And here, fellow devotees, I must leave off this survey until the next post. I had hoped to bring us up to the eve of World War 1, the time of all contemporary opera productions, whatever their indicated periods, and the start of another grievous gap in the Chaliapin discography. But I’ve run out of time. Till then . . .

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NEXT TIME: Chaliapin, Part Two—the late acousticals! The first electricals! The famous Covent Garden 1920s live excerpts from Boris Godunov, Faust, and Mefistofele! The amazing late-life songs! We’re just getting started ! But—

It’s tax preparation time. Therefore, an extra week will be needed for all the above, and my next post, N.B., will be on Fri., Mar. 22.

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A mini-bibliography of sources referred to for this post (more will be added in Part 2). All are suggested for anyone interested in Chaliapin, his art, life, and times, but I would especially cite the Borovsky, Haldey, and Levik books as essentials:

Borovsky, Victor: “Chaliapin, A Critical Biography,” Alfred A. Knopf, New York,1988

Chaliapin, Feodor, and Gorky, Maxim: “Chaliapin, an Autobiography as Told to Maxim Gorky,” Nina Froud and James Hanley, trans. and ed., Stein & Day, New York, 1969

Gaisburg. Fred W.: “Chaliapin as I Knew Him,” essay in the booklet accompanying “The HMV Treasury: Feodor Chaliapin,” RLS 710

Gelatt, Roland: “The Fabulous Phonograph, 1857-1977,” Collier/MacMillan, New York, 1977

Haldey, Olga: “Mamontov’s Private Opera/The Search for Modernism in Russian Theater,” Univ. of Indiana Press, Bloomington, 2010

Levik, Sergei: “The Levik Memoirs: An Opera Singer’s Notes,” Edward Morgan, trans., Symposium Records, London, 1995. (Accompanying CD: “Singers of Russia, 1900-1917, Sergei Levik and His Contemporaries,” Symposium 1151)

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