A woman on the path of genius: how an extra from Russia took Imre Kalman away from music

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

“Beauties, beauties, beauties of cabaret…” - this part from “Silva” by Imre Kalman was sung all over the world. But the music of this wonderful composer was cut short on a high note when a 16-year-old extra from Perm in a shabby dress appeared on his way. For the next almost quarter of a century, he was happy, despite the millions of spending of his wife and her constant betrayal. But the music was no longer going well …

Life before Faith

Imre Kalman is a pseudonym. The person whose name is associated with the flourishing of the Hungarian operetta was Emmerich Kopstein. He was born into a Jewish grain merchant family in a small town on Lake Balaton. His father went bankrupt after his ambitious plan to turn his native Siofok into a luxury resort failed. A hippodrome, new hotels and an operetta theater appeared in the city, and the Koppstein bailiffs were expelled from the house, taking all the property.

The family moved to Budapest, and little Imre had to live with his aunt. He did not manage to graduate from the gymnasium. In order to somehow earn a living, he moonlighted as a scribe, gave lessons to elementary school students, and when the opportunity arose, he listened to concerts in the foyer, with his ear pressed against the door. Due to private humiliation and poverty, he grew up a self-contained person, constantly waiting for a dirty trick. But he had a phenomenal business acumen. It was thanks to her and, of course, talent that he became famous and amassed capital. By the age of 48, he had buried his beloved wife, Paola Dvořák, without having had time to have children. And it was at this time that he met a 16-year-old statistician who had signed a contract with a bankrupt film company, a beggar Russian emigrant from Perm, Vera Makinskaya.

Vera Makinskaya: when dreams come true

All that Vera knew about Kalman was that he was a millionaire and a celebrity. And that was enough for her. She did not know anything about his difficult life in adolescence, that he could have become a brilliant pianist if his little finger did not stop bending from constant rehearsals, and that he composed excellent serious music, but there were no publishers for it. was. Music critics wrote that Kalman breathed life into a dying musical genre, but Vera Makinskaya did not care about this. She had a single worn dress, a room in a miserable boarding house with a shared toilet, and the girl was lent her coffee in the Sakher coffee shop.

It was in this cafe that they met - Kalman was a man of habits and a regular visitor to this institution. 16-year-old Vera did not take her eyes off the composer, and Kalman drew attention to the young ragamuffin. On the first date, she was collected by the entire boarding house - even the girl's stockings were strangers. But the romance began to spin. Soon, Vera got a small role in Kalman's operetta The Duchess of Chicago, staged at the An der Wien Theater.

Vera and Imre

He bought her a fashionable wardrobe, she visited Vienna with him. Kalman, to whom Vera seemed to be the embodiment of all talents, decided to place her in a theater school in Europe, which worked at the German Theater in Berlin. But he did not succeed, because, as an actress, Vera turned out to be completely mediocre. But Kalman was in no hurry to make an offer: as a suspicious person, he was most afraid of ruining the life of his young partner. But then Vera's mother appeared, a lady in love affairs "rubbed", who pretended to want to take her daughter to Bucharest, and the young man in love could not resist - a marriage proposal, and then a wedding. The first thing that the young wife of thrifty Kalman did after the wedding was to buy herself six expensive fur coats at once. He was amazed!

The young wife unceremoniously burst into the comfortable and well-oiled world of Kalman, like ball lightning. She insisted that he fire all the old servants, forced her husband to move from the apartment to a small palace and began to actively invite guests. From time to time, crowds of people unknown to Kalman appeared in their house. Kalman could not stand dancing, and Vera danced until she dropped. She bothered her husband in a variety of ways, completely unsettling him.

Vera took up arms against Kalman's librettists, with whom he worked all his life. She forced her husband to take long walks, buy him new suits, bother him this and that, knocking him out of his usual rut. Vera bore him three beautiful children, and managed to absorb her husband completely, leaving no room for music. He practically stopped writing. And when he turned 60, Vera left him.

Parting with Europe and Vera

In the late 1930s, when a new order began to be established in Europe, "black days" began for the Jews. True, this did not affect Kalman. Since sometime at the front the melodies from The Queen of the Czardas were hummed by corporal Hitler, he granted the title of “honorary Aryan” by his personal order to the composer. Kalman did not use it, but went with his family to his native Hungary, then to Zurich, and then to Paris. Vera dreamed of living in France, but Kalman understood that a big war was coming, and she needed to get carried away.

In 1940, they ended up in the United States. Kalman did not go well with work, and Vera at this time met a young and very wealthy Frenchman, who proposed to her. Vera immediately filed for divorce, leaving the children to her already middle-aged spouse. Kalman, on the other hand, wrote her letters full of love, asked for meetings, was compliant and meek. And Vera gave up. However, it is possible that she decided that, unlike her fiancé, her ex-husband cannot go broke - after all, the war will end late or early, and the theaters will work again. And who, if not her, know how reliably royalties work. Vera returned, Kalman was happy, but did not write as before.

The last days of Kalman

Kalman lived out his life with his beloved Vera in Paris. She was still full of strength, ruled over men, and she rarely appeared at home. With Kalman there was always a nurse who prepared mashed porridge for him. And the old composer asked her to drink collectible wines and eat spicy delicacies to enjoy their appearance and smell. He died in 1953, and in his last days, only smells, children and a beautiful, tall and windy woman whom he loved more than anything in the world were associated with his life.

Continuing the topic the incredible story of Lina Cavalieri, who has gone from a cafe singer to a world famous opera diva.