Five dinners in an evening and the struggle for your dignity: How chorus girls lived and worked before the revolution

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

Nowadays, listening to the choir is an occupation, rather, for music lovers and lovers of academic or folk music. But in the 19th century, the choirs were not so much listening as they were walking with the choirs. Gypsy, Hungarian, Georgian, Russian - all this in relation to the choir speaks not of nationality, but of role.

What did the names of choirs mean in pre-revolutionary Russia?

The first thing, of course, was hidden behind the name: the composition of the choir and the choice of its songs from folklore or pop art of this or that nation. So, most of the singers and singers of the gypsy choir were indeed gypsies and gypsies, but sometimes for their voice, for their good ability to adapt to the manner of singing, for talent they took Russian girls into their midst. Georgians sang in the Georgian choir. In the Russian choir one could find representatives of any Russian people of European appearance.

But in the Hungarian choirs it was difficult to find Hungarians and Hungarians, rather, they were choirs embodying ideas about the parties of Hungarian magnates: ruffled, mostly with a cafe repertoire, bright Eastern European costumes, including often shocking for Russians, Hungarian folk skirts up to the knee. Other choirs could also be “fake” - the undemanding part of the audience, both then and now, did not understand the difference between real gypsy and Georgian singers and those who only portray them.

There could also be confusion with Russian choirs in the early twentieth century. Because of the fashion for everything Russian, folk, rooted deeply, not only royal masquerades in "Russian" costumes appeared, but also choirs performing village songs in sarafans (much more beautiful than real ones) and their author's imitations. The usual Russian choir specialized, rather, in romance. The romance was also included in the repertoire of gypsy choirs.

Chorus and morality

Due to the fact that in classical literature, individual mentions of choristers are usually found in the context of a very definite kind of pleasures, in the minds of later generations of Russians who did not find the choral culture, chorus girls are associated with prostitution. In fact, this view is both true and false.

Very often, dishonest dancers gathered singers with very mediocre vocal abilities for a tour of the province, and ensembles of this kind were teased by brothels on the road: for provincial merchants to spin with a visiting singer meant in some way to catch up with the prince who contained his mistress-ballerina, and they willingly bought themselves evenings in the company of chorus girls. However, even the broken Hungarian choirs sometimes had a rule - look under your skirt, you can even touch it, but no walks to classrooms or rooms. This did not make the chorus girls more respected in the eyes of society, but still allowed them to retain the remnants of dignity in their own eyes.

However, according to the testimony of Amfiteatrov, the author of physiological essays on the morals of Moscow chorus girls, quite strict morals reigned in many choirs, and the singer, who decided not to sell herself, but to make herself a permanent patron, could be sternly discussed by her friends. According to the testimony of both Amfitheatrov and Théophile Gaultier, the same severity - with an external freeman, when a girl could afford to sit on the guest's lap, drink from his glass - reigned in gypsy choirs. The guests usually respected the severity of the gypsy singers, although they could be called not only for city holidays, but also for the most unbridled drinking parties, where an ordinary Moscow Russian chorus girl would never go.

A special culture

Due to special work schedules and some prejudices, the chorus girls were relatively isolated from public life. As a result, they formed their own internal rules of life, which would seem strange to other girls.

For example, it was a matter of honor for the chorus girls, even at the cost of refusing breakfast and lunch, to wear silk dresses every day. Demonstrative, but not very dangerous, suicides were in great fashion, when the singer was poisoned by something - and they would certainly tell about this later in the circle of friends. Moreover, everything that actually had to do with death - the sight of the cemetery, the monk met, and so on - was superstitiously feared.

Although it was shameful for many to have a patron, it was almost obligatory for a chorus to have a lover, whom she would shower with gifts, and suffer from his beauty, indifference and greed. So obscene extramarital affairs took on a shade of noble drama. In search of the warmth of the soul, the chorus girls made up pairs of best friends. Friendship, moreover, was harsh, the exchange of gifts with other friends was punishable by contempt. For this, the singers were often suspected of lesbian love, but Amphitheatrov testifies that she was still a rarity among chorus girls.

The same Amfitheatrov claims that, knowing how much she fell in the eyes of others with her work in restaurants, the chorus woman still rarely crossed the line of prostitution, and she perceived her work as temporary dirty work that allows her to interrupt in anticipation of marriage or to save money. The money usually went to buy a small house, rooms in which were then rented out to students or seamstresses - that is, many chorus girls were future rentiers, albeit of the most undemanding level.

They left the choir in another way. As Amfitheatrov writes: “There are few beauties in Russian choirs, although an ugly woman with a face that makes the audience despondent will rarely be accepted into the choir, even for a good voice: unless she has an extraordinary talent. But the talent does not sit in the chorus for long: either the gypsies will lure away, or there will be an exploiter from the passing provincial entrepreneurs or small actors and will take a woman with a voice and a "spark of God" behind him, no matter how ugly she is, to the operetta or vaudeville stage. You can name a number of actors who - in themselves a behind-the-scenes aphid - went out to people, holding on to the train of their talented wives, former chorus girls."

The chorus girls themselves rented rooms, the smallest and cheapest, to which the owners usually allowed to bring any guests - but it was the chorus girls who tried not to invite guests, so as not to "smear over", not to put a stain on even an inferior, albeit pitiful, but reputation. And this despite the fact that in restaurants chorus girls and guests were always on the "you" and drank together at dinner.

Encouraging as many guests as possible to feed dinner, by the way, was part of the duties of the chorus. During the evening, she was ordered more than one bottle of champagne and more than one chicken. Naturally, the chorus member actually ate only once during the evening. The rest was worn over and over again, then put back into the kitchen.

In conclusion, we can note the special pride of the choral singers. “Feeling herself placed outside of society, the singer highly values those who treat her as a decent woman. None of them will be offended if a frequent visitor, having met the singer on the street, does not bow to her, especially if he is not alone, but with a lady. But bowing to the singer under such circumstances means acquiring a friend,”Amphitheatrov also noted.

More about the history of restaurant choirs: Legendary restaurant "Yar": Why Chaliapin and Glinka loved it, and how Belmondo and Gandhi ended up in it.