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

Torna (Denza) 22059 292z G&T, St Petersburg 1902
Tranquility (Kashevarov) 2205 2205 R.A.O.G, St. Petersburg
Traviata (Verdi) Dei miei bollenti spiriti 22494 192 G&T, 6-01
Traviata (Verdi) Parigi, o cara (w. Pavlovskaya) 8236 8236 R.A.O.G, St. Petersburg
Trovatore (Verdi) Ai nostri monti (w. Nosilova) X-64444 4935l Zonophone
Trovatore (Verdi) Di quella pira 22369 2880 Berliner St. Petersburg 1901
Wanderers Nachtlied Op. 48 No. 5 (Rubinstein) 24037 2874 NB Berliner, St. Petersburg 1901
We have parted (Dlussky) 24044 200 g Berliner, 6-01
We were alone in the garden (Grodszky) 2-22235 2121K G&T, St. Petersburg 1905
What a Night! (Wrangell) 22408 2869 Berliner, St. Petersburg 1901
When I was a boy (Jacobson) 222301 18691b Gramophone, 1919
With the sweet scent of lilac (Plotnikov) 2-22207 2054K G&T, 1905
Yolanda (Yuferov) Aria 22357 2996a G&T, 7-01
You are my morning (Vrangel) 22250 2605G Berliner, St. Petersburg 1901-03
Your eyes (Meyer-Helmund) 222311 18717b Gramophone, Moscow 18-12-1913