the upper platform. Nureyev lay in a coffin in an evening suit and a turban. During the civil funeral service in the building Grand Opera they played Bach, Tchaikovsky, the artists read Pushkin, Byron, Goethe, Rimbaud, Michelangelo in five languages - such was his dying will. Pierre Berger, French multimillionaire and owner of the Yves Saint Laurent company, who was briefly the director Paris Opera, said farewell words. Rudolf Nureyev was buried near Paris, in the Russian cemetery of Saint-Genevieve des Bois. I lived in the West for thirty-two years. Over the years, he has been unconditionally recognized by the world, ballet, theater, and the masses. His glory, unique in its kind, eclipsing other names, after his death turned his life into a legend.
When he stayed at Le Bourget airport in 1961, he was still far from maturity. Over the years he became a ballet director, choreographer, ballet director Opera Gamer. His career was on the rise. When they write that he came to the West to seek his destiny, they only distort reality. An incident that happened to him at the stupid will of those who stood behind the Kirov Ballet pushed him to what he unconsciously strived for - improvement. Already a famous dancer, he spent a lot of money on mastery lessons and studied either with Valentina Pereyaslavets or with Stanley Williams in New York. He managed to be acquainted with all the celebrities, members of royal houses, to be known as a bon vivant, a nightclub lover, a gambler, a sybarite, and at the same time, without missing a day, he stood at the machine, perfecting what gave on stage a feeling of incomparable artistic freedom. He had a strange eating regime: he loved steak and sweet tea with lemon and ate more like an athlete than a gourmet. There were much more rumors about him than knowledge of his true life. He had few friends, but those who did enjoy his confidence, although by nature he was a distrustful person. They said that he was capricious, and little thought was given to how he mercilessly wastes himself. Leopold Stokowski and Jean Marais, Maurice Chevalier and Maria Callas were fond of him, it was impossible to get into performances with his participation, but he still worked, paying tribute to “high life,” because he was not interested in anything except dance.
Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn.
Francoise Sagan, in her short essay about Nureyev, wrote that his home was a stage and an airplane, that he was a sad, lonely man who gradually lost the few friends he had.
November 27, 1963 at Covent Garden in London he danced “La Bayadère”, not in its entirety, but only the third act – “Shadows”. Choreography by Petipa, in his own edition. Solor is his best game. Furious temperament and decorative imposingness, pride and touches of oriental melancholy - everything came together in this role. Triumph in Covent Garden paved the next stage in his brilliant career. He performed in this performance not only as a dancer, he was its tutor and director.
The legend picked up the pace. Now he needed to test himself on other stages before performing in London and Paris. He flew to Vienna, Australia, danced there with his troupe, and then performed at famous venues. If Balanchine staged “Raymonda” or “Swan Lake,” then the program said: “Balanchine’s production.” When Nureyev staged Petipa’s ballets, the program read: “Petipa, Nureyev’s edition.”
With all the respect Nureyev had for Balanchine, the question of joining Balanchine’s troupe or participating in his performances as a guest performer never even arose. Only in 1979 did Balanchine stage a ballet especially for him - “The Bourgeois in the Nobility” to the music of Richard Strauss. In Paris and London, Nureyev included in his repertoire “The Prodigal Son”, “Agon” and “Apollo” staged by Balanchine. In the West today they like to compare Balanchine and Nureyev. Both graduated from the same choreographic school, both danced on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater, both ended up in the West. There is only one difference: Balanchine was a great choreographer and a rather weak dancer. Nureyev was a great dancer and a rather weak choreographer. He made his first attempt to prove himself as a choreographer in 1966 in Vienna, staging the ballet “Tancred” to the music of Hans Werner Henze. Critics wrote about “pretentious symbolism,” although some independent ideas were palpable in it. Ten years later, Nureyev staged his own version of Romeo and Juliet to music by Prokofiev, and in 1979, Manfred. But, as often happens, his desire to become a choreographer did not have the same success as his performances as a dancer. Two different professions, which is difficult for great ballet masters to admit, who do not know what to do with themselves when their short dance life ends.
Nureyev was an outstanding classical dancer, the incomparable Siegfried in Swan Lake and Albert in Giselle, but the intriguing novelty of modern ballet attracted him. He himself admitted: “It was difficult for me to master the principles of modern dance. Classical parts are the most difficult; you always have to think about tradition, about how they were danced before you. But modern dance does not have such firm canons, they have not yet been defined, and in this sense it is easier for the performer.”
