Biography
A small planet in the solar system was named after the singer. Opera star Maria Callas admired the dramatic mezzo-soprano of Tamara Sinyavskaya, and Sergei Lemeshev admitted that in 70 years he met “the real Pushkin Olga” on the stage for the first time. Tamara Sinyavskaya's star rose rapidly. Arriving at the Bolshoi Theater without any special education, 18 years later Sinyavskaya became a People's Artist of the USSR and, according to the press, a national treasure.
Official data
- Last name, first name, patronymic: Sinyavskaya, Tamara Ilyinichna.
- Place of birth: USSR (now Russian Federation), Moscow.
- Date of birth: 1943, July 6.
- Zodiac sign: Cancer; according to the eastern calendar - Black Sheep (element of the year water); Patron planet Lena.
- Russian nationality.
- Occupation: opera singer; chamber and pop performer; teacher.
- Type of singing voice: mezzo-soprano.
- The most significant state awards: People's Artist of the USSR (awarded in 1982); Laureate of the Lenin Komsomol Prize (title awarded in 1980); People's Artist of the Republic of Azerbaijan (awarded in 2002); Order of Merit for the Fatherland, VI degree (awarded in 2006).
- Marital status: married twice, widow; first husband - Berezhnoy, Sergei Mikhailovich; second husband - Magomaev, Muslim Magometovich (died in 2008).
- Children: no children.
Childhood and youth
Tamara Sinyavskaya is a native Muscovite, Russian by nationality. She was born a year before the end of the war. There is no information about the singer's father. Her idol and family was her mother. Maria Sinyavskaya naturally had a beautiful voice - an alto, but she had the opportunity to sing only in her early youth, in church, when she had no plans to have a daughter.
Tamara felt like a singer at the age of 3. Singing in grand old Moscow houses with good acoustics became a favorite children's entertainment. As she performed the divinely sounding roulades, she felt such spiritual trepidation as in a temple.
During the day, the future stage star managed to walk around all the entrances along Markhlevsky’s native street (now it is Milyutinsky Lane). “Aria” performed by Sinyavskaya lasted until it was interrupted by admiring or indignant residents. One day they advised the mother to take her daughter to the Pioneer House, where professional teachers would work with her.
Now Tamara sang twice as much - in the House of Pioneers and in the courtyard, where she gathered a “hall” of neighboring children. Soon the young artist joined the children's ensemble of Vladimir Sergeevich Loktev, where she sang and danced.
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Tamara Sinyavskaya in her youth
At the age of 10, the girl was transferred to the choir, where she acquired musical and stage experience. The famous group took part in government concerts, and Tamara Sinyavskaya felt at home on stage. For the first time in her life, she visited abroad: Vladimir Loktev’s ensemble toured Czechoslovakia.
Incredibly, in her youth Sinyavskaya dreamed of becoming a doctor. There was a clinic in the house where the family lived. Toma watched with admiration the work of the staff in white coats and inhaled the smell of ether, which seemed heavenly to her. The future artist played “to the hospital”, kept a card index with the medical histories of her family and friends, wrote out “prescriptions”, which were signed by “doctor Sinyavskaya”.
In addition to music, Tamara loved skating and skiing. In winter, when skating rinks opened in the capital, she was among the first visitors. The desire to go on stage appeared in adolescence, when a girl and her friends ran to the cinema to watch “Kuban Cossacks” and “The House Where I Live”. She learned the songs from the films and sang them all the time. And seeing the Argentine singer and actress Lolita Torres on the screen, Sinyavskaya dreamed of a similar career.
In her senior year, Tamara made her choice - she set her sights on a theater university. But Vladimir Loktev, who carefully observed the ensemble artist, advised her to enter the music school at the Pyotr Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Sinyavskaya listened and never regretted it. There she met talented teachers who brought the singer’s vocal abilities to perfection.
At the school, Tamara Sinyavskaya worked part-time, performing in the choir of the academic Maly Theater. For their performance, the choristers received 5 rubles - money that was enough for a kilogram of stellate sturgeon in the exemplary Eliseevsky grocery store. At the Maly Theater, the Muscovite appeared on stage with stage masters, whose names were known to everyone in the Soviet Union.
