Stars of the 1990s: The meteoric rise and the mystery of the premature departure of "Ivanushka" by Igor Sorin

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

On November 10, Igor Sorin would have turned 51, but for 22 years he has been dead. Recently the Ivanushki International group celebrated its 25th anniversary. Artists continue to perform on stage, although it is, of course, impossible to compare their popularity with the incredible fame that fell upon them in the 1990s. For many, the name of this group is associated with its first line-up, in which Igor Sorin was the most unusual soloist. In just 3 years his name was recognized by the whole country, and suddenly, at the peak of popularity, he decided to leave the group, and a few months later his life was cut short under mysterious circumstances, which they are still trying to clarify …

The fact that Igor Rayberg (Sorin is a stage name suggested by his mother's maiden name) is an incredibly talented and creative person, but at the same time very vulnerable and suspicious, he proved to everyone in childhood. What for others was just a nuisance or grief became a real disaster for him. His first tragedy was … The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn! None of the viewers suspected that in fact they should have seen Igor Sorin in the image of Tom. When Stanislav Govorukhin started working on this film, he announced a competition in the Pionerskaya Pravda newspaper and invited applicants for the role of Tom Sawyer from all over the country to the film studio. Igor Sorin became the winner of the all-Union casting.

The boy had already been approved for the main role, but then Nikita Mikhalkov advised Stanislav Govorukhin to take on the role of Tom Sawyer Fedya Stukov - before that Mikhalkov had already shot him in his films "A few days in the life of I. I. Oblomov" and "Relatives" and was delighted talent and bright appearance of the little red-haired actor. We must pay tribute to his directing instinct - getting into the image of Tom Sawyer at Stukov really was one hundred percent. But for 11-year-old Igor Sorin, this was the first big tragedy. He took his failure very hard. Govorukhin, feeling guilty about what had happened, offered Sorin a small role for Joe Harper. In the credits, he was mentioned under his real name - Ryberg. This role was the first and last in his acting career. Later, Igor asked his parents not to tell anyone that he once acted in films - this resentment lived in him for a long time.

After the 8th grade, Igor entered the radio-mechanical technical school, and during his studies he created his first musical group. Even then, he realized that music fascinates him much more than the chosen specialty, and he continued his studies at the department of musical comedy of the State School named after. Gnesins. Igor studied there for 3 years, and then passed a casting in the musical "Metro" of the Warsaw Music and Drama Theater and went with him on tour in Europe and America. The artists did not have much success there, but one of them was offered to stay in the United States and continue his studies at the New York Vocal Academy. It was Igor Sorin. Any of his colleagues would have been happy with such a chance, but he refused - in America he had neither acquaintances nor means of subsistence.

After returning to his homeland, Igor recovered in Gnesinka and completed his studies, and after that he participated in the filming of the program "My own director" as a co-author of scripts and an actor in the "Got Game" section. While on tour, he met Andrei Grigoriev-Apollonov, who danced in the musical Metro, and at the end of 1994 he invited Sorin to join the Ivanushki International group. From that moment on, a new stage began in the biography of Igor Sorin.

From the very first songs, the group gained incredible popularity. At first, they performed for free in the assembly halls of the capital's schools, and soon full stadiums were already gathering for their concerts. From 1996 to 1998, the artists toured all over the country. The fans stormed the hotels where they stayed and pelted the stage with flowers and soft toys during their performances. It would seem that such a success could not but rejoice. But Igor Sorin suffered from this - he was a rather closed person, immersed in his own thoughts and experiences, and the increased attention he was rather weighed down than pleased.

Since childhood, Igor wrote poetry and music, was the author of the lyrics for several songs "Ivanushki" ("Sunflower", "Somewhere", "I'm looking for her"), but dreamed of his own creative realization. It seemed to him that it was simply impossible to be creative in the frantic rhythm of the Ivanushki tour, that in this bustle he would lose the most important thing. In addition, he criticized the group's repertoire and did not want to perform with phonogram. The musician said that he was suffocating in the group. And in March 1998 Sorin decided to leave Ivanushki. In one of the interviews of that time, he admitted: "".

After that, the artist started working on a solo project. He rented an apartment, equipped it as a studio, and began recording songs. It was in this studio that he took his last step - from the balcony on the sixth floor. It happened early in the morning on September 1, 1998. Igor's friends were in the apartment. He told them that he would go out to the balcony to smoke, and a few minutes later he was found lying on the ground below. With a concussion, numerous bruises of internal organs and a fracture of the cervical vertebrae, Sorin was taken to the hospital. He underwent surgery, after which he even came to his senses and spoke. True, he did not explain the reasons for what happened - he only said that he did it of his own free will. And on September 4 he was gone. He was only 28 years old.

Both fans and relatives of the artist refused to believe in the official version, according to which Igor Sorin independently decided to die. Although the musician's mother said that he recently suffered from prolonged depression due to the fact that he could not find a producer for his solo project. The wife of Igor Alexander Chernikov, with whom he spent 4 years together, also mentioned the depressive states of her husband: "".

Possible versions also included an accident and a premeditated crime. Many of Igor Sorin's entourage, including the producer of the group Igor Matvienko, hinted that he abused alcohol and illegal substances, and assumed that in a state of altered consciousness he could accidentally fall out of the balcony. However, an examination in his blood did not reveal either one or the other. It was even assumed that the musician died at the hands of sectarians, with whom he allegedly contacted recently. But at that time Sorin was not alone in the apartment, and there were no sectarians there, and the very fact of his involvement in any sect was denied by his relatives. All these versions have not been confirmed. The artist's mother said: "".

This film revealed not only Igor Sorin's talent: How did the fate of the actors "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn".