Nikolay and Medea Figner
Encyclopedia
Nikolay Figner lyric tenor, and Medea Figner (1859–1952), mezzo-soprano
, later soprano
, were a renowned husband-and-wife team of opera singers active in Russia
between 1889 and 1904. Medea was Italian
-born (her original surname was Mei) but she became competely Russianized after marrying Nikolay. They had separate careers before their wedding, and again after their divorce in 1904, but during the 15 years of their marriage they almost always sang in the same performances. They created the main tenor and soprano roles in two operas by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
- The Queen of Spades
and Iolanta
- and appeared in a number of other important Russian musical premieres.
, on 9/21 February 1857. He joined the Russian Navy as a midshipman, and rose to the rank of lieutenant, retiring in 1881 to study voice with Vassily Samus, I. P. Pryanishnikova and Camille Everardi
at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory
.
Figner then travelled to Italy
, where he made his debut at Naples
in Gounod
's Philémon et Baucis
in 1882. He sang at the San Carlo Theatre and appeared at other Italian venues for a number of years. While in Italy, Figner took the opportunity to study with the prominent singing teacher Francesco Lamperti
and also received instruction from E. de Roxas. Figner performed, too, in Madrid
, Bucharest
and London
(at the Royal Opera House
, Covent Garden
). He travelled to South America
as well during this period. On 4 November 1886, in Turin
, he sang the principal tenor role in the world premiere of the revised version of Alfredo Catalani
's Edmea ; this was also the occasion of Arturo Toscanini
's first appearance as a conductor in Italy after his initial triumph in South America. During his travels, he sang roles such as Arnold in Rossini's William Tell
, the Duke in Verdi
's Rigoletto
, and Carlo in Donizetti
's Linda di Chamounix
. He also happened to appear on stage with Medea Mei in a production of Donizetti's La favorite
; they formed a liaison, and he brought her back to Russia in 1887. Two years later, they wed. Figner soon established himself as the leading tenor at the Mariinsky Theatre
, retaining this status until 1903.
Other Russian composers whose operas he sang were Alexander Borodin
(Vladimir in Prince Igor
), Alexander Dargomyzhsky
(the Prince in Rusalka
), and Anton Rubinstein
(Sinodal in The Demon
). A good-looking man, he projected a memorable stage presence and sang with sensitivity and style.
, Italy, on 4 March 1859. She studied there with Bianchi, Carozzi-Zucchi and Panofka. She sang the mezzo-soprano role in Verdi
's Requiem
at the young age of 16, and made her operatic debut soon afterwards, as Azucena in Il trovatore
, at Sinaluga. She became well known throughout Italy, and also toured Spain, South America and Russia and visited London. Her repertoire then included Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera
, Amneris in Aida
, Gertrude in Ambroise Thomas
's Hamlet
, Leonora in Donizetti
's La favorite
, and the title role in Bizet
's Carmen
. She latter added soprano roles such as Charlotte in Massenet
's Werther
, and Margherita in Boito
's Mefistofele
.
Medea went to Russia with Nikolay Figner in 1887, making her debut there on 8 May at the St Petersburg Imperial Opera (the Mariinsky Theatre) as Valentine in Meyerbeer
's Les Huguenots
. The soprano knew no Russian at that time, and sang in Italian during the first two St Petersburg seasons. Subsequently, she was received into the Russian Orthodox Church
, and married Figner on 20 February 1889. Thereafter, Nikolay made it his practice to sing only in operas in which Medea was also singing.
She was referred to after marriage as either Medea Mei-Figner (the form of her name used in most Western reference books) or simply Medea Figner. Furthermore, she was given the patronymic of Ivanovna, and is sometimes designated as Medea (or Medeya) Ivanovna (Mei-)Figner. She eventually mastered Russian to such an extent that native speakers could not tell she had learned it only from the age of 30.
Notably, Medea appeared as Mimi in the first performance of Giacomo Puccini
's La bohème
in Russia; she was coached by Puccini himself.
Medea Mei-Figner is the great-great-grandmother of the Italian soprano Amarilli Nizza.
's Carmen
, as Carmen and Don José, produced an ovation said to be unprecedented in the history of Russian opera.
