About museum

The house on Novinsky Boulevard is connected with the life and work of the outstanding Russian singer, the famous bass Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin. This was Chaliapin's first private house in Moscow, which became a place where he could rest and spend time with his family. The museum is rich in original belongings of the Chaliapin family. The house was purchased by Fyodor Ivanovich in 1910. Its renovation was undertaken by his wife, Iola Tornagi. The building was rebuilt in a new European style, and gas, running water, bathrooms and a telephone were installed.

The museum holds many original items of the Chaliapin family, including furniture, a Bechstein piano, a grandfather clock, Fyodor's and Iola's wedding candles, theatrical costumes, performance programs, posters… The house contains many paintings donated to Chaliapin by artists: V. Serov, K. Korovin, V. Polenov, M. Nesterov and M. Vrubel. The singer's son, Boris Chaliapin, donated a large collection of his own works to the museum.

The Gallery of the F. I. Chaliapin Memorial Estate forms a single complex with the house‑museum. Exhibitions devoted both to history and to current issues of national vocal art are held there; they introduce visitors to materials from specialized museums and private collections. The gallery hosts evenings and concert subscription series on various themes — "Musical Capitals of the World", "Artistic Families", "Meetings on Novinsky", "Piano Evenings at the Chaliapin House", "Choral Assemblies", "Debut at the Chaliapin House", and others. Well‑known domestic and foreign singers give master classes in the house of the great Russian performer.

The interior rooms of the house were recreated from photographs and the recollections of the singer's children. The White Hall, the Green Drawing Room, the dining room, the study, the billiard room… Life in these rooms followed an established routine, which was not disrupted by the artist's busy touring schedule. In the White Hall Chaliapin rehearsed with many of his guests; he celebrated benefit performances in the dining room; Fyodor Ivanovich loved to read in his study. Chaliapin adored billiards; the playing table by the firm 'V.K. Schultz' was a gift from his wife.

Now, as in Chaliapin's time, the house's light‑fawn facade faces Novinsky Boulevard; decorative shaped chimney pots adorn its green roof, and decorative vases crown the posts of the carved cast‑iron gates.

Museum features

Дата основания

1988 год

Founder

The initiator of the opening was the singer's first wife, Iola Tornagi, who proposed to the Soviet authorities to organize a memorial house in the 18th‑century mansion where Fyodor Ivanovich lived from 1910 to 1922.

Предметы музея

The museum's exhibition consists of a collection of the artist's personal belongings, stage costumes, antique furniture, as well as works by Valentin Serov, Konstantin Korovin, Vasily Polenov, Mikhail Nesterov and Mikhail Vrubel, and by Boris Chaliapin — the artist's son. The interior rooms were recreated from the memories and notes of his daughter Irina (Iola's daughter) and the accounts of contemporaries. The permanent exhibition consists of a recreated enfilade of rooms on the mansion's first and second floors. The entrance hall leads to Iola Chaliapina's room, where her portrait by Boris Chaliapin hangs, along with family photographs, wedding ribbons and a landscape of Mount Ayu‑Dag. Next to it is Chaliapin's room, which adjoined the entrance hall and the hall connected to the mezzanines. In the dining room Chaliapin celebrated successful benefit performances with his friends — more than thirty people could fit at the table. The exhibition features the original table as well as artworks by Konstantin Korovin. The sideboard houses hand‑painted dinner services bearing the symbols of the imperial family. In the Green Drawing Room hangs a painting by the Irish artist O'Connell, "Portrait of a Gypsy", which, according to legend, Chaliapin acquired in Brussels. Also on display are an antique gramophone, a set of records with recordings of opera singers, and the artist's original armchair from his apartment in Paris, where he spent the last years of his life. In this room a small troupe from the Chaliapin Studio — which included Ruben Simonov, Osip Abdulov, Olga Androvskaya, as well as the artist's children Lydia and Irina — staged their performances.

Found a mistake? Select and click

CTRL

ENTER

Сообщить об ошибке