He arrived in America just as modern ballet began to penetrate the repertoire of classical ballet companies. Paul Taylor, for example, staged Halo to Handel's music for the Royal Danish Ballet in 1968, something that would have been absolutely impossible in the early 60s. Halo is the first American modern ballet, which Nureyev danced with Paul Taylor's company in Mexico and London. Glen Tetley staged “Tristan” and “Labyrinth” to music by Berio especially for Nureyev. “Pierrot Lunaire” - Tetley’s famous ballet to the music of Schoenberg - Nureyev always danced with great success. He learned José Limón's "The Moor's Pavane" and studied with Martha Graham. I took lessons from her and repeated every movement like a student. Martha Graham choreographed “Lucifer” especially for him (Margot Fonteyn danced with him) and “Letters to Scarlett,” which he danced without her. Martha Graham said about him: “Nureyev feels everything so subtly, embodies it so accurately that, looking at him, it seems to me as if I were dancing myself. He is a brilliant dancer, but there is something else in him besides this - only his inherent individuality. That’s why no one can repeat any of his roles.”
With Martha Graham's troupe he danced the ballets Night Journey, Clytemnestra, and Equatorial. There was a period when he became addicted to dancing modern ballet. Murray Louis staged three ballets for him and for him: "Moment", "Vivache" and "Venus of the Canaries". The more he grew up, the more he wanted to dance. His dream was to dance six to seven times a week; he was ready to lead “full-length” ballets, and not just dance one-act ones, which is very common in the West. His manager Serge Gorlinsky organized tours with the Australian Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada, and the London Ballet Festival, and Nureyev danced almost every evening with different partners. From the outside it looked like a “star” on tour surrounded by a troupe supporting the celebrity’s dance. All this gave rise to countless rumors. But he couldn't help but dance.
Gorlinsky sometimes organized “Nureyev and Friends” evenings; the programs were varied; Nureyev showed them in London, Washington, New York, and Paris. Very few dancers in this world are able to attract crowds of spectators. Clive Warne in his book “Nureyev” writes: “The name of Maya Plisetskaya ensures full houses in Paris and New York, but in London she is not considered as “ big star" During these years, Nureyev was at the peak of his popularity not only in New York, but in all cities of the world. Every summer since 1976, Nureyev danced in a huge hall Coliseum Theater in London for a few weeks. It was impossible to get tickets."
His thirst to dance was boundless, many wondered: why? Not a single dancer in the world danced as much as he did, the meaning of his life was dance, the stage was his home. He earned astronomical money, became very rich, apartments in Paris, New York, Monte Carlo, an island in the Mediterranean, collections of paintings, porcelain, sculptures. Everything was earned with my feet. Of course, one can assume that, like all people who were born in poverty and spent their youth in poverty, he sought, as it were, to compensate for what did not exist. But it was not wealth that attracted him to the stage, it was not wealth that made him dance every evening. His movement was fraught with beauty and mystery, his temperament was exciting, his dance worked visible miracles, and the world applauded him. Nureyev knew that the dancer's life was too short, and he rushed Time. Life was interesting for him when he danced. This was the solution to his riddle. He was a truly romantic dancer, trained in Leningrad, in the Kirov Ballet, where after graduating from college he immediately became a soloist and took a leading position in the theater.
The time when he came on stage gave the world Vladimir Vasiliev, Yuri Solovyov, Eric Brun, Peter Martins, Edward Villela Jorge Donna, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Anthony Dowell. But Nureyev is sharply different from them. And it was not by chance that he became a legend of ballet, its myth, in the second half of the 20th century.
He was born in a train carriage that traveled along Lake Baikal on March 17, 1938. His father was a Tatar. He looked like a Tatar, oriental blood fueled his temperament. As a child, no one was involved in his upbringing, he was impolite and did not understand the intricacies of behavior. He had three sisters. In his youth, he was friends with his sister Rosa, in the late 1980s she came to him in Paris, he gave her his villa in Monte Carlo, then they quarreled. After his death, she sued the foundation named after him for his inheritance. An ordinary, trivial story. His first teacher in Ufa, where he lived as a child, was Anna Ivanovna Udaltsova. At seventeen he came to Leningrad. The director of the Choreographic School did not like him, but he ended up in Pushkin’s class and quickly began to master the skill of classical dance. In Leningrad he became famous. Admirers flocked to his performances. The future was his. He had no intentions of leaving for the West. Of course, he wanted to see the world, was glad to go to Egypt with the Kirov Ballet and perceived Paris as a gift of fate. Stupid policies, blurred by communist ideology and the ineptitude of those who implemented them, provoked what happened at Le Bourget airport. He did not forget Russia. His “Autobiography,” written or spoken by him in 1962 (it was published in England), is full of love for Leningrad. At the end of his life, already very sick and approaching death, he came to his homeland. I was in Ufa, in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), danced on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater, and came more than once. Shortly before his end, he stood at the conductor's stand in Kazan, was passing through Moscow, but went to Paris to die. He didn’t want to return to Russia; more than thirty years of living in the West made him a “man of the world.” Although Russia always attracted him, and he always remembered the nature of his success: traditions and the Russian school.
Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Even in the years when every trip abroad was an event, the prima ballerina of the Azerbaijani ballet, in those years its artistic director Gamer Almas-zade, told how, having arrived with the Baku Ballet troupe in Monte Carlo, she immediately met Nureyev, who had specially come to see their performances and see her. They knew each other from Leningrad; he, one of the few, knew that Gamer Almas-zade was Tatar by origin.
