Biography of Yuri Lyubimov will be interesting to all fans of theatrical art. This man went down in the history of Russian culture as the leader and reformer of one of the country's most popular theaters - the Taganka Theater. However, his personal life is no less exciting than public. This interesting person will be discussed in our article.
Hard childhood
The biography of Yuri Lyubimov says that he was born on September 17, 2017 - literally a couple of months before the revolution. The boy came from a wealthy family, so the change of power did not affect his fate in the best way. The father of our hero Petr Zakharovich was a merchant. He graduated from a real school, worked for some time in his native Yaroslavl, and in 1922 he moved to Moscow. There he lived in a big way, loved beautiful things, loved to drive fast, attended social events, was known as an avid theater-goer - in a word, in every possible way attracted attention. Now he would be called a successful entrepreneur. He kept his own shop in Okhotny Ryad, where he traded various pickles. However, with the end of the NEP, the Lyubimovs began a completely different life - the head of the family was arrested. The authorities wanted to take money from him, which actually did not exist. The mother of Yuri Petrovich, Anna Alexandrovna, also got it. She was sent to prison after her husband and kept behind bars for several months. At this time, three minor children, Yuri, David and Natalya, were left unattended in Moscow. They survived on their own, waiting for the release of the arrested parents.
Youth
The creative biography of Yuri Lyubimov has about 30 film works and more than 100 staged performances. Art has become his passion from an early age. Our hero’s mother was half gypsy. She instilled in her son a love of song and dance. Pyotr Zakharovich was fond of literature. He had a great library. The Lyubimov family did not miss a single theatrical premiere. In such an environment, the future actor and director grew up a truly creative person. He enjoyed grandiose productions at the Moscow Art Theater. His first theatrical impressions are connected with the performances “Blue Bird”, “Woe from Wit”, “Forest”, “The Examiner”. It was in the theater that he came up with the idea of becoming an actor. However, life has made its own adjustments. Since Yuri Petrovich was not from a proletarian family, he was not allowed into high school. He had to go to study at the Electromechanical College in 1922. In parallel, he attended a choreographic studio, which taught according to the Isadora Duncan system.
The time was turbulent, and the young student had to constantly protect himself from encroachment. Once he was severely beaten - his head was cut and two teeth were knocked out. This made our hero the next time leave the house with a finca and a gun. Hooligans did not touch him anymore.
Career development
The biography of Yuri Lyubimov has many unexpected twists. One of them was entering the theater studio at the Moscow Art Theater in 1934. A year later, the newly made actor already participated in his first production. He got a cameo role in the play “A Pray for Life”. A year later, the studio was closed as part of the fight against formalism. However, our hero was transferred to the Vakhtangov Theater School. Later, he began working in the same theater. In 1941, he was drafted into the army, where he served until the Victory in the Song and Dance Ensemble of the NKVD - Beria's beloved brainchild. There were no concessions for the artists - they periodically raised the morale of the Soviet troops at the forefront.
Demobilization allowed to return to the beloved business of Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov. The biography of the future director indicates that in the period from 1946-1964 he played in the theater more than thirty roles. Among them are Mozart from The Little Tragedies, Treplev from The Seagull, Oleg Kosheva from The Young Guard and many others. In the movie, the actor made his debut in 1941. He starred in the film "Color Novels." On the account of Yuri Petrovich 21 film works. The artist was involved in "Restless Farm", "Kuban Cossacks", "Robinson Crusoe", "Three Meetings" and many other films. He was considered a talented, virtuoso and original actor. No one suspected that this was only one of the facets of his undeniable talent.
Director and Director
A brief biography of Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov cannot characterize his entire personal and social life. After all, he truly found himself in directing and directing one of the most advanced theaters in the country - the famous Taganka. The path to the top was a long one. At first, in 1953, our hero became a teacher at the Shchukin Theater School. Then, in 1959, he staged his own play, “How much does a person need?” On the stage of the Vakhtangov Theater. This experience inspired him to attend the director’s courses taught by Mikhail Kedrov. A student of Stanislavsky spoke at his seminars about the latest trends in the field of theatrical art. It is not surprising that after attending these lectures in 1964, Yuri Petrovich created his first grandiose theatrical production. It was called "Good man from Cezuan" and was carried out by graduates of the "Pike" - the school at the Vakhtangov Theater. By that time, a successful actor and experienced teacher was appointed head of the Moscow Drama Theater on Taganskaya Street, which he managed to transform into the rebellious Taganka. Contemporaries of the Beloved claim that he was a gifted PR man. The director was able to make each of his productions a real event in the cultural life of the capital. For example, before the release of “The Good Man from Cezuan”, a rumor was circulated that after the premiere the production would certainly be banned. As a result, the people threw the show in droves, and his success was grand. The best students of Yuri Petrovich made up the core of the troupe of the new theater. Vladimir Vysotsky, Valery Zolotukhin, Veniamin Smekhov and many others began to shine on its stage. For many years, “Taganka” has established itself as a breath of freedom in the dark realm of hopeless censorship.
