Fyodor Ignatievich Stravinsky (*8 (20) June 1843, Novy Dvor estate[1][2], Rechitsa district, Minsk province, Russian Empire - 21 November (4 December) 1902, St. Petersburg) was a Russian singer (bass), descended from the Ukrainian Cossack family of Sulymy-Stravinsky.
Father of the outstanding composer Igor Stravinsky.
Ancestry.
The Stravinsky family originated from Volyn. According to the director of the museum in Ustyluh, Volodymyr Tereshchuk, the Stravynsky family coat of arms inherited elements of the coat of arms of Hetman Ivan Sulyma. The family was proud to belong to this ancient Ukrainian family. The composer's son Ihor wrote: "Our surname was Sulyma-Stravynsky, but when Russia annexed part of Poland, the 'Sulyma' was dropped from our surname for some reason." He compensated for this loss by giving his son Sviatoslav the double surname Sulyma-Stravynskyi.
Fyodor Stravinsky was a native of Minsk province.
From his life and work
There were four children in this family, noble on the father's side and peasant on the mother's side. All of them - Oleksandr, Olha, Kostiantyn, Fedir - were born in different farmsteads rented by their parents in the Rechitsa district of Minsk province between 1835 and 1843 - Linternia, Karolin, Kornelianov, Novyi Dvir[3]. His father, an agronomist Hnat Hnatovych, lived and worked for landowners in Belarus and Ukraine, in particular, in Chernihiv and Poltava provinces. From childhood, Fedir was brought up in Bragin by his mother's family, later by his father's brother Stanislav Hnatovych, and studied at the noble school in Mozyr. In 1859, the Stravinsky family moved to Nizhyn, and Fyodor was transferred to the Nizhyn Gymnasium at the Law Lyceum, where he studied for two years and returned to Mozyr, where a gymnasium was opened. He sang in a church choir and participated in a theatre group. After graduating from the Mozyr Gymnasium, in 1865 he entered the Prince Bezborodko Nizhyn Law Lyceum, but after studying there for one semester, he transferred to St Volodymyr's University in Kyiv. He studied there from January 1866 to October 1868 and was forced to return to Nizhyn to the Prince Bezborodko Law Lyceum, graduating in 1869. In 1869-1873, he studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in the class of K. Everardi. He grew up listening to Ukrainian folk songs.
He made his debut in Kyiv at the Opera House (1873). He sang there until 1876, and then at the Mariinsky Theatre (St Petersburg).
In May 1874, Fyodor Stravinsky married a talented Kyiv pianist, Anna Kyrylivna Kholodovska, a relative of Sergei Diaghilev who came from the Ukrainian Cossack family of Kholodovskys. In Kyiv in 1875, they gave birth to their son Roman, who lived only twenty-one years.
On 14 June 1882, their son Igor, a future prominent composer and conductor, was born in St Petersburg.
The work of Fyodor Stravinsky is a "bright page" in the history of Ukrainian realistic performing arts. The singer struggled with the operatic routine, paying great attention to the dramatic side of performance (facial expressions, gestures, stage behaviour, make-up, costume).
Ф. G. Stravinsky created diverse characters: Yeryomka, Olofern (The Hostile Force, Judith by Serov), Melnik (The Mermaid by Dargomyzhsky), Farlaf (Ruslan and Lyudmila by Glinka), Golovan (The May Night by Rimsky-Korsakov), Mamyrov (The Enchantress by Tchaikovsky), Mephistopheles (Faust by Gounod and Mephistopheles by Boyteau) and others. He masterfully performed characteristic episodic roles. He also performed in concerts.