He met with Vasiliev, Maksimova, Plisetskaya, Grigorovich; the choreographer’s personal archive contains a lot rare photographs Nureyev during their meetings in the West in those years when this was strictly prohibited. Nureyev was a difficult man, nervous, capricious; his partners had a hard time with him, and he had a hard time with them. He quickly forgot his grievances, but they did not. Although those who knew him closely claim that he was a very shy person. It’s just that he was always at the mercy of creative impulses, and at that moment he was inaccessible to everyday life, and when he was pestered, he became irritable and rude.
The years of his partnership with Margot Fonteyn are the zenith of his career. His dance was full of psychological details. He danced Princes as people with a romantic imagination. Only Galina Ulanova could dance the female parts in ballet; he always admired her, and wherever she stayed when she came to the West, there were always flowers sent by him in her hotel room. Even in those years when it was strictly forbidden to communicate with him, he found an opportunity to let Ulanova know that the flowers were from him.
“Raymonda”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “Swan Lake”, “La Bayadère” - a celebration of classical dance when Nureyev danced. He constantly created his own versions, found new interpretations, the Kirov ballet did not let him go, it remained in his memory. Dance was above all else for him.
In his personal life, he was often tired, irritated and lonely, although some young people, old ladies, and countless admirers always crowded around him. English language he learned and spoke relatively fluently, but with a strong Russian accent. He also had strong friendships with people, he valued them, but after the death of Margot Fonteyn, and especially Eric Brun, only the stage awakened him. The years were catching up. In 1982, he was already forty-four years old, and rumors spread that he had become worse at dancing. But the magic remained. In the West they don’t teach ballet dancers acting skills; Nureyev was familiar with Stanislavsky’s school. As a brilliantly gifted person, he gradually moved to roles in which acting skills were important. He loved to study. Eric Brun was a famous performer of Bournonville's choreography, he was magnificent in the ballet “A Folk Tale”, he performed in a role in which there was no dancing, but he amazed with the precision of gestures, a manner that created the image of a certain folk hero, embodying the spirit of Andersen’s fairy tales. When Nureyev danced La Sylphide in New York with the National Ballet of Canada, critics noted the influence of Eric Brun, although Nureyev was too temperamental for Bournonville's choreography, it was not his choreographer. But the romanticism of the party persisted. He danced La Sylphide in 1973. Now, nine years later, he tried to appear on stage in roles where he could demonstrate artistic skill.
Carla Fracci and Rudolf Nureyev in the ballet “The Nutcracker”, La Scala, 1970-71.
Behind me was a huge life on the ballet stage. Why didn't he dance? "Antigone" staged by John Cranko, MacMillan's ballet "Entertainments" to the music of Britten, "Symphonic Variations" and "Marguerite and Armand" - ballets by Frederick Ashton. Liszt's music, on which Ashton set Marguerite and Armand, inspired Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev; the parts were woven from acute, confused feelings and fabulous beauty of duets. The costumes for this ballet and the set design were done by Cecil Beaton. Not a single performance that Nureyev danced with Margot Fonteyn was as successful as this romantic ballet. The dancer spent a lot of effort on “The Bourgeois in the Nobility.” The ballet was staged by Balanchine to the music of Richard Strauss, but during rehearsals Balanchine fell ill, and Nureyev continued to work with Jerome Robbins. Then Balanchine returned to work and completed the ballet himself, which had always interested him. In 1932, he created the first version with Tamara Tumanova and David Lishin in the René Blum troupe in Monte Carlo, based on a libretto by Boris Kokhno. In 1944, Balanchine again staged “The Tradesman in the Nobility” in the USA, and now, in 1979, based on the old libretto by Kokhno, he staged it for Nureyev. The premiere took place on April 8 with Patricia McBride.
Nureyev worked with Bejart, Roland Petit. He danced Bejart's duet “Songs of a Wanderer” to the music of Mahler in Brussels in 1971 with the famous Italian. Nureyev embodied the searching spirit, one was in white, the other in black tights. During the same period, Nureyev danced “The Rite of Spring” with Bejart. They were friends with Roland Petit, quarreled, and worked. Petya's wife Zizi Jeanmaire, a famous ballerina who had already finished dancing, was a friend of Nureyev. From the memoirs of Roland Petit:
Spring 1989. Dinner at Nureyev's after the performance of a scene from Notre Dame at the Grand Opera. The wax from the candles on the Russian copper chandelier falls drop by drop into the plates and hardens like pearls on the oysters we eat. A political conversation about the career of the dancer Rasputin and whether it is possible to retain the position of director of Opera Gamier. I advise him not to remain between two stools, between the Opera and Broadway. The atmosphere is warm and friendly. We are surrounded by paintings of all sizes, from all eras, depicting Neptunes, Icaruses, and other mythological heroes, naked and exciting. When lunch comes to an end, we blow out the remaining candles and go into the living room to drink coffee with herbal infusions. Rudolph dresses in an oriental peignoir, takes off his shoes, and, while the guests do not dare to talk about anything else except the owner of the house, he, stretched out on the sofa in a languid pose, massages his feet, at the same time gaining telephone numbers all four parts of the world to find out about the state of their affairs. The 1980s were mainly given to the Parisian Grand Opera.
