Sergei Radamsky

Sergei Radamsky (born September 15, 1890 in Łódź , German; † January 28, 1973 in Portoferraio on the island of Elba ) was a Russian-born tenor singer and singing teacher and was one of the very few artists living in the USA who was politically committed to the Soviet Union .

family

The mother Deborah came from a wealthy Jewish timber merchant family from Piotrków Trybunalski in what was then Russian Poland, German Petrikau. After a tragic accident in which two farmers died, the grandfather gave up the business and moved to Łódź. It was here that Radamsky's parents met and married. They ran a feed trade for the Russian army, were not rich, but, unlike many Jewish residents, had no material worries. Sergei was the first of a total of eleven children.

Life

youth

The father was passionate about singing with his tenor voice, making music with friends and encouraging his son to take up music at an early age. Radamsky was unable to continue training with a violin teacher after an accident in which he injured a finger on his right hand. An attempt on the cello also failed. He was confronted with anti-Semitic violence in Łódź early on. During the Russian Revolution of 1905 he witnessed riots and demonstrations and joined the Social Revolutionaries as a youth . After being an eyewitness to a political murder on April 25, 1908, the secret police noticed Radamsky and had to flee to Germany in October, where some of his companions were shot. On the advice of a cousin he went to Vienna to there Esperanto to learn, but was soon from a friend of Alexandria invited. Once there, he first worked as a waiter overseer in a hotel, was confronted with homosexuality and had to leave the country after an involuntary affair.

Beginnings as a singer

In 1910 he traveled to the United States on board the German steamer Prinz Wilhelm , which at that time did not require a visa. When he arrived in New York, he worked as a seamstress in a factory for "breeches", which, however, closed for several months during the summer holidays, so that Radamsky had to spend the night penniless on park benches. One day he sang Lenski's aria from Peter Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin , his father's favorite aria, in front of his hosts . As a result, he had to sing more often in front of acquaintances and took three hours a week singing lessons, but in private he preferred to meet with left-wing socialist friends who had contact with Leon Trotsky . At the Metropolitan Opera Radamsky heard an opera for the first time , Verdi's Otello with Leo Slezak in the title role. After several disappointing attempts with various singing teachers and working as a claqueur at the Met, Radamsky applied as a choir singer there, was hired as a tenor, but could not take up the activity for financial reasons because the rehearsal times were not paid. He then toured the United States for twenty weeks with the Ahorn Opera Company choir and then sang small roles at the Century Opera House . As an impersonator of Enrico Caruso in a variety theater, he was so successful that the star singer invited him to audition and gave him some advice. The real role models, however, were Giuseppe De Luca and Hermann Jadlowker .

In 1916 Radamsky moved to Boston , where he sang and taught at the Conservatory and often performed in front of wealthy ladies' clubs. On April 3, 1918, he made his debut with a recital in which he also performed Russian folk tunes and was celebrated by critics present. This was followed by tours of New England and the Midwest and in 1919 and 1920 appearances at New York's Aeolian Hall and the Rialto Film Theater on Broadway . In the meantime well-funded, Radamsky was able to travel to Poland in 1923 to visit his parents and then continue his singing studies in Milan. He was deeply disappointed by the mismanagement and the level of singing in Italian theaters. Back in the USA, Radamsky was successful again, was often hired by wealthy private individuals, toured and was one of the first whites to sing with a colored concert choir. At the same time he remained loyal to the political left as an active member.

Tours in the Soviet Union

At the side of the American writer Theodore Dreiser , who had been invited to the Soviet Union by the Soviet Minister of Culture Anatoly Wassiljewitsch Lunacharsky in 1927, Radamsky traveled through the country and impressed with his political attitude and his Russian folk tunes. As soon as he returned to the USA, he was invited again to the Soviet Union to go on tour. Interrupted by several short stays in the US, Radamsky stepped up in 1936 mainly in the Soviet Union, was there around 200 concerts, and experienced as an eyewitness Stalin on 26 January 1936 at the scandal-ridden and momentous performance of Shostakovich's opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in Bolshoi Theater . In 1934, Radamsky brokered contact between the Russian authorities and the head of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra , Artur Rodziński , in order to get the American premiere of the work on its way. Radamsky himself was supposed to direct, but failed due to the resistance of Russian emigrants, who resolutely rejected him as a communist. In the course of the Stalinist show trials and the repressive cultural policy, Radamsky left the Soviet Union in 1936, from which he had reported regularly for the American communist newspaper, the Daily Worker .

Hollywood and emigration to Europe

Back in the United States, Radamsky was warmly received, was able to continue his career and in 1940 founded a Youth Opera Company on a rented farm in New Jersey , which was unsuccessful. During the Second World War, the tenor appeared as a troop supervisor. An attempt to gain a foothold as a film actor in Los Angeles failed because of the not entirely unfounded rumor that he was a “communist”. He made the film producer Cecil B. DeMille his opponent with his sympathies for the Democrats . Radamsky then worked as a singing teacher in Los Angeles, but in 1948 he was put under surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for his political stance and emigrated to Europe, where he worked as a singing teacher and opera director in Paris, Vienna and Budapest. He settled in Portoferraio on the Italian island of Elba, taught there, staged in Germany and returned to Moscow in 1962 as a juror at the Tchaikovsky competition there.

student

Radamsky's students include the American tenor William Blankenship, the Kiel baritone Claudio Nicolai, the Finnish baritone Kari Nurmela, the Dutch bass-baritone Theodorus “Theo” Baylé, the Texas bass Elfego Esparza, the German bass Otto von Rohr , the American Bass Frederick Guthrie and tenor Jerry J. Jennings.

literature

• Sergei Radamsky: The persecuted tenor. My singing life between Moscow and Hollywood , Munich 1972. ISBN 3-492-01974-9

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Presumed death date according to a forum post on Tapatalk .
2. ↑ Sergei Radamsky: The approach tenor. My singing life between Moscow and Hollywood , Munich 1972, p. 26.
3. ↑ Sergei Radamsky: The approach tenor. My singer life between Moscow and Hollywood , Munich 1972, p. 95.
4. ↑ Andrew Kirkman: Contemplating Shostakovich: Life, Music and Film , London 2016, p. 214.
5. ↑ Forum post at Tapatalk .