Video: Mister X of the Soviet stage: what was hidden behind the mask of well-being of Georg Ots
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Georg Ots was one of the most popular opera and pop singers of the 1950s and 1960s. It seemed that he had everything - high fees, fame, recognition, universal adoration. But behind the external well-being hid longing and loneliness - just like his most famous hero, Mr. X.
It seemed that his path was predetermined from birth: his great-grandfather played the violin, his grandfather played the piano and organ, his father was an opera singer, so George was in love with music in his blood. Since childhood, he played the piano and sang in the school choir. At the age of 12, Georg first appeared on stage - in the boys' choir in the opera Carmen. However, he did not dream of a singing career - his father believed that his son's voice was too weak for the opera stage. Georg Ots' second hobby after music was sports - he played basketball and fencing. And in 1939 and 1940. he became Estonian swimming champion. The father said: "". Not wanting to disappoint his father, Georg entered the Tallinn Polytechnic Institute, but studied for only a year - in 1941 the war began.
Like many of his peers, Ots sailed on a steamer to Leningrad to be enrolled in army units, but his service as an anti-tank platoon commander lasted only a month - at that moment Estonian art ensembles were being formed and artists were looking for them, and Ots became a soloist. They gave about 400 concerts at the front and in hospitals. After the liquidation of artistic ensembles in 1944, Ots was admitted to the staff of the State Academic Theater "Estonia". In the same year, he married Asta Saar, the daughter of a gypsy woman and an Estonian journalist. This was his second marriage, the first lasted only a few months - his wife did not wait for him from the war and started an affair with a German. His second wife Asta was a ballerina and they worked in the same theater.
For the first time Georg Ots appeared on the stage as a soloist, when the performer of the role of Zaretsky in Eugene Onegin fell ill, and the artist had to replace him. When Karl Ots first saw his son on stage, he could not believe his eyes and ears - he still believed that Georg could only sing in a choir. But while still a student at the conservatory, Georg Ots received the country's highest award for the role of Eugene Onegin - the Stalin Prize. By 1950 he was already one of the leading soloists of the Estonia Theater.
Ots made his film debut in 1951 in the film "Light in Coordi", and for this role he was awarded the second Stalin Prize. But all-Union fame came to him after the main role in the film "Mister X" in 1958, which became his trademark. Composer D. Kabalevsky wrote: "". The singer had already enjoyed great success with the female sex, but after the release of this film he became a real idol of the 1950s, fans pursued him everywhere.
The uniqueness of Ots's performing style was that he performed with equal success both as an opera singer and as a pop singer. Throughout his creative life, he sang more than 500 songs, many of which became popular hits, later they were performed by other artists: "Nightingales", "Moscow Nights", "Where the Motherland Begins", "I Love You, Life", " Do the Russians want war?”And others. Moreover, Ots was equally serious about his performances at the opera house and on stage. And even being a recognized master, he continued to worry before each of his concerts: "".
All-Union fame and adoration of female fans did not bring him joy. Once one of his colleagues told him, they say, how easy it is to live when everyone loves - no matter what you do, the audience is still delighted. Ots replied to her: "".
Everyone believed that Ots was a real darling of fate, and therefore could not feel unhappy in any way. However, at the peak of his popularity, he was actually very lonely - their life with Asta was difficult, his wife was jealous of him for creative victories, because she herself did not become successful. The family often had high-profile scandals, Asta became addicted to alcohol, and after 20 years of marriage, they broke up. Otsu was already over 40, he was famous and surrounded by female attention, but for a long time he was not happy until he met the woman who became his third wife - 24-year-old fashion model Ilona. Only with her did he learn what home comfort is.
The biographer of the singer Kulle Raig writes: "".
In 1972, the singer began to suffer from headaches, he began to see worse. After a medical examination, Georg Ots heard a diagnosis that sounded like a sentence: a brain tumor. The next 3 years passed in a desperate struggle for life, the singer underwent 8 difficult operations and continued to work. But the disease did not recede. On September 5, 1975, 55-year-old Georg Ots died on the operating table.
Once, when the singer was asked about what makes him feel truly happy, he replied: "". Probably, at the end of his life, he could rightfully consider himself an absolutely happy person, because there were thousands of such people among his fans.
One of the best songs performed by Georg Ots was "Lonely Accordion": The Difficult Fate of a Popularly Beloved Drinking Song.
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