Mask and Soul

Fyodor Shalyapin... A legendary singer who conquered the world with his voice — Mariinsky and Bolshoi theaters, the Metropolitan Opera, the Châtelet Theater, Covent Garden. Tall, stately, with expressive facial features and a piercing gaze, he left an indelible impression in his best tragic roles — The Miller, Boris Godunov, Mephistopheles, Don Quixote. Shalyapin amazed audiences with his fierce temperament, always finding precise and sincere intonations for every word of the song, and he carried himself organically and authentically on stage. His talent was admired by composers Sergei Prokofiev and Anton Rubinstein, actor Charlie Chaplin, and the future English King Edward VI. The book Mask and Soul by F.I. Shalyapin was written and published in Paris a decade after his emigration. In it, he revealed what he had long hidden from the public — about his life in Russia, the people fate brought him together with, the bitter fate of an exile, and the longing for his homeland. The reader will also find the artist's poignant reflections on art, theater, and the stage — how he prepared for concerts; what he thought and felt while performing arias; how he reacted to criticism and reviews of his performances. On the pages of his memoirs, Shalyapin casts off the stage mask of the celebrated singer and opens the soul of a man who devoted his entire life to art.