Outstanding Ukrainian opera and chamber singer (bass). People's Artist of the USSR (1951), laureate of the Stalin Prize (1952).
Biography
He was born in 1903 in Lebedyn (now Sumy region, Ukraine) in a poor, large family. His father was a stove-builder, his mother a seamstress.
At the age of 11, after finishing primary school, he goes to work. He was a helper for his father at the construction site, a boy on errands at the court, a manual worker at a shipyard and a porter in Sevastopol, a sailor and stoker on commercial steamships.
During the Holodomor of 1932-1933, Hmyri's father and sister died, and the singer miraculously saved his mother.
In 1930, he entered the Kharkiv Engineering and Construction Institute, which he graduated with honors in 1935.
In 1935-1936, he was a graduate student at the Kharkiv Research Institute of Buildings. He managed to write a scientific article.
In the fourth year, Hmyrya was invited to audition at the conservatory. Hmyrya, as an exception, received the right to study at two universities at the same time.
Memorial plaque at the Kharkiv University of Arts
In 1939, he also graduated with honors from the Kharkiv Conservatory. He studied vocals with the famous teacher Pavel Golubev, a student of the famous Federico Bugamelli. At the same time (from 1936) he began to perform on the stage of the Kharkiv Opera House.
In 1939-1957, he worked at the Kyiv Opera and Ballet Theater (with a break). From September 19, 1943 to June 1, 1944, he worked in Kamianets-Podilskyi: first in the Poltava Music and Drama Theater transferred here by the Germans, and after the arrival of the Red Army in the city music and drama theater.
In 1962, D. Shostakovich asked Boris Hmyra to sing at the premiere of his 13th symphony, but B. Hmyra refused, fearing the condemnation of party leaders.
Tombstone of Boris Hmyra
Borys Hmyrya died on August 1, 1969. Buried at Baikovo cemetery in Kyiv. In 1979, a tombstone was installed (granite; sculptor Xanfiy Kuznetsov, architect Vasyl Hniezdylov at the expense of Hmyra Vira Augustivna's wife (the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine refused to allocate the required amount of funds from the state budget).
Characteristic
He had a voice with a wide range, unlimited expressive possibilities, a soft, beautiful timbre; He is a singer of high vocal culture, an unsurpassed performer of Ukrainian, Russian and Western romances. He toured abroad, but only in the countries of the former social camp. The Soviet authorities did not release the singer to developed countries because of B. Hmyri's performances before the Germans in the occupied territory during the war. While working at the Kyiv Opera House, the singer was constantly oppressed. Instead of bass parts, he was assigned to perform parts for baritone and tenor. In the end, he was forced to leave the Kyiv Opera House altogether. Until the end of his life, the singer gave concerts.
On tours, he often performed Ukrainian folk songs and works based on poems by T. G. Shevchenko. In particular, in China he performed the encore "Roar and Moan the Dnieper Wide" four times. At one of the press conferences in Shanghai, Hmyrya asked why Chinese listeners liked this particular song so much and heard an impressive answer: "In this song, you not only figuratively and colorfully conveyed the beauty of your land, but also the poetic soul of the Ukrainian people, merged together with the wonderful nature of Ukraine." Gmyria performed concerts based on T. G. Shevchenko's poems in Moscow, Leningrad, Riga, Prague and other cities and villages of Ukraine. It was in Russia that "Learn, my brothers", "She bloomed in the valley", "Such is her fate", "My thoughts", "Hey, summer eagle", "I don't care" (this work for I. S. Kozlovsky, who lived in Moscow was politically dangerous for him) and so on, all 24 works of "Kobzar" were played.
L. I. Senchenko, professor, 1998.
Boris Hmyra's phrase sounded with impressive dramatic power: "Go to Ukraine, children... and I will die here." In the affectionate and wide "a" in the word "Ukraine", the singer invested all his national consciousness and love for the Motherland. He pronounced the letter "y" in the word "death" with a deep, thick timbre and a tragic tone. Everyone who was lucky enough to listen to the art of Boris Hmyra could not help but be amazed at the lightness (and this in the bass), elasticity and elasticity of articulation, expressiveness of the work of the lips, tongue, breathing, which were always in perfect proportion. During singing, the work of Hmyra's speech organs was natural and technically perfect, he "speak-sang" without any effort in various situations. »
Nesterenko Ye. Ye., Russian singer, 1980:
"
I was at a concert in Leningrad, in which Hmyrya performed the works of Taras Hryhorovych. At some point, it is not the host, but Boris Romanovych himself who comes out and in his soft, velvety voice announces "My thoughts, my thoughts" with the comment: "This poem was written by Taras Shevchenko here, in St. Petersburg, in 1839. In it, he expressed with extraordinary force his love and longing for his native Ukraine, and his hopelessness to visit his native places again."
And then this longing and hopelessness poured out so that the hall cried, and I will never forget this performance by Hmyreya. Then I bought a record and listened to his Shevchenko's "Thoughts" non-stop. Thus, no one else has performed Shevchenko's works, and it is unlikely that they will ever perform them.
»
Memorial plaque Boutline of Hmyri at 15 Khreshchatyk Street in Kyiv
Hmyrya did not imagine his life and work outside Ukraine - he was not tempted by incredibly profitable offers to live and work in Moscow, Leningrad, Paris or New York. Prominent cultural figures paid attention to this and continue to pay attention to it.
David Bukhin, conductor of the symphony orchestra, St. Petersburg, 1998:
"
If Borys Hmyria had lived his bright life in a single European country, albeit a small one, he would have become a saint during his lifetime. Yes, she would have been much longer and happier.