They were highly regarded by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
, who wrote the roles of Hermann and Liza in The Queen of Spades
for them. They created the roles in the world premiere of this opera, on 19 December 1890, after rehearsing under Tchaikovsky's personal supervision. Medea was in the early stages of pregnancy at the time. In 1891, when she was unable to continue to appear in The Queen of Spades due to her condition, Nikolay refused to sing with a substitute soprano, and so the opera was removed from the program until Medea was able to return.
The Figners also created the title soprano role and that of the tenor part of Count Vaudémont in Tchaikovsky's opera Iolanta
in 1892. Tchaikovsky dedicated his Six Romances, Op. 73 (1893) to Nikolay Figner. Nikolay spent time with Tchaikovsky in the days following the premiere of his Symphony No. 6 Pathetique
. Later, he visited Modest Tchaikovsky
's apartment during the composer's final illness. He returned there immediately after Tchaikovsky's death, helping Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
to lay out the body.
By no means, however, did the Figners confine their joint operatic activities to the compositions of Tchaikovsky. For example, they created the main roles in Eduard Nápravník
's Dubrovsky
and Francesca da Rimini.
Other operas in which the Figners performed as a team included: Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin
(Nikolay's Lensky was said to have been surpassed only by Leonid Sobinov
's interpretation) and The Oprichnik
; Verdi
's Aida
, La traviata
and Otello
(singing in the latter work's 1889 Russian premiere); Gounod
's Faust
and Roméo et Juliette
; Auber
's Fra Diavolo
; and the Russian premieres of Mascagni
's Cavalleria rusticana
, Puccini
's Tosca
and Leoncavallo
's Pagliacci
. Oddly, they never appeared in works written by Rimsky-Korsakov, who was the most prolific operatic composer in Tsarist Russia. It has been suggested that the reason for this gap in their repertoire was personal: they had asked Rimsky-Korsakov to write an opera for them, or to make some changes to his existing work May Night
, but the composer apparently refused to oblige and this may have offended the Figners.
and returned to continue a solo career at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. From 1910 to 1915 Nikolay directed and sang with the Narodny Dom
opera company in Saint Petersburg. Medea's farewell performance was in the title role in Carmen
in 1912. In 1917 Nikolay moved to the Ukraine
, where he taught at the Kiev
Conservatory. He lost most of his possessions during the Russian Revolution of 1917, and died in poverty in Kiev on 13 December 1918, aged 61. Medea left Soviet Russia in 1930 and settled in Paris
, where she died on 8 July 1952, at the age of 93.
Both of their voices can be heard on the LP anthology The Record of Singing
, while a comprehensive selection of their recordings was released on compact disc by the Symposium label in 2000. This double set of CDs bears the catalogue numbers 1255/1256.
Importantly, Medea Mei-Figner recorded "Lisa's aria" from The Queen of Spades
with the alternative low ending sanctioned by the composer. She also made discs of "Vissi d'arte" from Tosca
and arias from Werther
and Carmen, as well as recording a number of songs, including "Penso" by Paolo Tosti. Her voice was considered by contemporary critics to be more beautiful and more impressive than that of her husband. He was already past his vocal prime when he and his wife cut their first series of 78-rpm records in St Petersburg in 1901-02 for EMI
's predecessor, the Gramophone & Typewriter Company.
The Danish journalist Knut de Hageman-Lindenkrone conducted a long recorded interview with Medea Mei at her Parisian appartement in 1949, when the singer was 90 years old. The interview is in French, although Medea Mei may be heard to speak as well in Italian and Russian with her daughter, who was also present. She even sings a few bars of music here and there, including both the first phrase and the last from Liza's aria, 'Midnight is Approaching', from Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades, which she had created 59 years before!
This fascinating hour-long interview, with unique memories of Tchaikovsky and other fabled events of Mme Mei's Sankt-Petersburg career, was included in a Rubini Records set of two long-playing records, c. 1975, that also featured Medea Mei-Figner's complete commercially recorded output from the beginning of the XX Century.
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
, later soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
, were a renowned husband-and-wife team of opera singers active in Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
between 1889 and 1904. Medea was Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
-born (her original surname was Mei) but she became competely Russianized after marrying Nikolay. They had separate careers before their wedding, and again after their divorce in 1904, but during the 15 years of their marriage they almost always sang in the same performances. They created the main tenor and soprano roles in two operas by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
- The Queen of Spades
The Queen of Spades (opera)
The Queen of Spades, Op. 68 is an opera in 3 acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a Russian libretto by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, based on a short story of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. The premiere took place in 1890 in St...
and Iolanta
Iolanta
Iolanta, Op. 69, is a lyric opera in one act by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, and is based on the Danish play Kong Renés Datter by Henrik Hertz. The play was translated by Fyodor Miller and adapted by Vladimir Zotov...