Marriage to Muslim Magomayev
The all-Union favorite, with whom millions of women were in love, met the beauty on tour in Baku. Robert Rozhdestvensky introduced the young people. When Muslim introduced himself, Tamara noted that for such a popular performer there was no need for this. It was rumored that Leonid Brezhnev remembered her primarily as Magomayev’s wife.
A romance broke out, but the opera singer was in no hurry to break up with her husband. Magomayev later said in an interview that he fell in love immediately and thought that Sinyavskaya would always be with him.
Soon Tamara left for an internship in Italy and once a week received a bouquet of roses sent by Muslim. They talked on the phone for hours. One day, the artist noticed that international communications are not a cheap pleasure, and in response she heard a request to never touch on the money issue in the future.
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A post shared by M. Magomaev and T. Sinyavskaya (@muslim_tamara) on Nov 2, 2020 at 3:24am PDT
Tamara Sinyavskaya and Muslim Magomayev
Sinyavskaya and Magomayev got married in November 1974. An artist friend took the passports of the hesitant lovers to the registry office. The wedding was celebrated twice - in the Moscow restaurant "Baku" and in Muslim's homeland. The first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, provided an official dacha for this occasion.
For 34 years, everything happened in the personal lives of the spouses. The two stars quarreled and parted, but they were magnetically drawn to each other. After one such disagreement, it seemed that the relationship could not be saved. Alexandra Pakhmutova and Nikolai Dobronravov told the host of the “Tonight” program, Yulia Menshova, that at that time they wrote the song “Farewell, beloved!” As soon as the composition was aired, reconciliation took place.
“You just have to be a fool to consider yourself the head of the family! And how could one consider oneself the navel of the earth next to such an artist and personality as Muslim?! A woman should always envelop a man in warmth.”
There were no children in the marriage; Tamara Ilyinichna gave all her love and attention to her husband. When Magomayev died, Sinyavskaya went into seclusion for 3 years, and appeared in public 7 years later. In the program “Visiting Dmitry Gordon,” she said that Sergei was one of the first to offer help.
The people of Azerbaijan call the singer “gyallin” - beloved daughter-in-law. She is immensely respected for the fact that she allowed Muslim to be buried not in Moscow, but in Baku, on the alley of honor, next to his grandfather.
Vow of silence
The widow of Muslim Magomayev continues to maintain a vow of silence for a long time - she simply has no one to talk to. She assures that having lost her husband, she was left without a friend, chief adviser and ally. Tamara Ilyinichna shares that she and the singer had a lot of common interests, there was always something to talk about, something to listen to. Muslim Magometovich himself always shared with his wife his impressions and experiences about what he saw or heard.
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Music
Tamara studied during the day and performed in the evenings. She made her debut with the gypsy choir in the production of “The Living Corpse”, where the singer’s vocal abilities were noted and she gave solo parts in the cantatas “Alexander Nevsky” and “Moscow”. In 1964, Sinyavskaya received a diploma from a music school, passing the exam with an “A plus”, which was rare in the educational institution. The teachers recommended that the graduate try her hand at the Bolshoi Theater, where at that time they were recruiting a group of trainees.
The Bolshoi admissions committee, where Tamara Sinyavskaya arrived, unanimously accepted the 20-year-old artist, although the girl did not have a conservatory education. But the members of the selection committee, luminaries in the world of musical art Boris Pokrovsky, Galina Vishnevskaya and Evgeny Svetlanov, realized that they were dealing with exceptional talent.
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A post shared by M. Magomaev and T. Sinyavskaya (@muslim_tamara) on Feb 11, 2020 at 1:23pm PST
Tamara Sinyavskaya and Irina Arkhipova
The masters of the Bolshoi Theater did not see a rival in the young, friendly girl, and she did not think about competition: Tamara Sinyavskaya took her breath away when she went on stage with Irina Arkhipova, Alexander Ognivtsev and Zurab Andzhaparidze.