Becoming a leader Opera Gamer, he raised the level of the troupe, created a first-class corps de ballet, staged many performances, prestige Opera Gamer under Nureyev it became very large. Naturally, they called him a dictator, a tyrant, and did not forgive him for his harsh behavior. Sylvia Guillem left the troupe and went to work in London. It was later, after Nureyev’s death, that she would say that working with him was the best time of her life, and that she highly appreciated his gift as a leader. Scandals flared around him. But he staged his last performance on stage Opera Gamer. It was his favorite “La Bayadère”. To be precise, the performance was practically staged by Ninel Kurgapkina, who once danced with him in Leningrad in Don Quixote and now came from Russia at his request to work on the performance. Sometimes he came to rehearsals, or rather, he was brought on a stretcher. At the premiere he was supported by two dancers. He could hardly walk anymore. The stage was buried in flowers, and he looked at the raging auditorium, half-lidding his eyes.
A year before his death, he tried to change his profession. Karajan once advised him to stand at the conductor's stand. His natural musicality was extraordinary. He began to study, and Vladimir Weiss, who worked at Bolshoi Theater, and then, on Nureyev’s recommendation, in Australia. Nureyev quickly learned the laws of his new profession. He conducted in Vienna, Athens, and flew to Kazan in March 1992 and was very pleased with the concert. On May 6, 1992, he stood at the controls in Metropolitan Opera, conducted the ballet Romeo and Juliet. I was very worried. He danced here many times. In 1980, with the Berlin Ballet troupe, he had enormous success in “The Nutcracker” and at the same time showed his Prince Myshkin in “The Idiot” after Dostoevsky, the ballet was staged by Valery Panov. Now he conducted Romeo and Juliet, the most significant version of this ballet was created by him for the first time in London in 1977, and then in Milan, in La Scala in 1981. In 1983 he became the head Opera Gamer, According to his passport, he was a citizen of Austria. Now that was over too. He conducted and understood that there were friends and admirers in the audience, it was a great success, and the next day Anna Kisselgoff, a regular ballet columnist for the most influential newspaper The New York Times published a review after finding kind words, from which it was clear that his conducting was not an event. At the end of May 1992, he once again flew to Vienna and conducted a concert consisting of arias by Mozart and Rossini.
A terrible disease, it is called the plague of the 20th century, was taking its toll. There was no more strength. On the eve of his fortieth birthday - he was still dancing - he admitted: “I understand that I’m getting old, you can’t get away from it. I think about it all the time, I hear the clock ticking my time on stage, and I often say to myself: you only have a little time left...” Now he no longer danced. He no longer conducted. He was dying. Everyone knew he was sick. Lately he lived only by the support of the public, ready to applaud him as soon as he appeared on stage, no matter what he did. From the memoirs of Roland Petit:
Still, I advise him to conserve his strength. “I myself wanted my life to turn out this way,” he answers. Looking very deeply into his eyes, I try to ask him a provocative question: “But you will die on stage?” “And I would like this most of all,” he answers, squeezing my hand. Voice<…>breaks mid-sentence, and I clench my fingers so as not to show all the sadness that covers me.
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Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev (Rudolf Khamitovich Nureyev; Tat. Rudolf Khamit uly Nureyev). Born on March 17, 1938 near Irkutsk - died on January 6, 1993 in Paris. Soviet, British and French ballet dancer and choreographer. One of the most famous dancers of the 20th century.
Rudolf Nureyev was born between Irkutsk and Slyudyanka - on a train that was heading to Vladivostok.
Tatar by nationality.
Father - Khamit Fazleevich Nureyev (1903-1985), originally from the village of Asanovo, Sharipovsky volost, Ufa district, Ufa province (now Ufa district of the Republic of Bashkortostan). Having reached adulthood, he takes the first part of his father’s name Nur (ray, light) as his surname, and retains his surname as a patronymic and becomes Khamet Fazlievich Nuriev. Since 1922, he worked at the Milovka state farm, from where he was drafted into the Red Army in 1925 and ended up in Kazan, where he served as a Red Army soldier at the United Tatar-Bashkir Military School. At the end of his service, Nureyev Sr. remained in Kazan and in October 1927 entered a two-year course “Implementation of the Tatar language” at the Tatar Central Executive Committee, which he graduated in 1929 with a degree in accounting. In 1928 he joined the party.
Mother - Farida Agliullovna Nureyeva (Agliullova) (1907-1987), born in the village of Tatarskoye Tyugulbaevo, Kuznechikha volost, Kazan province (now Alkeevsky district of the Republic of Tatarstan).
