Alexander Vertinski

Alexandre Nikolaïevitch Vertinski is one of the largest Russian singers of the 20th century. Its life has paces of novel.

Childhood

It is with Kiev that it is born, in 1889. The early death of his/her parents throws it to five years in a miserable childhood. He lives then in his aunt and discovers the world of the hunger, the cold and the blows. Only the bohemian life will come to draw it from this childhood to the Dickens: because of its bad results, it is successively driven out of its college then of the family home.

The young Alexandre then starts to attend this theater world which attracts it since its tender childhood. The decoration: a small cabaret of Kiev in which it comes to consume beers and days with friends. It benefits from it to write: in 1912 some of its news appear. He saw odd jobs then and ends up leaving to try his chance in the capital.

Moscow, the war, the Revolution

In 1913, one finds Alexandre with the small theater of Mamonov miniature, with Moscow. It gives small humorous shows to it, on texts which it itself wrote. This new Muscovite life has good: it finds there his sister, given for died by his aunt, and become actress. And this new Muscovite life has also the bad one: cocaine becomes the daily newspaper of both Vertinski.

Then the war comes. “Pierrot Brother” then exchanges the cabaret for the infirmary and becomes expert of bindings. While it leaves the world of cocaine for the face, his/her sister loses herself and succumbs there of an overdose. Of return to Moscow, Alexandre affirms a little more on scene his character of “Russian Pierrot”.

But after the war which has first once stopped its career, the Revolution comes to suspend one second time its activity. In 1918, “Pierocha” leaves Moscow to join the rows of the Russian emigration. The wandering and the exile will last 25 years. During a voyage in Romania, Vertinski becomes by the magic of a false passport a Greek of the name of Alexandre Vertidis.

Wanderings

He travels, wanders, loses in the foreign Villes (title of one of its most famous songs). One can cross it in Moldavie, in Germany but also to New York, in Palestine… It roves, is made new friends among whom one counts Marlène Dietrich to which it will dedicate its song Marlène . Two cities succeed in nevertheless retaining it: Paris initially with which it falls passionately in love. There settle there in 1925 and remain almost 10 years there. Then second city in which he condescends to remain, Shanghai as from 1935 and for 8 years. Why Shanghai? Probably for the important Russian community in exile which was established there and which does not mix with the remainder of the population. Vertinski there Marie and has a first girl, Marianne, which will be followed later of Anastasia.

Then, in 1943, the third request for return in Soviet Union of the singer is accepted. Alexandre Vertidis the Greek can finally take again his true name and his nationality. New successes and beginning of a life of stakhanovist: more than three miles concerts and of the rounds which make it cross all USSR, as far as Siberia and in the Far East. But Pierrot starts to tire. He would prefer to remain near his family. He would like a also little considerations: no disc, no publicity, no diffusion with the radio. “My statute is that of a closed house: everyone goes there but it is not suitable to speak about it in company”.

He dies in 1957, with the hotel " Astoria" with Leningrad, in company of a prostitute. Today, this “closed house” has well-established in Russia since Vertinski is regarded there as one of the largest singers of the XXe century at the sides of Okoudjava or of Vissotski; one takes again his songs, one quotes it, one sets up commemorative plaques to him.

Russian Pierrot

De Vertinski, one will be able to retain the ease, the irony of its songs. And especially this particular love of nostalgia. And then topics of its “small ariettas”: “short ballades, whose characters are clowns and cocaine addicts, singers of cabarets and film stars, capricious ladies in smart coats and vagrants, artists and upholders, pages and Lords. All they like, suffer, dream of happiness, are bored, are ruent in a furious hunting for the life and sanglotent bitterly under the claws that it distributes to them so well” like the writing her Anastasia daughter. See the Abbess , the Negro Lila , Moldavian Steppe …

But one will be able unfortunately only to imagine the character on scene starting from the few photographs of him: grimé in Pierrot at its beginnings or then in frac worn with its essential always fresh flower with the buttonhole. Then, helping success, its black suit and its top hat, with an air délicieusement haughty…

Sources

Double CD of works of Vertinski was published at Chant of the World in 1992. It is unfortunately exhausted for a long time. One finds in his jacket of the texts of his daughter Anastasia and of Elizaveta Ouvarova which were the primary sources for this article, the quotations of it are drawn. Currently, it is necessary to pass through the Russian editor Bohème to get its discs, but they are not directly available in France. One can however, on Internet, to download songs of Vertinski

- sung by itself

- sung by Irina Bogouchevskaïa (ИринаБогушевская), with letters called by Alexandre Skliar (АлександрФ. Скляр). it is about the album Brazilskii kreisser (Бразильскийкрейсер). for the music, the words (in Russian).

See Russian Wikipedia

All texts of the songs

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