Fyodor Shalyapin (1873–1938) was a Russian opera and chamber singer (high bass), the first People's Artist of the Republic. He had a major impact on the world operatic art.
Since 1899, Shalyapin was the leading soloist of the country's Imperial theaters - the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg.
The singer's repertoire included about 400 works of different genres, mainly of chamber and folk-song ones. Among the masterpieces of Shalyapin's performing skills are the parts of Mephistopheles (Faust by Ch. Gounod) and Ruslan (Ruslan and Lyudmila by M. Glinka); The Flea, The Forgotten, The Warlord and The Trepak by M. Mussorgsky, The Night Review by M. Glinka, The Old Corporal by A. Dargomyzhsky, The Prophet by N. Rimsky-Korsakov, The Two Grenadiers by R. Schumann, The Twin by F. Schubert, and others. As to Russian folk songs, he is best known for his Dubinushka.
The postage stamp provides a portrait of Fyodor Shalyapin; the margins of the block (in the form of a gramophone record) feature images of Mephistopheles, Boris Godunov and Basilio embodied by the artist on the opera stage, a theater curtain and an autograph.
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Printing method |
Format of the envelope |
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110 × 220 mm |