Nuriev himself wrote in his autobiography that “on both sides our relatives are Tatars and Bashkirs.”
Soon after Rudolf's birth, his father is assigned to Moscow. With the beginning of the war, my father, with the rank of senior political instructor, went to the front in an artillery unit. He went through the entire war, from participating in the defense of Moscow to Berlin. In April 1945, he participated in the crossing of the Oder River, for which he received gratitude from the command.
In 1941, Rudolf and his mother were evacuated to the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.
As a child, he had to experience real poverty, which, however, forced him to achieve a comfortable existence with extreme persistence. He began dancing in a children's folklore ensemble in Ufa, and studied at the House of Culture with the St. Petersburg ballerina Anna Udaltsova, who was in exile there.
In 1955, despite the large age gap, he was admitted to the Leningrad Choreographic School and studied in the class of Alexander Pushkin. He lived at home with his teacher, since he could not get along at the boarding school - other students teased and called him names, considered him a hillbilly.
Contemporaries argued that when Rudolph mastered various movements at the Vaganova School, it was clear that the guy had significant problems with technology. Moreover, Nureyev himself saw this, and it drove him crazy. He did not hesitate to show his rage in public and often ran away from the hall with tears in his eyes during rehearsals. But when everyone left, he returned and persistently practiced various steps alone until he achieved perfection. This is how the dancer was formed, about whom the great woman would later say: “Before Nureyev, they danced differently.” After all, men have traditionally played a secondary role in ballet, emphasizing the importance and professionalism of the fair sex. But Nureyev’s dance was so bright that it was simply impossible not to pay attention to it.
After graduating in 1958, thanks to prima ballerina Natalia Dudinskaya, he remained in Leningrad and was accepted into the Opera and Ballet Theater named after S.M. Kirov. He made his stage debut as Dudinskaya's partner in the ballet Laurencia, performing the role of Frondoso.
Flight of Rudolf Nureyev to the West
On June 16, 1961, while on tour in Paris, by decision of the KGB of the USSR, “for violating the regime of being abroad,” he was removed from further tours of the Kirov Theater troupe in London, but refused to return to the USSR, becoming a “defector” - the first among Soviet artists. In connection with this, he was convicted in the USSR of treason and sentenced in absentia to 7 years in prison.
Rudolph's first performances in the West took place in Paris, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées - he performed the role of the Blue Bird in the ballet "The Sleeping Beauty" in the troupe of the Marquis de Cuevas and was immediately a huge success. The French communists set themselves the goal of booing the artist - but not knowing ballet (Nureyev’s pas de deux was almost at the end of the performance), they made noise at almost every performance of other artists, thereby only heating up the atmosphere of the evening. On July 29, at the closing of the troupe's last Paris season, Nureyev performed the main role in this performance, dancing in one act each with the troupe's prima ballerinas Nina Vyrubova, Rosella Hightower and Lian Deide.
France refused to grant Nureyev political refugee status, so the artist moved to Denmark, where he danced with the Royal Copenhagen Ballet. On November 2, 1961, he made his debut in London, performing the pas de deux from Swan Lake with Rosella Hightower - soon after which he received an engagement with the Royal Ballet of Great Britain. For more than fifteen years, Nureyev was a star of the London Royal Ballet and was a constant partner of the English ballerina Margot Fonteyn. Also danced with Yvette Chauvire, Carla Fracci, Noella Pontois.
In 1964 he staged Swan Lake at the Vienna Opera, performing the title role in a duet with Margot Fonteyn. At the end of the performance, the audience gave such a long ovation that the curtain was raised more than eighty times, which is a theater record.
Being the premier of the Viennese troupe, he received Austrian citizenship. He performed all over the world, working extremely intensively. He often gave 200 performances a year; in 1975, the number of his performances reached three hundred. He took part in classical and modern productions, acted a lot in films and on television, staged ballets and made his own editions of classical performances.
From 1983 to 1989, Nureyev was the director of the ballet troupe of the Paris Opera, and staged several performances there. He actively promoted young artists to the first positions, sometimes, as in the case of Sylvie Guillem, very conditionally observing the hierarchy levels accepted in Paris. Among the “Nureyev galaxy” are Elisabeth Platel, Monique Loudier, Isabelle Guerin, Manuel Legris, Charles Jude, Laurent Hilaire.
In 1987, he was able to obtain permission to enter the USSR to say goodbye to his dying mother - the visa was given for 72 hours, and the artist was limited in his ability to contact everyone he knew in his youth.
IN recent years life, no longer able to dance, he began performing as a conductor.
In 1992 he conducted the Vienna Residenz Orchestra during its European tour. In the spring of the same year, at the invitation of the director of the Tatar Opera House Raufal Mukhametzyanov, Rudolf Nureyev visited Kazan, where he conducted the ballets “Romeo and Juliet” and “The Nutcracker” (the main role was performed by Nadezhda Pavlova).