But, the truth is, the question is, would this happen to this rare person? After all, his score became the terrible and painful history of Ukrainians, the people of the world, who gave birth to him for suffering and memory of himself. Hmyrya-giant, abyss. He was sent to Ukraine as a national idea. Fortunately, Boris Romanovych has a spiritual daughter, Anna Prince...
»
In his own translation from French and German into Ukrainian, he performed "Elegy" by J. Massenet and "Serenade" by F. Schubert. When he was asked if it was possible to perform world classics in Ukrainian, he answered: "Not only is it possible, but it is necessary. The Ukrainian language, like Italian, vocally and melodiously ranks first in the world..."
I dreamed of Ukrainian versions of "Winter Journey" by F. Schubert, all works to the music of P. Tchaikovsky. On this occasion, he turned to the famous Ukrainian poets V. Sosyura, O. Novytskyi, I. Puchka, etc., but he rejected all their translations, and he did not have time to do it himself - he died suddenly.
M. Gyaurov, M. Gyuzelev, E. Nesterenko and others consider themselves his students.
In its Message dated September 11, 2003, UNESCO stated: "...Hmyria is known as "Boris the Great" and its majestic bass is recognized as a unique phenomenon that belongs not only to Ukraine, but also to world culture as a whole. ...His philosophical and epistolary works are also of great value for world culture...".
Repertoire
Over 600 chamber works:
300 Ukrainian folk songs and romances
204 Russian folk songs and romances. To the famous concerts and performances of Hmyra in Moscow, the artists of the Moscow Art Theater "went to listen to the amazing Russian speech of Hmyra"
more than 100 western songs and romances
44 opera parts of Ukrainian, Russian and Western classics.
85 fragments from vocal-stage and symphonic works.
30 broadcast concerts.
24 works based on poems by T. G. Shevchenko. Hmyrya is the first, and until then the only singer, who prepared a whole concert program of musical works based on T. Shevchenko's poems and performed it in the best concert halls of the former USSR, abroad and recorded it on records. In 2000, the Hmyri Foundation released the CD "Boris Hmyria to Veliky Kobzarev", and in 2011 it was reissued and supplemented under the title "Boris Hmyria. Great Kobzar in my heart."
Starred in the film-opera "The Mercenary" (Trokhym, 1964).
Main parties
Taras Bulba ("Taras Bulba" by Mykola Lysenko).
Trokhym ("Hire" by Mykhailo Verikyvskyi).
Maksym Krivonis ("Bohdan Khmelnytskyi" Dankevich Kostiantyn Fedorovych).
Ruschak ("Milana" Maiboroda Georgy Ilarionovych).
Sultan ("Zaporozhets by the Danube" Gulak-Artemovsky Semen Stepanovych).
Tsar Boris ("Boris Godunov" Mussorgsky Modest Petrovich).
Susanin ("Ivan Susanin" ("Life for the Tsar") by Mykhailo Hlinka).
Melnyk ("Mermaid" by Oleksandr Dargomyzhskyi).
Mephistopheles ("Faust" by Charles Gounod).
Nilakanta (Lakme by Delib Leo).
Don Basilio ("The Barber of Seville" by Giacomo Rossini).
Vocal cycles
"Winter Journey" by Franz Schubert (24 songs).
"Songs and Dances of Death" by Modest Mussorgsky (4 works).
"Persian songs" by Anton Rubinstein (12 songs).
"Pyatidenka" TV. 98 by Dmitri Shostakovich. (5 works)
"The Heart of a Poet" by Edvard Grieg (9 works).
Records
During 1945-1982, 7 billion records with B. Hmyri's recordings were released in the former USSR ("Melodia" company, Moscow).
In the 80s of the XX century. In 2010, the Melody company together with the French company released a series of records under the heading "From the treasury of the world's performing arts", in which Ukraine was represented only by Boris Hmyria.
The Boris Hmyri Foundation released 15 CDs with the singer's recordings. 5 more are prepared, and a total of 45 different CDs will be released.
Epistolary legacy
150 manuscripts of popular science and art articles.
8 diary notebooks totaling 1,865 pages (1939—1969). Published in 2010, volume 890 pages.
7,000 letters in which both Hmyrya and his fans reflect on the meaning and purpose of high classical art in the spiritual development of man and society
3.5 thousand official, creative and protest letters. Today, these are indictments of government officials and talentless artists, directors and "colleagues" who brutally and slandered the genius, which led to his premature death.
Commemorative coin "Boris Hmyria"
honors
1939 — laureate of the All-Union Competition of Vocalists (second prize).
1951 - People's Artist of the USSR.
1952 — laureate of the Stalin Prize.
In 1960, he was awarded the Order of Lenin.
In 1962, the name of Boris Hmyri was included in the prestigious International Encyclopedia "Who is who".
Memory
Since 2004, the International Competition of Vocalists named after Boris Hmyra has been established in Kyiv. Streets in Kyiv, Buchi, Kharkiv, Sumy, Cher are named after B. Hmyrilegs, Alevska. The apartment in which B. Hmyrya lived on Khreshchatyk Street contains everyday interior, personal belongings, musical evenings are held.
Music schools in Dnipropetrovsk, Lebedyn, Kharkiv, and Poltava are named after Hmyra. With the name of Hmyri, children's and youth festivals and competitions are held annually in Dnipropetrovsk, Lebedyn, and Sumy.
In 2003, for the singer's 100th birthday, the National Bank of Ukraine issued a commemorative coin, and Ukrposhta issued a stamp and envelopes.
In 2010, a unique publication "Boris Hmyria. Diaries*Diaries. 1936-1969", compiled and author of the accompanying texts by H. Prince. Edition "Folio", Kharkiv, volume 55 d.a.
