Vera Vasilieva and Boris Ravensky: the unquenchable tenderness of unrequited love

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

In her life there was a place for everything: bright creativity, fame, nationwide veneration, a happy marriage. And great unrequited love. Vera Vasilyeva was happy with her love for seven years. She idolized Boris Ravensky, she was ready to give even her life for him. But he did not need these sacrifices at all.

Love will come unwittingly

Boris Ravenskikh was invited to the Theater of Satire in 1949 to stage a new play "Wedding with a Dowry". He appeared at the first reading and immediately inspired the whole troupe with his inspiration. Every now and then his fervent laughter rang out. And in response, it was simply impossible not to change. Somehow, the depth and touchingness of a primitive, in general, plot from the life of ordinary collective farmers was immediately revealed.

It was immediately felt that he approached the production thoroughly. Boris Ravenskikh, already reading the play, talked a lot about the village girls, about their chastity and pride. Everyone listened with reverence to the Master. And when the reading was over, the roles were already assigned, everyone remained in their places. Everyone seemed to have forgotten about the rest, about the evening performance, about the rehearsal. He rejoiced like a child, noticing the artists' light love for him. It gave him strength and inspiration.

Rehearsals began. For some reason, Vera thought that she couldn't do anything. She is not as bold and lively as the bride from the play, whose role was entrusted to her. And she will answer in a way that her heroine cannot, although she tries. Only the gentle eyes of Volodya Ushakov's partner reassured her.

It took a long time for Vera to realize that all her embarrassment, timidity, and self-doubt were not at all from a lack of professionalism. And from the fact that she is afraid not to please the director. This amazingly talented and strong person, Boris Ravenskikh.

First kiss

Vera Vasilyeva tried very hard at rehearsals. Listening to the director's long thoughts about Russian girls, about their purity, modesty, strength, she fell more and more in love with him and wanted to correspond to his ideal. She even mastered mischievous Russian dances, although they were given to her with difficulty, since they did not correspond to her nature at all. Ravenskikh saw this, but encouraged the efforts of his actress, looked with approval, helped and prompted.

In general, everything in this production seemed extraordinary. The participants in the performance appeared everywhere accompanied by their harmonica, in different parts of the theater they learned dances, sang, and repeated dialogues. They literally didn’t let their director pass. As soon as he entered the theater, a flock of actors appeared around him. They accompanied him amicably to the hostel, where he lived with his wife.

But somehow Boris Ivanovich himself went to see her off. And she, shyly, invited him to visit, to a tiny room in a communal apartment. The relatives of Vera Vasilyeva received the famous director quite cordially, gave him tea, and he sat up until three o'clock in the morning in this cozy house with benevolent owners. And then Vera went to see him to the gate.

She remembered the warmth of his gentle hands on her cheek for the rest of her life, his kind, enthusiastic look, his lips on hers. She froze with delight, and then she was frightened by the strength of her own feelings. It was love. Big. The real one.

Love is inspiration, love is torment

She had changed so much that her colleagues noticed it immediately. She, at last, by the age of 25, realized that she was a real queen. No, outwardly Vera Vasilyeva was the same modest, slightly shy girl, but inside her everything sang from the charm of love. She was both holy and sinful, strong and weak, tender and passionate. Naturally, this also affected her role. She began to play with completely new colors. After all, now not only her heroine, but she herself knew what it means to love and be loved. Love inspired the young actress.

And then some kind of phenomenon of love began. They began to fall in love with her, they tried to guess the riddle of her transformation. Men were attracted to her like a magnet. But in her life there was only him. She was ready to listen to him for hours, to carry out all his orders, instructions, requests. She melted under his radiant gaze and grieved at the accidentally thrown angry word. Love transformed her. Only next to him she began to live. Every minute next to a loved one was happiness, and every second in separation was a grief.

Then there was the premiere of the performance, which caused a storm of delight from the viewer. It has been shown 900 times. And every time, going on stage, she hardly played, but lived. In happiness and love. Happiness and love. Only now his life has already taken a completely different path. He had a new production, then a new position. And she has only him and her role as Olga's happy bride.

When she returned from a tour on Virginia, he was already divorced. He was free, but he did not even think to make her, an enthusiastic girl in love with him, an offer. He lived his life, and she waited. Vera Kuzminichna hoped that after the premiere everything would change, Boris Ivanovich would have more time, he would remember her.

Farewell to love

Only occasionally did the bell ring in her apartment in the middle of the night. She ran barefoot into the common corridor, she knew that he was calling. And he, realizing that she was not sleeping at such a late hour in anticipation of his call, as if he was not happy, but annoyed by her patience and devoted waiting.

He did not allow her to come to the premiere. And he didn't call. He was busy. He did not remember her. Vera sat all night at the phone, waiting for his call. She so wanted to hear his own voice. She so hoped that this day would be a holiday for her too.

The bell rang only in the morning. But not from him, but from Volodya Ushakov. And again he asked when she would agree to become his wife. He had been in love with her for six years, since the beginning of his work on Wedding with a Dowry.

Vera Vasilyeva, exhausted by the night of loneliness and melancholy, said that she already agreed. She really married him, learned to love him. And she was faithful all 56 years of their marriage.

She never saw Boris Ivanovich again, did not speak to him on the phone. She only allowed herself to say goodbye to her beloved from afar when he left this world forever.

Borois Ravenskikh fell in love with every actress while working. Outstanding Opera Singer Sergey Lemeshev generally brought the girls to massive psychosis.