In 1983, the HIV virus was discovered in Nureyev's blood.
On January 6, 1993, at the age of 54, the dancer died from complications of AIDS. According to Nureyev's wishes, he was buried in the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois near Paris. The grave is covered with a colored mosaic oriental carpet (the author of the sketch is the artist Ezio Frigerio).
Rudolf Nureyev's height: 173 centimeters.
Personal life of Rudolf Nureyev:
Rudolf Nureyev was a homosexual, although in his youth he also had heterosexual relationships.
After escaping to the West, he lived with the famous Danish homosexual dancer Erik Brun (1928-1986). Eric Brun was accepted into the company of the American Ballet Theater in 1949, and each of his performances was a real sensation. The aristocratic blond attracted the eyes of almost all women. Eric Brun had a fiancée - the famous beautiful ballerina Maria Tallchiff. But he never married her. Ironically, the two ballet geniuses were brought together by Maria Tallchiff. It was she who in 1961 asked Nuriev to accompany her to Bruno, with whom she performed the part in a ballet production in Copenhagen. During the trip, she called Eric and said light-heartedly: “There is someone here who would really like to meet you!”
Brun and Nureyev remained close for 25 years, until Brun's death in 1986.
Rudolf Nureyev was an anti-Semite and anti-communist, and for almost the entire period of his life in the West he was afraid of attack or kidnapping by the KGB. He associated the accident at the Vienna Opera, when miraculously no one was hurt, with this organization.
Earning a lot of money, he spent it randomly. He often lent large sums to little-known people and never checked whether the debt was returned to him. He bought luxury real estate in Europe and America, which required constant tax payments and other expenses, but practically did not live in most of his houses.
To manage his financial affairs, he registered the Ballet Promotion Foundation in Liechtenstein in 1975, with headquarters in Zurich.
He owned villas in La Turbie and on the island of Saint Barthélemy (France), an estate in Virginia and apartments in London and New York (Jacqueline Kennedy helped furnish the six-room apartment in the Dakota Building).
In 1979, he acquired from the heirs of Leonide Massine Li Galli, an archipelago of three islands located near Positano. On Gallo Lungo, the largest of them, there were residential villas with a swimming pool and ballet halls, built by Massine in the ruins of a Saracen tower. Nureyev was actively involved in the design of the villas and the improvement of the island as a whole, investing a lot of money here, since there was no water or electricity, and everything needed could be delivered either by sea or by helicopter.
In Paris, he lived in a two-level apartment on the Quai Voltaire, house number 23. The dancer’s dream was to bring his mother here, which never happened. After his death, fans hoped that a museum would be built here, but the Nureyev Foundation almost immediately organized the sale of his property under the hammer at Christie's auctions. The first planned auctions in London and New York were canceled, and the Paris apartment was sealed at the protest of Nureyev's sister Rosa and her daughter Guzeli, who began a legal battle with the Foundation, in their opinion, incorrectly interpreted the will in their favor. However, the auction took place in 1995 - in January in New York, where American property was sold (7.9 was received). million $) and in November in London, where Parisian items were sold (the main lot, a painting by Theodore Gericault, remained unsold).
According to the will, the European property was managed by the Ballet Promotion Foundation, registered by Nureyev in Liechtenstein in 1975, while the American property was managed by the newly created Rudolf Nureyev Dance Foundation, headquartered in Chicago. A small part of Nureyev's legacy - suits, documents and personal belongings - was stored in National Library France and the Carnavalet Museum. In 2013, on the initiative of Charles Jude and Thierry Fouquet, members of the board of directors of the Nureyev Foundation, the remaining items were exhibited in three halls of the National Center for Stage Costume in Moulins (exhibition design by Ezio Frigerio).
