What role did the cabaret singer play in Stalin's life, whose role Olga Buzova played in the performance of the Moscow Art Theater

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

News about the participation of the "singing presenter" in the production of the Moscow Art Theater. Gorky's "Wonderful Georgian" caused a lot of controversy and ridicule. In the story, Olga Buzova plays the role of Bella Chantal, a cabaret and corporate singer who, according to the theater's artistic director Eduard Boyakov, "makes everyone laugh." And she is also the last love of Joseph Stalin. Despite the fact that the image of the singer is partly fictional, it has a very real prototype.

Who is behind the image of Bella Chantal

The character played by Olga Buzova did not actually exist, but there was a completely different woman who, only many years after the death of Joseph Stalin, dared to reveal the secret of her relationship with the leader. When the book with memoirs was published in 1994, it caused controversy no less than the Moscow Art Theater premiere with the participation of Olga Buzova.

The author of the book "Confessions of Stalin's Mistress" Leonard Gendlin claimed that he was recording Vera Davydova's memories from her words, and she also warned him: after the publication was published, she would categorically deny everything written. Whatever it was, but "Confession …" aroused tremendous interest throughout the world.

Now Vera Davydova, a singer of the Bolshoi Theater, is remembered only as Stalin's mistress, and after all, she was once called one of the best performers of the part of Lyubasha in Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride, Carmen in the opera of the same name by Bizet and Amneris in Aida by Giuseppe Verdi.

She was born in 1906 in Nizhny Novgorod, in the simplest family, where her father served as a land surveyor, and her mother was a folk teacher. She was taught music by her stepfather, at the age of six she first appeared on the stage, where she sang solo in a concert attended by the centenary of the Battle of Borodino.

While still studying at the Leningrad Conservatory, Vera Davydova married Dmitry Mchedlidze, who would later become a soloist of the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater, then the Bolshoi Theater, and in 1950-1952 he will be in charge of the opera troupe and the repertoire part.

19-year relationship with the leader

At the age of 26, Vera Davydova already shone on the stage of the Kirov Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theater. When the troupe was on tour in Moscow in 1932, Stalin himself attended the production with the participation of the mezzo-soprano singer. He personally congratulated her on her success, inviting her to his box and calling her "Comrade Davydova." On the same evening, during a banquet, the singer was informed about her transfer to the Bolshoi Theater. A month later, she and her husband already lived in Moscow.

And after the next concert and the banquet that followed, Vera Davydova was ordered to get into the car that was waiting for her on Manezhnaya Square and not ask any unnecessary questions. The driver took the singer straight to the house of Joseph Stalin. She had no right to refuse either then or at the moment when the leader turned off the light in his bedroom.

In The Confessions of Stalin's Mistress, the author claims that The Miraculous Georgian sincerely loved Vera Davydova, was jealous of her husband and even gave her evidence of Dmitry Mchedlidze's infidelity. The leader was impressed by her ability to answer him in Georgian, the basics of which she learned thanks to her husband. Joseph Vissarionovich treated her with the care that he was generally capable of. For example, during the war he sent her to be evacuated to Kuibyshev together with her husband.

Already in the post-war years, the meetings of Vera Davydova with Stalin became much less frequent, which actually frightened her, since the singer simply did not know what to expect next, favors or disgrace, the consequences of which could be unpredictable. But no repression followed, and in 1952 she met with Stalin for the last time. In the same 1952, the singer's husband left for Tbilisi, where he became a soloist of the Georgian Opera and Ballet Theater, as well as its director and conductor. Vera Davydova worked at the Bolshoi Theater until 1956, then joined her husband, and later began teaching vocal art at the Tbilisi Conservatory.

Truth or fiction

If you believe all the same "Confession", Joseph Stalin actually had feelings for a talented and beautiful singer. But Vera Davydova herself, according to her children and grandchildren, was in real shock when she learned about the existence of a book in which she appears to be the leader's mistress. Allegedly, it was the book that contributed to the fact that Vera Davydova died in February 1993, shortly after the news about the existence of the publication.

The singer's granddaughter Olga Mchedlidze, who was raised by Vera Davydova, is sure: the author of the book thus took revenge on the family of Dmitry Mchedlidze, who once achieved the dismissal of musician Leonardo Gendlin from the Bolshoi Theater. The singer's granddaughter, from the words of her grandmother, knew about her meetings with Stalin, but they all took place at government receptions with a large crowd of people. Only once she was brought to the dacha of Joseph Vissarionovich immediately after the performance.

To the leader's question about what the singer was missing, she answered: the title of People's Artist for her teacher. Stalin wrote down the words of Vera Davydova in the calendar and immediately ordered to take her home. There were no more personal meetings.

Unlike Bella Chantal, played by Olga Buzova, Vera Davydova was not funny. She was incredibly talented, and today no one can check whether she was really the last love of the leader.

Officially, the head of the Land of Soviets, Joseph Stalin, was married twice. The first wife of Joseph Dzhugashvili was Kato Svanidze, the second - Nadezhda Alliluyeva. After the voluntary departure of his second wife, Joseph Stalin no longer tied the knot. but rumors about his mistresses exaggerated today.