A year later, Tamara Sinyavskaya was accepted into the main cast of the troupe, but the vocalist understood that she could not stop: the Muscovite entered GITIS, where she met the famous vocal teacher Dora Belyavskaya. For the first time Sinyavskaya heard that she had something to work on, Dora Borisovna turned a diamond into a diamond.
In the theater, Tamara Sinyavskaya carefully watched the work of the luminaries and became shy. Director Boris Pokrovsky helped to overcome uncertainty, entrusting the young singer with the role of the Page in Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Rigoletto”. The girl's male role as Page was a success; the theater was convinced that the singer could cope with both female roles and drag queens.
Tamara Sinyavskaya felt like the owner of the stage when the main cast of the troupe went on tour to Milan. The only performer of the role of Olga in the production of Eugene Onegin went to Italy. The role was entrusted to Sinyavskaya, and she coped brilliantly, having heard a flattering review from the 70-year-old master Sergei Lemeshev.
For 40 years on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater, Tamara Sinyavskaya became a prima singer, performing all the main opera roles with her velvety mezzo-soprano, and was considered the unique Azucena, Carmen, Marina Mnishek. For her vocal range and skill, the singer was named the best Russian vocalist of the Italian school. The army of admirers of Tamara Ilyinichna’s talent was replenished by both Russian and foreign connoisseurs of opera.
On January 23, 1912, a Soviet and Russian opera director, teacher, publicist, and true master of his craft was born -...
Published by Muslim Magomayev and Tamara Sinyavskaya Wednesday, January 23, 2020
Tamara Sinyavskaya, Galina Vishnevskaya and Boris Pokrovsky
Sinyavskaya’s repertoire included French and Italian music, and the singer felt comfortable performing Russian opera roles. The Russian soul of the opera diva was noted by fans who heard the role of Lyubasha in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera The Tsar’s Bride. Her connoisseurs and music critics call her the best celebrity in her career.
In addition to opera arias, fans fell in love with romances, pop and folk compositions performed by Tamara “Thin Rowan”, “Black-Eyed Cossack Woman”, “The Night is Bright”, “Santa Lucia”, “Tenderness”, “Smoke” and many others.
The artist herself looked like a Cossack woman - average height (170 cm), dark hair and sparkling eyes, a stately figure. Sinyavskaya said that she had never been slim, and an attempt to lose weight almost led to the loss of her voice. But she watched her weight and went on diets.
In 1970, a competitive festival named after Tchaikovsky was held in Russia, where Maria Maksakova, Irina Arkhipova, Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi were members of the jury. Tamara Sinyavskaya and Elena Obraztsova shared the main award - the gold medal, with foreign members of the jury giving preference to the former. The festival brought the opera diva all-Union popularity and offers to perform on world stages, but Tamara Ilyinichna did not pursue fame and did not imagine that she would leave the Bolshoi Theater.
In 2003, the singer left the stage at a career high. She later explained that she preferred to leave before hearing the words of surprise about her career “longevity.”
Further creativity
It is difficult to describe in a few meager lines her contribution to the development of the musical life of the USSR (and then Russia). Having begun her rapid journey to the very top of the country's musical Olympus in her youth, she delighted numerous fans with her magnificent singing for many years. Trips abroad, performances at prestigious competitions, frequent appearances on television - it seemed that she was not aging, not losing talent, but on the contrary, becoming even more beautiful, singing better and better. Her creative and social biography is full of significant facts, here are some of them.
- Internship in Milan, at the La Scala theater (I had an internship there in 1973 and 1974).
- Countries where she performed in opera houses abroad: France, Italy, Belgium, USA, Australia, Spain.
- Prokofiev's opera The Gambler: she became the first performer of the role of Mademoiselle Blanche in our country.
- The singer went on tour to South Korea and Japan. In Turkey, she sang the role of Carmen in the opera of the same name with great success.
- The artist sang many parts for the first time abroad as a Soviet and Russian performer. For example, this is the role of Lelya from Rimsky-Korsakov’s “The Snow Maiden” - the premiere took place in Paris.
- Performances in a duet with her husband Muslim Magomayev, long and close collaboration with composer Evgeny Svetlanov.