Filmography of Rudolf Nureyev:
1958 - Soulful flight (documentary)
1977 - Valentino - Rudolph Valentino
1983 - In plain sight (Exposed)
1991 - Rudolf Nureyev as he is (documentary)
Repertoire of Rudolf Nureyev:
"Laurencia" - Frondoso
"Swan Lake" - Prince Siegfried, Rothbart
"The Nutcracker" - Drosselmeyer, Prince
"Sleeping Beauty" - Blue Bird, Prince Florimund (Désiré)
“Margarita and Arman” - Arman
"La Bayadère" - Solor
"Raymonda" - four gentlemen, Jean de Brienne
"Giselle" - Count Albert
"Don Quixote" - Basil
"Corsair" - slave
"Romeo and Juliet" - Romeo, Mercutio
"La Sylphide" - James
"Petrushka" - Parsley
"The Vision of the Rose" - The Vision of the Rose
"Scheherazade" - The Golden Slave
"Afternoon of a Faun" - Faun
"Apollo Musagete" - Apollo
"Youth and Death" - Youth
"Prodigal son"
"Phaedra"
"Paradise Lost"
"La Sylphides" - Youth
"Hamlet" - Hamlet
"Cinderella" - Producer
"Sideshow"
"Lunar Pierrot" - Pierrot
"Lucifer" - Lucifer
“Idiot” - Prince Myshkin
"Halo"
"Songs of the Wandering Apprentice"
"The Rite of Spring"
"The Moor's Pavane" - Othello
"Dark House"
"Lesson"
"Night Journey" - Oedipus
"The Scarlet Letter" - Reverend Dimmesdale
Productions by Rudolf Nureyev:
1964 - “Raymonda”
1964 - “Swan Lake”, Vienna Opera
1966 - “Don Quixote”
1966 - “Sleeping Beauty”
1966 - “Tancred”
1967 - “The Nutcracker”
1977 - “Romeo and Juliet”
1979 - “Manfred”
1982 - “Storm”
1985 - “Washington Square”
1986 - Bach Suite
1988 - “Cinderella”, Paris Opera
1992 - “La Bayadère”, Paris Opera
Friends, for those who are not yet familiar with the life story of Rudolf Nureyev, this information will be very interesting. The biography of Rudolf Nureyev causes a lot of controversy and different opinions, but leaves no one indifferent.
Dossier: Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev (Nureev). Date of birth: March 17, 1938. Date of death: January 6, 1993 (age 54). Occupation: Soviet, English and French ballet dancer and choreographer.
In 1983-1989, Rudolf Nureyev was the artistic director of the Paris Grand Opera ballet. In 1991 he made his debut as a conductor in Vienna.
Citizenship: USSR, Austria. Awards: (France) Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters, Knight of the Legion of Honor. Height 1.73 m
Biography of Rudolf Nureyev - the path to success
Childhood and youth
Unusual and unlike others, Rudolf Nureyev was born also unusually - he was born on a train, somewhere near Irkutsk. Of four children, he was the only son.
His family was of Tatar origin, from the Soviet Bashkir Republic. His father was a military man. Soon after Rudolf's birth, he was assigned to Moscow.
Nureyev family
In 1941, the war began. Rudik and his mother and sisters moved from Moscow to Ufa. They lived in a wooden house with other families.
Living conditions were disgusting, the toilet was on the street. Everyone lived in extreme poverty, but the Nureyev family was the poorest of all.
History of the scar: in early childhood, Rudik was bitten by a starving dog. This happened at the moment when he brought a piece of bread to his mouth.
When Rudolph entered school, everyone bullied him because he wore his sister's coat and had no shoes.
(Looking ahead, it should be noted that Rudolf Nureyev would later be one of the richest people in the world: a huge apartment in Paris, a huge apartment in New York, a personal island, unique collections of porcelain, sculptures and paintings).
On New Year's Eve 1945, Rudolf's mother managed to get all the children to see the ballet "The Song of the Cranes" with one ticket, which took place at the Ufa theater. This event changed Rudik's fate.
From that moment on, Nuriev decided to become a dancer. He began attending a school folk dance club. Then he studied at the House of Culture with the St. Petersburg ballerina Anna Udaltsova, who was in exile. Convinced of the boy’s abilities, he was given the idea of continuing his studies at the prestigious Leningrad Ballet School.
At the age of fifteen, Nuriev made his debut in the corps de ballet on the stage of the Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theater, and in 1954 he was accepted into the theater troupe.
Further studies in Leningrad seemed impossible, especially since the father forbade his son to go to dance classes under the pretext that this would interfere with schoolwork. But Rudolph was stubborn!
In 1955, despite the large age gap, he was admitted to the Leningrad Choreographic School. He studied in the class of Alexander Pushkin, a ballet dancer and outstanding teacher.
Rudolf did not have a good relationship with other students. They teased him and called him a hillbilly. Rudolf could not get along at the boarding school and had to live with his teacher.
Nuriev and Dudinskaya
After graduating from college in 1958, thanks to the prima ballerina Natalia Dudinskaya, he remained in Leningrad and was accepted into the Opera and Ballet Theater named after S. M. Kirov (since 1992 - the Mariinsky Theater).
"Laurencia." Rudolf Nureyev and Natalia Dudinskaya
He made his stage debut as Dudinskaya's partner in the ballet Laurencia, performing the role of Frondoso. It was a stunning success! She was 49 years old, and Nuriev was 19!
"Defector"
On June 16, 1961, while on tour in Paris, by decision of the KGB “for violating the regime of being abroad,” Nuriev was removed from further tours of the Kirov Theater troupe in London. But he refused to return to the USSR and asked for political asylum.
Rudolf Nureyev became a “defector” - the first among artists. In connection with this, he was convicted in the USSR of treason and sentenced in absentia to 7 years in prison.
In Paris, Nureyev was immediately accepted into the touring troupe of the Marquis de Cuevas Ballet. But France refused to give him political refugee status and Nureyev went to Denmark, where he danced with the Royal Copenhagen Ballet, then moved to London.
