Video: All-Union glory and the premature departure of the famous Mr. X: What shortened the days of Georg Ots
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
45 years ago, on September 5, 1975, the famous pop and opera singer, People's Artist of the USSR Georg Ots passed away. All-Union fame was brought to him by the role of Mr. X in the musical film of the same name in 1958. He was given only 55 years of his life. Until his last days, he went on stage, and none of the spectators suspected what he had experienced on the eve of leaving. Just like his famous hero, he always remained in a mask, and only those close to him knew that the dark glasses, without which he never appeared anywhere in recent years, were not an element of the image that created a halo of mystery …
In the 1950s. he was a real idol of the public. His voice was recognized from the very first sounds, he was a reference point for many novice singers, future stars, among whom was Muslim Magomayev. He said that this was probably the only artist to whom he gave flowers on stage, and admitted: "". The performances of Georg Ots were mesmerizing to the audience. Tickets for his concerts were sorted out months before their start.
To many, he seemed like a darling of fate. Fortune was indeed supportive of him for many years. In 1941, by some miracle, he managed to avoid death. Then the 21-year-old singer was mobilized and sent by steamer from Tallinn to Leningrad. In the Gulf of Finland, the ship was attacked by a German bomber. Almost everyone who was there was killed. And Georg Ots was saved - he no longer hoped to swim out when a minesweeper picked him up. He believed that he became a singer precisely during the war, when he performed in concert front-line brigades.
The singer always had a lot of fans, but he remained indifferent to their signs of attention. Georg Ots has been married three times. His first wife, Margot, with whom they married in February 1941, became the mistress of a German officer during the occupation and fled with the Germans during the advance of the Red Army. She heard about what happened to the steamer on which her husband was sailing, and decided that he was dead. Margot went to Germany, then to Canada, and many years later she received a postcard from Georg, on which was written: "".
During the war, he met another woman, the ballerina Asta Saar. Once at the cinema, she sat in front of him and covered the entire screen with a hat. Ots politely asked to take off his hat - and fell in love at first sight! In 1944, together with Asta and their newborn son Hulot, they returned to the singer's hometown and have lived together for 22 years since then.
The first years they lived very happily. But the union of the balanced Estonian Georg and the temperamental Asta, half gypsy, could not be harmonious. She was jealous of her husband, suspected of having connections with numerous fans, which in fact was not. They worked in the same theater. Once the parents came to Eugene Onegin, expecting to see their son in the crowd. But Onegin's second suddenly began to sing in his voice. It was the solo debut of Georg Ots. Even after that, the father did not believe that his son had a singing talent. And just 5 years later, the singer made his debut in the part of Onegin, after which enthusiastic critics wrote in the newspapers: "" And a few years later, the famous artist Sergei Lemeshev performed the part of Lensky at the Bolshoi Theater, and invited Georg Ots to the role of Onegin. The success was overwhelming. Together with Lemeshev, the singer also starred in the film adaptation of his most beloved opera, The Demon.
In 1947 g. Georg and Asta had a daughter, Ylle. But even after that, Oats' parents, who considered themselves aristocrats, did not reconcile themselves to the choice of their son, calling his wife a simpleton and a vertiginous. And she continued to be painfully jealous of her husband, arranging public scandals for him. After the film "Mister X" was released in 1958 - the screen version of Imre Kalman's operetta "Princess of the Circus", the all-Union glory fell on the singer. He himself took it calmly, but his wife was driven crazy by the appearance of millions of new fans. Asta said about her husband: "". When the scenes of jealousy and outbursts of anger of the wife became uncontrollable and exacerbated by her alcohol addiction, their life together became unbearable, and after 22 years they broke up.
The restrained manner of the singer's performance never betrayed his real feelings - the audience could only guess about it. They were captivated by his noble academic manner of singing, self-esteem, impeccable taste, light accent with excellent command of Russian. For all his equanimity, Georg Ots was very charming and charismatic. The artistic director of the Estonia Theater recalled: “”.
At 44, the singer married for the third time. The former fashion model of the Tallinn Fashion House, the young beauty Ilona Noor, became his chosen one. In this marriage, a daughter, Marianna, was born. Ilona said about her husband: "". Ilona left the modeling business immediately after marriage, went on tour with her husband and devoted herself entirely to caring for him and her daughter.
In his youth, the singer did not know how to fully enjoy his fatherhood, but when he had a daughter at the age of 47, he called this day the happiest in his life. He loved Marianna selflessly, he even sewed a dress for her for a New Year's party. She was only 5 years old when trouble came to their family. My father suffered from constant headaches, his vision became worse, and after an examination the doctors discovered that he had a brain tumor. For 3 years, he underwent 8 operations and eye amputation, but all this time he continued to perform on stage. In public, he was forced to appear in dark glasses, because only the closest knew about his diagnosis and operations.
Georg Ots passed away six months after his 55th birthday. Fate gave him too little time, but he left absolutely happy, because he managed to know not only national fame, but also the true love of that only woman, next to whom he could finally take off his mask …
Colleague Georg Ots also had a lot of fans on stage: how the opera singer Sergei Lemeshev brought girls to mass psychosis.
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