The dramatic fate of Yuri Gulyaev: What was the reason for the early departure of the singer, who was called the "symbol of space"

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

The famous opera and pop singer, People's Artist of the USSR could have turned 88 on August 9 Yuri Gulyaev, but he has been dead for 32 years. He was friends with Yuri Gagarin and other cosmonauts, in his repertoire there were many songs about space, including "Do you know what kind of guy he was" ("He said:" Let's go! ", He waved his hand …"). On the screens, he always looked cheerful and smiling, and fans considered him a darling of fate, did not suspect what trials he had to go through, and why his life ended so early.

Yuri Gulyaev was born in 1930 in Tyumen. His mother loved music, sang well and learned songs and romances with her son, but dreamed that he would become a doctor. Therefore, after school, Yuri entered the medical institute, but soon realized: the only thing that fascinates him there is amateur performances. When the leaders of the drama club first heard his voice, they advised him to take up singing professionally, and Yuri entered the Sverdlovsk Conservatory. True, at the beginning, his studies were difficult: the young man had a very wide range, and the teacher taught him as a tenor. The ligaments quickly got tired, he was exhausted, and only by the fourth year the teachers established that in fact he had a baritone.

Immediately after graduation, Gulyaev became a soloist of the Sverdlovsk Opera. A year later, he moved to Donetsk, and after another 3 years he received a gold medal in a vocal competition at the World Festival of Youth and Students in Vienna. After that, he became a soloist with the National Opera of Ukraine in Kiev. Here he became a real star of the stage, performing more than 10 operatic parts. When he was not yet 40 years old, Gulyaev received the title of People's Artist of the USSR.

The Gulyaevs' apartment was often visited by prominent people of that time: the family was friends with Wolf Messing and Yuri Gagarin, German Titov, Edita Piekha, Muslim Magomayev, Vladimir Vysotsky, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yuri Lyubimov, Innokenty Smoktunovsky stayed with them. Gulyaev's wife recalled about Vysotsky's visit: “”.

In parallel with the opera, Yuri Gulyaev conducted concert activities and sang pop songs and romances. His finest hour was the period of cooperation with Alexandra Pakhmutova and Nikolai Dobronravov, who wrote for him a cycle of songs "Gagarin's Constellation". Wherever he appeared, he was always asked to perform "You Know What kind of guy he was." His calling cards were the songs "Russian Field" and "At an Nameless Height".

In 1975 the singer moved to Moscow and became a soloist with the Bolshoi Theater. The reason for the move was a devastating review in one of the Kiev newspapers about the production with his participation, although the reasons were much more serious than resentment of misunderstanding. The fact is that the singer's only son suffered from cerebral palsy from birth and needed serious treatment and operations, which could only be done in the capital. The move entailed new problems: the competition at the Bolshoi Theater was very high, and Gulyaev got few roles, but he began to give more concerts and toured the entire Union, visited Japan, the USA, Belgium, Canada, France and Cuba. In 1964 g.he performed on the stage of the Olympia concert hall in Paris, after which the French dubbed him “the young Chaliapin”. The foreign press wrote about his performance in 1971: "".

The famous singer had crowds of fans from whom he received bags of letters, but all his life he was faithful to the only woman - his wife, journalist and editor Larisa Mikhailovna. Due to the difficulties that arose in connection with the illness and the upbringing of their son, their marriage only became stronger. And the efforts were not in vain: later Yuri Gulyaev Jr. became a candidate of philosophical sciences and a teacher at Moscow State University.

I had to work a lot, and soon the singer's health began to fail: asthma reminded of herself, which began to bother him back in Kiev. The last 8 years of his life, he spent a lot of time in hospitals. Gulyaev had many envious people, and when he had health problems, there were persistent rumors that alcohol dependence was the reason. However, this was not true - his health was undermined by a busy touring schedule, his son's illness and stress due to the inability to fully realize his talent on the opera stage.

The famous singer died while driving. He drove out of the garage and felt unwell. It seemed to him that an asthma attack had begun, he took out an inhaler, but it turned out that his heart could not stand it. On April 23, 1986, he died at the age of 56. Alexandra Pakhmutova said about him: "".

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