Eric Brun and Rudolf Nureyev
In 1962, Nuriev met the famous Danish dancer Erik Brun, who had a great influence on the development of the dancer’s choreography and style. Brun is a huge Dane of unearthly beauty, a world famous dancer, considered one of the most outstanding dancers of the 20th century.
Eric Brun
It is difficult to say who was Nureyev’s first male lover, but the fact that Erik Brun became his first and greatest love of his life is undeniable. Moreover, Nuriev first fell in love with his dance, and then with him.
Eric was Nureyev's ideal. He was 10 years older than him, tall and handsome, like a god. From birth, he possessed those qualities that Nureyev was completely deprived of: calm, restraint, tact. And most importantly, he could do what Nureyev could not. Rudolph was the complete opposite of Eric. It is no secret that Nureyev had an obnoxious character; he could be quite rude and harsh.
Rudolph and Eric
Their stormy love affair, which lasted a quarter of a century, finally collapsed when Rudolph learned that in Toronto (where Eric then directed the National Ballet of Canada) Eric began an affair with one of his students, who eventually gave birth to a daughter from him.
But although everything was over with the love relationship between them, the spiritual connection lasted until the end of their lives, surviving all the betrayals, conflicts, and separations.
“My Danish friend Erik Brun helped me more than I can express,” Nureyev said in an interview. “I need him more than anyone.”
Brun died of lung cancer in 1986. He smoked a lot! Rudolf took Eric's death seriously and was never able to recover from this blow.
In 1962, Nuriev signed a contract with the Royal London Ballet, which was unprecedented: people without British citizenship were not accepted there. But an exception was made for Nureyev, and he became a partner with the brilliant English ballerina Margot Fonteyn.
Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev
In England, Fontaine was the only and brightest “star” (the wife of Panamanian lawyer and diplomat Tito de Arias). When she met Nureyev, she was 42 years old (he was 24) and was about to leave the stage. It was Nuriev who breathed incredible sensuality into her dance. They were considered the most harmonious ballet duet of their time.
Of course, it was a platonic and, first of all, creative union, but when you look at recordings of their dances today, you involuntarily come to the conclusion that they were connected by a very deep feeling.
For almost 10 years, until Fonteyn left the stage, Rudolph continued to be her constant partner.
Five years after Eric's death, Rudolph said goodbye to the lady of his heart, Margot Fonteyn. She died on February 21, 1991, twenty-nine years to the day since she and Rudolph first danced in Giselle. He was her partner in performances almost 700 times! According to her wishes, Margot was buried in the same grave with her husband, whom she outlived by two years.
Rudolf Nureyev and his men
Rudolf Nureyev was homosexual, but in his youth he also had heterosexual relationships.
Rudolf Nureyev met with many partners, among whom they name (remember that no one held a candle here) Freddie Mercury, Mig Jagger, Elton John and Jean Marais, but Nureyev loved only one – Eric Brun. For Nureyev, he was more than a loved one. After Brun's death, Nureyev no longer had strong feelings for anyone.
Many will condemn Nureyev. But this is his personal life. As Thomas Noirwit (Conchita) said: “Only the individual is important, everyone should have the right to live as he sees fit, as long as it does not harm anyone.”
Date with mother
In 1987, he was able to obtain permission to enter the USSR to say goodbye to his dying mother - the visa was given for 48 hours, and the artist was not given the opportunity to contact everyone he knew in his youth.
Cause of death of Rudolf Nureyev
In 1983, HIV was discovered in the dancer’s blood. Diagnostics have shown the presence of the virus in the blood for several years. At that time, very little was known about the disease: the dancer did not begin treatment immediately and took experimental medications. The disease progressed. Nureyev died from complications of AIDS on January 6, 1993, near Paris.
Rudolf Nureyev's grave
According to his wishes, he was buried in the Russian cemetery of Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois near Paris. His grave is covered with a colorful mosaic oriental carpet.
Rudolf Nureyev's grave
Quotes from Rudolf Nureyev
- “I want to be able to work everywhere - in New York, Paris, London, Tokyo and, of course, in what I consider to be the most beautiful of theaters - the blue-and-silver Kirovsky in Leningrad. I am twenty four years old. I don’t want anyone to decide my future for me, to determine in which direction I “should” develop. I'll try to get to this point on my own. This is what I understand by the word “freedom”.
- “I dance for my own pleasure. If you're trying to please everyone, it's not original."
- “Every step must bear the imprint of its own blood.”
The secret of success
The dramatic circumstances of his arrival in the West propelled Nureyev to first place, but he held on thanks to his strong personality.
Performing tirelessly, every evening, for months, for years, all over the world, in the widest repertoire, he touched more audiences than any other dancer. In 1975, the number of performances reached three hundred! He completely changed the passive role of the dancer in classical ballet.
Once in an interview, Rudolf Nureyev was asked what was the secret of the success of his work abroad. He replied: “I slept little and worked a lot.” And this determined his whole life.
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