Nina Koshetz
Encyclopedia
Nina Koshetz was a Ukrainian, later American, soprano
opera
and recital singer.
Her father, a famous opera singer Pavel Koshetz
(ru: Павел Алексеевич Кошиц; 1863 - March 2, 1904), committed suicide. She was then 12 years.
She was born into a family of intellectuals in Kiev
, then moved to Moscow and became an opera singer. In 1908—13 she studied in Mosow State Conservatory
(professor of solo singing U. Mazetti), her piano teachers were N. Shishkin, K. Igumnov
, S. Taneev)
.
Having received voice lessons in France from the retired dramatic soprano
Felia Litvinne
, she sang leading roles in opera and performed in principal opera houses across Russia and Europe. In the late 1910s she performed at the Petrograd Conservatory and was accompanied by then-unknown Vladimir Horowitz
. She had initially resisted being accompanied by the unknown student, but afterward insisted that only he could accompany her there; she subsequently programmed some of Horowitz's songs.
In 1920 she went to America and joined the Chicago Opera Association
where she sang in the premiere of Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges (1921). She later performed for the Russian Opera Company in New York
and on tour in South America. At the end of the 1920s she was active in France, where she appeared in the French premiere of Sadko
.
Known for her overly-extravagant life style, her vocal powers declined in the 1930s and in 1940 she retired to Hollywood where she made a living as a voice teacher and restaurateur (a venture that ended in bankruptcy in 1942). She also appeared in bit parts in several Hollywood movies. She died in Santa Ana
, California
in 1965.
Nina's daughter Marina Koshetz (also known as Marina Schubert) (1912–2001) was a soprano
opera singer who appeared with the San Francisco Opera
as well as the Metropolitan Opera
, New York. She sang in films and wrote a biography of her mother and a screenplay about Nina's love affair with Rachmaninoff both titled The Last Love Song.
during the 1910s, and he composed a cycle of six romantic songs dedicated to her (opus 38). Rachmaninoff also played piano accompaniment for Nina Koshetz who preferred a Blüthner
piano for its mellower, softer tone.
Songs by Mussorgsky
, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Gretchaninov
, Varlamov, Rachmaninoff, Anton Arensky
, Martini
, Ponce
, Ravel, and Chopin etc.; arias from Sadko
, The Demon
, Dobrynia Nikititch, The Fair at Sorochyntsi, Pique Dame
and Prince Igor
. CD released 1993 (Opal/Pavilion Records, 9855)
Songs and arias by Borodin
, Rimsky-Korsakov, Ravel, Ponce, Martini, Chopin, Gretchaninov, Rachmaninoff, Arensky, Tchaikovsky. (Nimbus Prima Voce CD NI 7935-36)
in the silent film Casanova (1927), and as 'Fatme' in Geheimnisse des Orients (1928). After her retirement from the operatic and concert stage, she appeared in bit parts in Algiers
(1938), The Chase
(1946), Captain Pirate (1952) and Hot Blood (1956).
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...
opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
and recital singer.
Her father, a famous opera singer Pavel Koshetz
Pavel Koshetz
Pavel Koshetz ; December 14, 1863, Kiev Oblast, Russian Empire - March 2, 1904, Moscow) was a Russian opera singer .He studied at the Kiev Theological Seminary, then at the Moscow Conservatory . At the end of 1886 Pavel Koshetz went to study in Milan...
(ru: Павел Алексеевич Кошиц; 1863 - March 2, 1904), committed suicide. She was then 12 years.
She was born into a family of intellectuals in 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....
, then moved to Moscow and became an opera singer. In 1908—13 she studied in Mosow State Conservatory
Moscow Conservatory
The Moscow Conservatory is a higher musical education institution in Moscow, and the second oldest conservatory in Russia after St. Petersburg Conservatory. Along with the St...
(professor of solo singing U. Mazetti), her piano teachers were N. Shishkin, K. Igumnov
Konstantin Igumnov
Konstantin Nicolayevich Igumnov was a Russian virtuoso pianist and the teacher of many famous Russian pianists.Igumnov studied under Nikolai Zverev, and at Moscow Conservatory under Alexander Siloti and Pavel Pabst. He took theory and composition courses from Sergei Taneyev, Anton Arensky and...
, S. Taneev)
Sergei Taneyev
Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev , was a Russian composer, pianist, teacher of composition, music theorist and author.-Life:...
.
Having received voice lessons in France from the retired dramatic 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...
Felia Litvinne
Félia Litvinne
Félia Litvinne was a Russian-born, French-based dramatic soprano. She was particularly associated with Wagnerian roles, although she also sang a wide range of parts by other opera composers....
, she sang leading roles in opera and performed in principal opera houses across Russia and Europe. In the late 1910s she performed at the Petrograd Conservatory and was accompanied by then-unknown Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz was a Russian-American classical virtuoso pianist and minor composer. His technique and use of tone color and the excitement of his playing were legendary. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.-Life and early...
. She had initially resisted being accompanied by the unknown student, but afterward insisted that only he could accompany her there; she subsequently programmed some of Horowitz's songs.
In 1920 she went to America and joined the Chicago Opera Association
Chicago Opera Association
The Chicago Opera Association was a company that produced seven seasons of grand opera in Chicago’s Auditorium Theater from 1915 to 1921. The founding artistic director and principal conductor was Cleofonte Campanini, while the general manager and chief underwriter was Harold F. McCormick...
where she sang in the premiere of Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges (1921). She later performed for the Russian Opera Company in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and on tour in South America. At the end of the 1920s she was active in France, where she appeared in the French premiere of Sadko
Sadko (opera)
Sadko is an opera in seven scenes by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The libretto was written by the composer, with assistance from Vladimir Belsky, Vladimir Stasov, and others. Rimsky-Korsakov was first inspired by the bylina of Sadko in 1867, when he completed a tone poem on the subject, his Op. 5...
.
Known for her overly-extravagant life style, her vocal powers declined in the 1930s and in 1940 she retired to Hollywood where she made a living as a voice teacher and restaurateur (a venture that ended in bankruptcy in 1942). She also appeared in bit parts in several Hollywood movies. She died in Santa Ana
Santa Ana, California
Santa Ana is the county seat and second most populous city in Orange County, California, and with a population of 324,528 at the 2010 census, Santa Ana is the 57th-most populous city in the United States....
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in 1965.
Nina's daughter Marina Koshetz (also known as Marina Schubert) (1912–2001) was a 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...
opera singer who appeared with the San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera
San Francisco Opera is an American opera company, based in San Francisco, California.It was founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola and is the second largest opera company in North America...
as well as the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
, New York. She sang in films and wrote a biography of her mother and a screenplay about Nina's love affair with Rachmaninoff both titled The Last Love Song.
Relationship with Rachmaninoff
She had a working relationship with composer Sergei RachmaninoffSergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
during the 1910s, and he composed a cycle of six romantic songs dedicated to her (opus 38). Rachmaninoff also played piano accompaniment for Nina Koshetz who preferred a Blüthner
Blüthner
Blüthner, formally Julius Blüthner Pianofortefabrik GmbH, is a piano-manufacturing company founded by Julius Blüthner in 1853 in Leipzig Germany.- History :...
piano for its mellower, softer tone.
Recordings
- The Nina Koshetz Edition - 1916-1941
Songs by Mussorgsky
Modest Mussorgsky
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky was a Russian composer, one of the group known as 'The Five'. He was an innovator of Russian music in the romantic period...
, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Gretchaninov
Alexander Gretchaninov
Alexander Tikhonovich Gretchaninov was a Russian Romantic composer.-His life:Gretchaninov started his musical studies rather late because his father, a businessman, had expected the boy to take over the family firm...
, Varlamov, Rachmaninoff, Anton Arensky
Anton Arensky
Anton Stepanovich Arensky -Biography:Arensky was born in Novgorod, Russia. He was musically precocious and had composed a number of songs and piano pieces by the age of nine...
, Martini
Giovanni Battista Martini
Giovanni Battista Martini , also known as Padre Martini, was an Italian musician.-Biography:Martini was born at Bologna....
, Ponce
Manuel Maria Ponce
Manuel María Ponce Cuéllar was a Mexican composer active in the 20th century. His work as a composer, music educator and scholar of Mexican music connected the concert scene with a usually forgotten tradition of popular song and Mexican folklore...
, Ravel, and Chopin etc.; arias from Sadko
Sadko (opera)
Sadko is an opera in seven scenes by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The libretto was written by the composer, with assistance from Vladimir Belsky, Vladimir Stasov, and others. Rimsky-Korsakov was first inspired by the bylina of Sadko in 1867, when he completed a tone poem on the subject, his Op. 5...
, 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:...
, Dobrynia Nikititch, The Fair at Sorochyntsi, Pique Dame
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 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...
. CD released 1993 (Opal/Pavilion Records, 9855)
- Nina Koshetz – Complete Victor and Schirmer recordings 1928/29 and 1940 (and Odarka Trifonieva Sprishevskaya – Victor recordings)
Songs and arias by 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...
, Rimsky-Korsakov, Ravel, Ponce, Martini, Chopin, Gretchaninov, Rachmaninoff, Arensky, Tchaikovsky. (Nimbus Prima Voce CD NI 7935-36)
Films
She appeared as 'Countess Vorontsov' opposite Ivan MozzhukhinIvan Mozzhukhin
Ivan Ilyich Mozzhukhin Ivan Ilyich Mozzhukhin Ivan Ilyich Mozzhukhin (Russian: Иван Ильич Мозжухин was a Russian silent film actor.-Career in Russia:Mozzhukhin was born in Penza, Russia and studied law at Moscow State University. In 1910 he left academic life to join a troupe of traveling actors...
in the silent film Casanova (1927), and as 'Fatme' in Geheimnisse des Orients (1928). After her retirement from the operatic and concert stage, she appeared in bit parts in Algiers
Algiers (film)
Algiers is a 1938 American drama film directed by John Cromwell and starring Charles Boyer, Sigrid Gurie, and Hedy Lamarr. The Walter Wanger production was a remake of the successful 1937 French film Pépé le Moko, which derived its plot from the Henri La Barthe novel of the same name...
(1938), The Chase
The Chase (1946 film)
The Chase is an American film noir, shot in black and white, directed by Arthur Ripley. The screenplay is based on the Cornell Woolrich novel The Black Path of Fear...
(1946), Captain Pirate (1952) and Hot Blood (1956).