- and appeared in a number of other important Russian musical premieres.
Nikolay Figner
Nikolay Nikolayevich Figner was born in Nikiforovka, near KazanKazan
Kazan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. With a population of 1,143,546 , it is the eighth most populous city in Russia. Kazan lies at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka Rivers in European Russia. In April 2009, the Russian Patent Office granted Kazan the...
, on 9/21 February 1857. He joined the Russian Navy as a midshipman, and rose to the rank of lieutenant, retiring in 1881 to study voice with Vassily Samus, I. P. Pryanishnikova and Camille Everardi
Camille Everardi
Camille Everardi was a Belgian operatic baritone who had an active international career during the 1850s through the 1870s. He particularly excelled in the works of Vincenzo Bellini and Gioachino Rossini. Several music critics of his day likened his voice to that of Antonio Tamburini...
at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory
Saint Petersburg Conservatory
The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory is a music school in Saint Petersburg. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty members and 1,400 students.-History:...
.
Figner then travelled to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, where he made his debut at Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
in Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
's Philémon et Baucis
Philémon et Baucis
Philémon et Baucis is an opera in three acts by Charles Gounod with a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré. The opera is based on the tale of Baucis and Philemon as told by La Fontaine...
in 1882. He sang at the San Carlo Theatre and appeared at other Italian venues for a number of years. While in Italy, Figner took the opportunity to study with the prominent singing teacher Francesco Lamperti
Francesco Lamperti
Francesco Lamperti was an Italian singing teacher.A native of Savona, Lamperti attended the Milan Conservatory where, beginning in 1850, he taught for a quarter of a century. He was director at the Teatro Filodrammatico in Lodi. In 1875 he left the school and began to teach as a private tutor...
and also received instruction from E. de Roxas. Figner performed, too, in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
(at the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
). He travelled to South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
as well during this period. On 4 November 1886, in Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
, he sang the principal tenor role in the world premiere of the revised version of Alfredo Catalani
Alfredo Catalani
Alfredo Catalani was an Italian operatic composer. He is best remembered for his operas Loreley and La Wally...
's Edmea ; this was also the occasion of Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
's first appearance as a conductor in Italy after his initial triumph in South America. During his travels, he sang roles such as Arnold in Rossini's William Tell
William Tell (opera)
Guillaume Tell is an opera in four acts by Gioachino Rossini to a French libretto by Etienne de Jouy and Hippolyte Bis, based on Friedrich Schiller's play Wilhelm Tell. Based on the legend of William Tell, this opera was Rossini's last, even though the composer lived for nearly forty more years...
, the Duke in Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
, and Carlo in Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
's Linda di Chamounix
Linda di Chamounix
Linda di Chamounix is an operatic melodramma semiserio in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The Italian libretto was written by Gaetano Rossi. It premiered in Vienna, at the Kärntnertortheater, on May 19, 1842.-Performance history:...
. He also happened to appear on stage with Medea Mei in a production of Donizetti's La favorite
La favorite
La favorite is an opera in four acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a French-language libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, based on the play Le comte de Comminges by Baculard d'Arnaud...
; they formed a liaison, and he brought her back to Russia in 1887. Two years later, they wed. Figner soon established himself as the leading tenor at the Mariinsky Theatre
Mariinsky Theatre
The Mariinsky Theatre is a historic theatre of opera and ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music theatre of late 19th century Russia, where many of the stage masterpieces of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov received their premieres. The...
, retaining this status until 1903.
Other Russian composers whose operas he sang were Alexander Borodin
Alexander Borodin
Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin was a Russian Romantic composer and chemist of Georgian–Russian parentage. He was a member of the group of composers called The Five , who were dedicated to producing a specifically Russian kind of art music...
(Vladimir in Prince Igor
Prince Igor
Prince Igor is an opera in four acts with a prologue. It was composed by Alexander Borodin. The composer adapted the libretto from the East Slavic epic The Lay of Igor's Host, which recounts the campaign of Russian prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the invading Polovtsian tribes in 1185...
), Alexander Dargomyzhsky
Alexander Dargomyzhsky
Alexander Sergeyevich Dargomyzhsky was a 19th century Russian composer. He bridged the gap in Russian opera composition between Mikhail Glinka and the later generation of The Five and Tchaikovsky....
