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

Romance (Donaurov) 2-22210 2058K G&T, St. Petersburg 1905
Rusalka (Dargomyzhsky) Unwillingly to these sad shores… Everything here reminds me 2-22926 1118r, 2-22927 1119r Gramophone 06-1906
Sadko (Rimsky-Korsakov) Song of India 3-22863 7798L Gramophone St. Petersburg 1908
Serenade (Gota) RSS-997 Lyrophon, 1908
Serenade (Night descended on the earth) 3-22556 4994L Gramophone 1906
She was thine (Grechaninov) 2-22709 2742L G&T, St. Petersburg, 1905
Si vous l’aviez compris (Denza) D6044 35077 Columbia
Snow Maiden (Rimsky-Korsakov) So full of wonders 3-22855 7795L Gramophone St. Petersburg, 1908
The cry of the snow-white seagull (Grodzki) (w. Kastorsky) 24033 2973a Berliner St. Petersburg 1901
The night is warm and magically shines the moon (Kochetova) 22251x 2877 Berliner, 01-02-1901
The Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky) Forgive me, heavenly creature 8215 8215 R.A.O.G, St. Petersburg
The Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky) What is our life 22337 2608 Berliner, 1901
The seafarers (Our unfriendly sea) 24096 379z G&T, St. Petersburg 1902
The sweet scent of lilac (Plotnikov) 22249 2648½G G&T, St Petersburg 1901-03
The Varangian (Cui) 2-22237 2123K Gramophone St. Petersburg, 1905