Description

ANDREI LABINSKY (TOBOLSK, RUSSIAN EMPIRE, 20 AUGUST, 1871 – MOSCOW, SOVIET UNION, 8 AUGUST, 1941)

He was born into a large family. His childhood years were spent in Siberia, as his father had been exiled on suspicion of involvement in a group of Polish nationalists. From 1881, he sang in the church choir of the Sophia Cathedral in Tobolsk. After moving to Tyumen, Labinsky became a soloist of the choir at the Znamenskaya Church. He graduated from the local Alexandrovsk Real School, after which he became a soloist of the Synodal Choir. In 1899, he graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied solo singing under Professors S. Gabel and V. Samusya (stage performance class of F. Paleček).

He possessed an even, flexible voice of a pleasant, soft timbre and a wide range (reaching the F of the third octave). From 1896, he sang in the choir of the Mariinsky Theatre. From 1899 to 1912 and again from 1919 to 1924, he was a soloist at the Mariinsky Theatre; from 1926 he served at the Bolshoi Theatre of the USSR.

In 1920–1922 and 1923–1924, he taught at the Moscow Conservatory and at the Institute of Musical Drama. From 1941, he was a vocal instructor at the Bolshoi Theatre. Among his students were N. F. Kemarskaya and V. N. Prokoshev.

He toured in Japan, France, Germany, and Italy.

He was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR in 1924.

His best operatic roles included Lensky, Hermann, Almaviva, Faust, José, Raoul, Bayan, Lykov, Sadko, Radamès, Lohengrin, and Luciano in the opera Francesca da Rimini by E. Napravnik, among others.

Among A. M. Labinsky’s stage partners were F. I. Chaliapin and A. V. Nezhdanova. He was an understudy to L. V. Sobinov. The composer S. Kashevarov dedicated the romance Silence to the singer.

He enjoyed extraordinary popularity, especially among female opera enthusiasts. Asaf Messerer recalled that Labinsky was “handsome as a playing-card jack.” His admirers, known as “Labinists,” followed him on his concert tours across Russia. According to the Russian Musical Gazette (1905), at chamber concerts with the bass Kastorsky, front-row tickets cost ten rubles—which was a very large sum at the time. The same issue reported a tragicomic incident at one of the concerts: an enraged husband of one of the “Labinists” fired a shot at Labinsky, but fortunately missed.

M. Labinsky lived in Moscow in a wing of the former Ukhanov–Puschina estate at 8 Mokhovaya Street, building. He died during a bombing raid in August 1941 together with his family.

TRACKLIST

A Life for the Tsar (Glinka) The bride is waiting… Brothers, into the snowstorm 2-22928, 2-22929, 1120r, 1121r Gramophone, St. Petersburg 1906
A Life for the Tzar (Glinka) The rose which blooms (w. Mikhailova, Nikitina & Sibiryakov) 2-24157 7839L Gramophone St. Petersburg 1908
A may day (Ranushevich) 2-22364 2789K G&T, St. Petersburg 1906
All Souls’ Day (Lassen) 2-22233 2118k G&T, St. Petersburg 1901
Are you coming, love (Bleikhman) 2-22236 2122k G&T, St. Petersburg 1905
Askold’s tomb (Verstovsky) Near the town of Slavyansk 3-22557 490112L Gramophone 1906
At the Cross (Faure) (w. Andreev) 24016 2634 Berliner, St. Petersburg 1901-03
Carmen (Bizet) Duet (w. Pavlovskaya) 8235 8235 R.A.O.G, St. Petersburg
Come to me (Greve-Sobolyevsk) 2-22363 2788K G&T, St. Petersburg 1906
Demon (Rubinstein) Prince Sinodal’s aria 2-22776 2976L Gramophone 1905
Der Engel (Wagner) 3-22536 4923l G&T, St. Petersburg 1907
Dubrovsky O give me oblivion (Napravnik) 22332 2642G G&T St. Petersburg 1901
Es war ein traum (Lassen) 2-22239 2117K G&T, St. Petersburg 1905
Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky) How excellent is this day 22436 3011 Berliner, St. Petersburg 1901
Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky) I love you Olga 3-22856 7797L Gramophone St. Petersburg 1908