Customer Reviews

Chaliapin

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I should qualify by saying that while this is the best biography of the man available, the operative word is "biography." Chaliapin's autobiography "Man and Mask" is probably the best source for understanding the man and his methods, although this book borrows liberally from that and from the Maxim Gorky book as well.

That said, this is a superb effort, with lots of photos, of the man on whom Konstantin Stanivslavsky said he based his entire method of acting - and thus almost all modern film and stage acting. I know, Chaliapin was a singer, and a wonderful one with one of the most distinctive voices in the history of opera. But he considered himself an actor first, and he revolutionized acting in opera.