(the Prince in Rusalka
Rusalka (Dargomyzhsky)
Rusalka is an opera in four acts, six tableaux, by Alexander Dargomyzhsky, composed during 1848-1855. The Russian libretto was adapted by the composer from Pushkin's incomplete dramatic poem of the same name...
), and Anton Rubinstein
Anton Rubinstein
Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein was a Russian-Jewish pianist, composer and conductor. As a pianist he was regarded as a rival of Franz Liszt, and he ranks amongst the great keyboard virtuosos...
(Sinodal in The Demon
The Demon (opera)
The Demon is an opera in three acts by Russian composer Anton Rubinstein. The work was composed in 1871. The libretto was by Pavel Viskovatov, based on the poem of the same name by Mikhail Lermontov.-Background:...
). A good-looking man, he projected a memorable stage presence and sang with sensitivity and style.
Medea Mei-Figner
Medea Mei was born in FlorenceFlorence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, Italy, on 4 March 1859. She studied there with Bianchi, Carozzi-Zucchi and Panofka. She sang the mezzo-soprano role in Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Requiem
Requiem (Verdi)
The Messa da Requiem by Giuseppe Verdi is a musical setting of the Roman Catholic funeral mass for four soloists, double choir and orchestra. It was composed in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, an Italian poet and novelist much admired by Verdi. The first performance in San Marco in Milan on 22 May...
at the young age of 16, and made her operatic debut soon afterwards, as Azucena in Il trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
, at Sinaluga. She became well known throughout Italy, and also toured Spain, South America and Russia and visited London. Her repertoire then included Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera
Un ballo in maschera , is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi with text by Antonio Somma. The libretto is loosely based on an 1833 play, Gustave III, by French playwright Eugène Scribe who wrote about the historical assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden...
, Amneris in Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
, Gertrude in Ambroise Thomas
Ambroise Thomas
Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas was a French composer, best known for his operas Mignon and Hamlet and as Director of the Conservatoire de Paris from 1871 till his death.-Biography:"There is good music, there is bad music, and then there is Ambroise Thomas."- Emmanuel Chabrier-Early life...
's Hamlet
Hamlet (opera)
Hamlet is an opéra in five acts by the French composer Ambroise Thomas, with a libretto by Michel Carré and Jules Barbier based on a French adaptation by Alexandre Dumas, père and Paul Meurice of Shakespeare's play Hamlet.- Ophelia mania in Paris:...
, Leonora in Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
's La favorite
La favorite
La favorite is an opera in four acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a French-language libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, based on the play Le comte de Comminges by Baculard d'Arnaud...
, and the title role in Bizet
Georges Bizet
Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
. She latter added soprano roles such as Charlotte in Massenet
Jules Massenet
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...
's Werther
Werther
Werther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe....
, and Margherita in Boito
Arrigo Boito
Arrigo Boito , aka Enrico Giuseppe Giovanni Boito, pseudonym Tobia Gorrio, was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist and composer, best known today for his libretti, especially those for Giuseppe Verdi's operas Otello and Falstaff, and his own opera Mefistofele...
's Mefistofele
Mefistofele
Mefistofele is an opera in a prologue, four acts and an epilogue, the only completed opera by the Italian composer-librettist Arrigo Boito.-Composition history:...
.
Medea went to Russia with Nikolay Figner in 1887, making her debut there on 8 May at the St Petersburg Imperial Opera (the Mariinsky Theatre) as Valentine in Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer was a noted German opera composer, and the first great exponent of "grand opera." At his peak in the 1830s and 1840s, he was the most famous and successful composer of opera in Europe, yet he is rarely performed today.-Early years:He was born to a Jewish family in Tasdorf , near...
's Les Huguenots
Les Huguenots
Les Huguenots is a French opera by Giacomo Meyerbeer, one of the most popular and spectacular examples of the style of grand opera. The opera is in five acts and premiered in Paris in 1836. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and Émile Deschamps....
. The soprano knew no Russian at that time, and sang in Italian during the first two St Petersburg seasons. Subsequently, she was received into the Russian Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
, and married Figner on 20 February 1889. Thereafter, Nikolay made it his practice to sing only in operas in which Medea was also singing.
