Oda Slobodskaya "Dreams" Taneiev

Oda Slobdskaya sings the exquisitely delicate song "Dreams" by Sergei Taneiev.

Slobodskaya was born in Vilnius, then part of Russia, and studied with the formidable Natalia Iretskaya, herself a pupil of Pauline Viardot Garcia. She sang major roles in the Mariinsky theatre St Petersburg but after the Revolution and subsequent famine, she left Russia with Fyodor Chaliapin when he brought his own opera company to the west. She went on to sing major roles at Covent Garden, La Scala Milan and other major houses.

She eventually married and settled in London where she enjoyed great success as both a concert and opera singer. She continued to give entertaining recitals of Russian songs well into her seventies and was a witty and characterful narrator of Peter and the Wolf.

The photograph of the statuette is reproduced by kind permission of stuartliff

If you can post a synopsis or translation it would be most welcome.

Sergei Taneiev was born in1856 and graduated from the Moscow Conservtory in 1875, the first student in the history of the Conservatory to win the gold medal both for composition and for performing (piano). He was also the first person ever to be awarded the Conservatory's Great Gold Medal. In 1905, the revolution and its consequent effect on the Moscow Conservatory led Taneyev to resign from the staff there. He resumed his career as a concert pianist, both as soloist and chamber musician. He died in 1915 from pneumonia contracted whilst attending the funeral of Scriabin.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Oda
• Slobodskaya
• Russian
• Song
• Taneiev
• Tchaikovsky
• Mariinsky
• Theatre
• St
• Petersburg
• Ivor
• Newton
• piano

[MarianneAlkonost]

This song is written on the poem by Shelley:

My thoughts arise and fade in solitude,

The verse that would invest them melts away

Like moonlight in the heaven of spreading day:

How beautiful they were, how firm they stood,

Flecking the starry sky like woven pearl!

Only in Russian instead of thoughts there is the word "Dreams"

[CurzonRoad]

Thank you!

[MrIV74]

Thanks for introducing me to this marvelous voice.  The song is exquisite.