- In 1984, she became a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
Pop songs, romances that fans of Tamara Sinyavskaya loved: a huge list can also be compiled on this topic. “Tenderness”, “Black-Eyed Cossack Woman”, “Katyusha”, “I am the Earth, I See Off My Pets” - these are some of the most famous hits that were constantly heard on the radio, on television, and published on records. She appeared in “Blue Light” in her youth in 1964, together with Valentin Budilin, and then continued to perform annually for a long time in this and other significant TV programs. In 1983, the song “I fell in love with a boy” became a real hit after it was performed by a country-famous singer in “New Year’s Blue Light.” The announcement that his musical career was over was met with sadness by fans - this happened in 2003.
Tamara Sinyavskaya now
The artist, having completed her career, did not give up art. Today, Professor Tamara Ilyinichna teaches at GITIS, where she heads the vocal department. Master classes with students save you from longing for your spouse, because the wound has not healed.
In 2019, the singer was admitted to the cardiology department. Her health was affected by the weather, the official said. Makvala Kasrashvili’s friend reassured worried journalists, saying that the hospitalization was not emergency, but planned: the age is such that prevention is necessary.
Published by Amedia Tuesday, March 3, 2020
Irina Antonenko as Tamara Sinyavskaya
Sinyavskaya is called to the stage, offering opera roles in performances, but she always refuses, because she does not want to go down even a step, and does not feel the strength to reach the same height. Tamara Ilyinichna established and headed the Muslim Magomayev Cultural and Musical Heritage Foundation and republished his book “Memories Live in Me.”
Fans created a page on Instagram dedicated to the outstanding couple, where they publish photos and recordings of concerts. Celebrity love stories haunt writers and filmmakers. The work of the popular biographer Sophia Benois is called “Muslim Magomaev and Tamara Sinyavskaya.”
And in 2020, the TV series “Magomayev” was released, a project, according to the producers, super-important and super-complicated, which took 6 years. During four of them, the singer participated in writing the script, then personally approved the candidacy of Milos Bikovich for the role of Muslim. The young actor had to be re-voiced due to his Serbian accent.
The opera diva was played by Irina Antonenko. “Miss Russia 2010” is not 100% similar to Tamara Ilyinichna, but such a goal was not set. The directors wanted to convey the sincerity and openness of a woman with whom it is impossible not to fall in love.
What has the artist been doing in recent years?
The Russian Academy of Theater Arts, the largest higher educational theater institution in Europe and one of the largest universities in this field in the world - Tamara Ilyinichna began working there as a teacher at the musical theater department. In my youth I dreamed of being not only a doctor, but also an artist (by personal admission), and now the dream has come true in an indirect way - it passes on the lessons of craftsmanship to young people, future actors of the musical stage. Also singer Sinyavskaya is a professor and head of the vocal department. She has no plans to return to the opera stage after leaving there in 2003. In her words: “I can only sing at my level, and not a step lower. It’s better that they say about me that I left too early than too late.”
The latest news about the singer is related to the sensational and successful premiere of the film-series “Magomayev” in March 2020. The singer's widow was a consultant during the work on the film, and her words were primarily listened to when selecting actors for the roles of the main characters. From an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda: “This young man (Milos Bikovich) was most suitable to play Muslim. This directly concerned me, so I was very attentive: there was something in the soft intonation and non-fussful movement, and a purely external similarity, from afar.” From the same interview, in the words of Tamara Ilyinichna: “When I watched several small scenes where Irina interacts with Milos, I thought: with some work, something will work out,” meaning the performer of the second leading role, “Miss Russia 2010” Irina Antonenko.
The singer in her youth and throughout their subsequent life together was not only the wife of Muslim Magometovich. Tamara Ilyinichna became his inseparable soul mate, a creative Muse, and throughout their life together the couple not only lived together - they often performed as a duet, attended significant Soviet musical events together, and appeared as a couple in public. The name of Magomayev did not fade into oblivion with the death of the brilliant singer and artist - with the direct participation of the widow, the “Muslim Magomayev Foundation for the Musical and Cultural Heritage” was created. Young singing talents are supported there, a vocal competition is held twice a year and a personal scholarship is awarded, and teacher Sinyavskaya conducts master classes at the Foundation.