She was referred to after marriage as either Medea Mei-Figner (the form of her name used in most Western reference books) or simply Medea Figner. Furthermore, she was given the patronymic of Ivanovna, and is sometimes designated as Medea (or Medeya) Ivanovna (Mei-)Figner. She eventually mastered Russian to such an extent that native speakers could not tell she had learned it only from the age of 30.
Notably, Medea appeared as Mimi in the first performance of Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
in Russia; she was coached by Puccini himself.
Medea Mei-Figner is the great-great-grandmother of the Italian soprano Amarilli Nizza.
The Figners perform as a team
Both the Figners were considered to be outstanding actors: their first appearance together in BizetGeorges Bizet
Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...
's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
, as Carmen and Don José, produced an ovation said to be unprecedented in the history of Russian opera.
They were highly regarded by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
, who wrote the roles of Hermann and Liza in The Queen of Spades
The Queen of Spades (opera)
The Queen of Spades, Op. 68 is an opera in 3 acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a Russian libretto by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, based on a short story of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. The premiere took place in 1890 in St...
for them. They created the roles in the world premiere of this opera, on 19 December 1890, after rehearsing under Tchaikovsky's personal supervision. Medea was in the early stages of pregnancy at the time. In 1891, when she was unable to continue to appear in The Queen of Spades due to her condition, Nikolay refused to sing with a substitute soprano, and so the opera was removed from the program until Medea was able to return.
The Figners also created the title soprano role and that of the tenor part of Count Vaudémont in Tchaikovsky's opera Iolanta
Iolanta
Iolanta, Op. 69, is a lyric opera in one act by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, and is based on the Danish play Kong Renés Datter by Henrik Hertz. The play was translated by Fyodor Miller and adapted by Vladimir Zotov...
in 1892. Tchaikovsky dedicated his Six Romances, Op. 73 (1893) to Nikolay Figner. Nikolay spent time with Tchaikovsky in the days following the premiere of his Symphony No. 6 Pathetique
Symphony No. 6 (Tchaikovsky)
The Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, Pathétique is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's final completed symphony, written between February and the end of August 1893. The composer led the first performance in Saint Petersburg on 16/28 October of that year, nine days before his death...
. Later, he visited Modest Tchaikovsky
Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian dramatist, opera librettist and translator.-Early life:Modest Ilyich was born in Alapayevsk, the younger brother of the future composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. He graduated from the School of Jurisprudence with a degree in law...
's apartment during the composer's final illness. He returned there immediately after Tchaikovsky's death, helping Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as The Five.The Five, also known as The Mighty Handful or The Mighty Coterie, refers to a circle of composers who met in Saint Petersburg, Russia, in the years 1856–1870: Mily Balakirev , César...
to lay out the body.
By no means, however, did the Figners confine their joint operatic activities to the compositions of Tchaikovsky. For example, they created the main roles in Eduard Nápravník
Eduard Nápravník
Eduard Francevič Nápravník was a Czech conductor and composer, who settled in Russia and is best known for his leading role in Russian musical life as the principal conductor of the Imperial Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg for many decades...
's Dubrovsky
Dubrovsky (opera)
Dubrovsky is an opera in four acts Op. 58, by Eduard Nápravník, to a Russian libretto by Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky after the novel of the same title by Alexander Pushkin.-Creation and performance history:...
and Francesca da Rimini.
Other operas in which the Figners performed as a team included: Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin
Eugene Onegin (opera)
Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, is an opera in 3 acts , by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by Konstantin Shilovsky and the composer and his brother Modest, and is based on the novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin....
(Nikolay's Lensky was said to have been surpassed only by Leonid Sobinov
Leonid Sobinov
Leonid Vitalyevich Sobinov , was an acclaimed Imperial Russian operatic tenor. His fame continued unabated into the Soviet era, and he was made a People's Artist of the RSFSR in 1923...
's interpretation) and The Oprichnik
The Oprichnik (opera)
The Oprichnik or The Guardsman is an opera in 4 acts, 5 scenes, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to his own libretto after the tragedy The Oprichniks by Ivan Lazhechnikov . The subject of the opera is the oprichniks...
; Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
's Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
, La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
and Otello
Otello
Otello is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Shakespeare's play Othello. It was Verdi's penultimate opera, and was first performed at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, on February 5, 1887....
(singing in the latter work's 1889 Russian premiere); Gounod
Charles Gounod
Charles-François Gounod was a French composer, known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Roméo et Juliette.-Biography:...
's Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
and Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette
Roméo et Juliette is an opéra in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. It was first performed at the Théâtre Lyrique , Paris on 27 April 1867...
; Auber
Daniel Auber
Daniel François Esprit Auber was a French composer.-Biography:The son of a Paris print-seller, Auber was born in Caen in Normandy. Though his father expected him to continue in the print-selling business, he also allowed his son to learn how to play several musical instruments...
's Fra Diavolo
Fra Diavolo
Fra Diavolo , is the popular name given to Michele Pezza, a famous Neapolitan guerrilla leader who resisted the French occupation of Naples, proving an “inspirational practicioner of popular insurrection”. Pezza figures prominently in folk lore and fiction...
; and the Russian premieres of Mascagni
Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music...
's Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...
, Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
and Leoncavallo
Ruggero Leoncavallo
Ruggero Leoncavallo was an Italian opera composer. His two-act work Pagliacci remains one of the most popular works in the repertory, appearing as number 20 on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide.-Biography:...
's Pagliacci
Pagliacci
Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
. Oddly, they never appeared in works written by Rimsky-Korsakov, who was the most prolific operatic composer in Tsarist Russia. It has been suggested that the reason for this gap in their repertoire was personal: they had asked Rimsky-Korsakov to write an opera for them, or to make some changes to his existing work May Night
May Night
May Night is an opera in three acts, four scenes, by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov from a libretto by the composer and is based on Nikolai Gogol's story May Night, or the Drowned Maiden, from his collection Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka....
, but the composer apparently refused to oblige and this may have offended the Figners.
Divorce, later lives and recorded legacy
The Figners divorced in 1904. Medea made a tour of South AmericaSouth America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
and returned to continue a solo career at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. From 1910 to 1915 Nikolay directed and sang with the Narodny Dom
People's Houses
People's Houses were originally leisure and cultural centres built with the intention of making art and cultural appreciation available to the working classes...
opera company in Saint Petersburg. Medea's farewell performance was in the title role in Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
in 1912. In 1917 Nikolay moved to the Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, where he taught at the Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
Conservatory. He lost most of his possessions during the Russian Revolution of 1917, and died in poverty in Kiev on 13 December 1918, aged 61. Medea left Soviet Russia in 1930 and settled in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where she died on 8 July 1952, at the age of 93.
Both of their voices can be heard on the LP anthology The Record of Singing
The Record of Singing
The Record of Singing is a compilation of classical-music singing from the first half of the 20th century, the era of the 78-rpm record.It was issued on LP by EMI, successor to the British company His Master's Voice — perhaps the leading organization in the early history of audio recording.The...
, while a comprehensive selection of their recordings was released on compact disc by the Symposium label in 2000. This double set of CDs bears the catalogue numbers 1255/1256.
Importantly, Medea Mei-Figner recorded "Lisa's aria" from The Queen of Spades
The Queen of Spades (opera)
The Queen of Spades, Op. 68 is an opera in 3 acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a Russian libretto by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, based on a short story of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. The premiere took place in 1890 in St...
with the alternative low ending sanctioned by the composer. She also made discs of "Vissi d'arte" from Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
and arias from Werther
Werther
Werther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Édouard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe....
and Carmen, as well as recording a number of songs, including "Penso" by Paolo Tosti. Her voice was considered by contemporary critics to be more beautiful and more impressive than that of her husband. He was already past his vocal prime when he and his wife cut their first series of 78-rpm records in St Petersburg in 1901-02 for EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
's predecessor, the Gramophone & Typewriter Company.
The Danish journalist Knut de Hageman-Lindenkrone conducted a long recorded interview with Medea Mei at her Parisian appartement in 1949, when the singer was 90 years old. The interview is in French, although Medea Mei may be heard to speak as well in Italian and Russian with her daughter, who was also present. She even sings a few bars of music here and there, including both the first phrase and the last from Liza's aria, 'Midnight is Approaching', from Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades, which she had created 59 years before!
This fascinating hour-long interview, with unique memories of Tchaikovsky and other fabled events of Mme Mei's Sankt-Petersburg career, was included in a Rubini Records set of two long-playing records, c. 1975, that also featured Medea Mei-Figner's complete commercially recorded output from the beginning of the XX Century.
Sources
- Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 5th ed, 1954
- Julie A. Buckler, The Literary Lorgnette: Attending Opera in Imperial Russia
- Medea Figner's Recordings
- Recordings by Medea Figner