Ivan Serhiyovych Patorzhynskyi (20 February (3 March) 1896, Petro-Svystunove, Oleksandrivsk district, Ekaterinoslav province, Russian Empire - 22 February 1960, Kyiv) was a Ukrainian opera singer (bass), teacher, People's Artist of the USSR (1944), an outstanding representative of Ukrainian vocal art. Winner of the Stalin Prize (1942). Member of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR of the 1st-4th convocation (1938-1959). Professor of the Kyiv State Conservatory.
Biography
He was born on 20 February (3 March) 1896 in the village of Petro-Svystunove, now in the Vilnia district of Zaporizhzhia region. There were seven children in the family. In his younger years, Ivan's father worked as a type designer in a local printing house, and when he contracted tuberculosis from lead dust, he bought a house in the village and later became a deacon in the local church. Ivan took after his father, who was famous for his powerful bass voice. Ivan stood out among his brothers for his intelligence and voice. His first mentor was a local bell-ringer, who taught Ivan to read and write at the age of six.
He graduated from the Bakhmut Theological School and the Yekaterinoslav Theological Seminary. He studied at the seminary after his father's death, as an orphan, at state expense. He did not take the priesthood because he dreamed of theatre. At the seminary, he learned the secrets of singing and developed an unusually strong voice; he sang in the church choir and organised a men's quartet, whose concerts were sold out. He organised an opera studio and an ensemble with which he performed in Donbas.
From 1917, he taught in Donbas, organised a drama club, and took part in a performance by Kolisnychenko's Little Russian troupe. Soon, the singer and teacher Zinaida Maliutina (a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory) noticed him and began to work with him on singing, preparing him for chamber concerts.
Later he moved to Katerynoslav (now Dnipro), where he married Snaha Marfa Khomivna. In 1925, their daughter Halyna was born.
He received his vocal education at the Yekaterinoslav Conservatory (1918-1922). He worked as a director and conductor of a choral chapel, choirmaster at the printers' club, created a male vocal quartet, and taught singing at schools.
In 1925, he became a soloist at the Ukrainian State Metropolitan Opera in Kharkiv. His debut was the role of Mephistopheles in Charles Gounod's opera Faust. Among other things, he sang in a duet with Maria Lytvynenko-Volhemut, whose creative friendship lasted almost 30 years.
Since 1935, he has been a soloist at the Ukrainian Opera and Ballet Theatre in Kyiv. He had an extremely strong voice with a velvety timbre. His creative range was very wide: he sang forty-five opera roles; he appeared in the films Zaporozhets Beyond the Danube and Natalka Poltavka.
During the Soviet-German war, he was evacuated and performed concerts at the front.
From 1944 until 1960, he was a professor at the Kyiv Conservatory, where he taught solo singing. Among Patorzhynskyi's students were Yevhen Chervoniuk, Dmytro Hnatiuk, and Andrii Kikot. He created his own principles of pedagogy, a method of comprehensive education of a singer. He liked to repeat Chaliapin's phrase: "One should sing as easily as one speaks".
He uniquely performed the widely known "Night", "Oh, my godfather was courting my mother", "Old Corporal", "My father told me", "I would take a bandura", "The Dnipro roars and groans" and other works. His voice is easily recognisable by its peculiar velvety timbre.
He toured Poland, Italy, Finland, Canada, Germany, the USA, and France.
He was also involved in public work (in 1945-1954 he was the chairman of the board of the Ukrainian Theatre Society). Mykyta Khrushchev wrote in his memoirs that Patorzhynskyi, who was respected as a person and a singer by Stalin himself, together with Maria Lytvynenko-Volhemut, stood up for the arrested composer Kostiantyn Dankevych and secured his release. He was elected a member of the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR of the 1st-4th convocation (1938-1959).
In 1953, Patorzhynskyi sang Karas from The Cossack Beyond the Danube for the last time and left the opera stage. In 1959, the last concert of the outstanding singer took place in the hall of the Kyiv Conservatory.
He died on 22 February 1960 in Kyiv. He was buried in Kyiv at the Baikove Cemetery (tombstone - labradorite, sculptor Elius Friedman; installed in 1963).
Family.
Ivan Serhiiovych's brother Fedir (1901-1976) took part in the Russian Civil War. He emigrated to Turkey and later lived in Bulgaria, where he was a regent in a choir. In the late 1920s, he settled in Paris. He directed the choir of the Holy Trinity Church in Clichy and the choir of the Church of the Three Saints in Paris. In the late 1940s, he became the director of the children's choir of the Thursday Church at the Union of Russian Orthodox Parisian Paris parishes. He won the Grand Prix at a competition in Italy."[3] For a long time Ivan did not know about his brother's fate. They met in 1946, when Ivan Serhiiovych came to Canada for a tour. In 1957, Fyodor Patorzhynsky had to undergo a major operation, and Ivan tried to support his brother financially, visiting him during his tour in America. From 1958, Fedir Patorzhynskyi lived in Kyiv, where he worked as the second conductor of the Dumka State Choir and directed a choir of students of the Agricultural Academy.[4] He died on 25 August 1976 in Kyiv, where he was buried.
During the German occupation, Ivan's older sister Oleksandra was a teacher and headed an underground group in Yelyzavetivka in Donbas. She was killed in action.
Honours.
He was awarded the Order of Lenin (1946), three Orders of the Red Banner of Labour (1936, 1948, 1951), medals, the Yugoslav Order of Brotherhood and Unity. He was awarded the Stalin Prize (1942).
Biography
Films:
Susanin (Glinka's Life for the Tsar);
Melnik (The Mermaid by Dargomyzhsky);
Mephistopheles (Faust by Gounod);
Don Basilio (The Barber of Seville by Rossini);
Karas (The Cossack Beyond the Danube by Gulak-Artemovsky);
Taras Bulba (Lysenko's Taras Bulba; State Prize of the USSR, 1942);
Valko ("Young Guard" by Maitus)
and others.
Filmography
1936 - "Natalka Poltavka" (directed by Ivan Kavaleridze) - Elected.
1953 - A Cossack Beyond the Danube (directed by Vasyl Lapoknysh) - Karas.
Memory.
A granite memorial plaque with a bas-relief image of the singer is installed on the facade of the house in Kyiv where Patorzhynskyi lived.
A street in Kyiv is named after him, as well as one of the streets in Zaporizhzhia. A street in Lutsk was also named after the opera singer.
In August 2018, the Head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional State Administration, Yurii Karapetian, approved the Regulations on the Ivan Patorzhynskyi Prize for Achievements in the Field of Musical Art.