First marriage
Yuri Lyubimov, a biography whose personal life is considered in this article, was an extraordinary person. He was called a man of will. He did not like to follow circumstances, did not grovel at the powers that be, and nevertheless remained a successful person under the Soviet regime. For a strong and independent nature, women loved him very much.
For the first time, Yuri Petrovich married in the middle of 1940. He married the ballerina Olga Kovaleva. It was an unusually beautiful woman. Together, lovers performed in the NKVD ensemble. Their relationship was not a surprise to anyone, because the mutual attraction was visible to the naked eye. In 1949, Olga Evgenievna gave Lyubimov a son. The boy was called Nikita. However, the couple quickly cooled to each other. Olga constantly sat at home with the child, while her successful husband all the time disappeared on tour and filming. As a result, she went to the conductor Yuri Silantyev. The woman left for Abkhazia and soon married a second time. Such information is offered to us by the official biography. The children of Yuri Lyubimov did not disgrace their father's name and also became creative people. For example, the eldest son Nikita became a writer and even wrote plays for the Taganka Theater. He is a very religious person, regularly attends an Orthodox church. He has a wife and three children.
Smoothie
Hearty passions always boiled around our hero. This is directly indicated by his biography. The personal life of Yuri Beloved was the subject of heated discussion of his contemporaries. It is known that in the troupe of the Vakhtangov theater there were many attractive actresses. But the Pashkov sisters - Galina and Larisa - were considered exceptional beauties. The future director was literally torn between two charming ladies. According to rumors, for some time the trio even lived under one roof.
The next passion of Yuri Petrovich - Elena Kornilova - claims that her romance with Teacher lasted 13 years. The woman had to share it with her common-law wife, Lyudmila Tselikovskaya, who recalls that it was impossible to resist Lyubimov’s charm. The director of Taganka was a stunningly creative person. Under his influence, the actors disappeared day and night in the theater. Elena also notes that the great director liked strong-willed women. Ladies with a tough and martial character invariably won his attention. That is why he lived for so long with the unsurpassed Tselikovskaya.
Theatrical Muse
Lyudmila Vasilievna was considered an extraordinary woman. She was completely unlike her on-screen image of a pretty, but narrow-minded girl. Among her undoubted advantages were high education, good taste and incredible popularity with the public. The biography of the director Yuri Lyubimov could have developed completely differently if it had not been for the meeting with this amazing actress. She helped him get acquainted with the “right” people, recommended literature suitable for reading, and selected a repertoire for the theater. If Yuri Petrovich was distinguished by organizational talent, then Tselikovskaya was responsible for the intellectual component. In addition, she was his guardian angel - saved from the machinations of ill-wishers and the ubiquitous censorship.
Biography of Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov indicates that he met Lyudmila Vasilievna while still a student of "Pike." The newly made artist attended the fourth year, and his future muse was the first. After that, they happened to serve together in the Vakhtangov Theater. In 1945, the picture "Restless Farm" was released, where both artists were involved. Bright, charismatic, incredibly beautiful, amazingly talented, they were very suitable for each other. As a result, in the early 1960s, lovers began to live together.
Undoubtedly, the Taganka Theater owes much of its success to Tselikovskaya. However, she never considered Yuri Petrovich a genius. Perhaps this is the reason that over time our hero became interested in the woman who idolized him.
Fatal Catalin
Many are well aware of the biography of Yuri Lyubimov. The personal life of this successful person often influenced the professional. This became clear when another woman appeared in his fate. Our hero met Katalina Kuntz back in 1976. At this time, his theater went on tour in Hungary. Yuri Petrovich was already 59 years old, and his new darling had hardly passed 30. The age difference did not bother anyone - a stormy romance broke out between the famous Russian director and the Hungarian translator. In 1978, the couple legalized their relationship. A year later, they had a boy.
The biography of Peter Lyubimov (son of Yuri Lyubimov) clearly demonstrates how difficult it is to be a child of a creative person. The guy received an excellent education - he was issued a matriculation certificate in Cambridge. Then he graduated from the university and after that he lived in Italy for a year. The son of the famous director had the opportunity to build his own career in the construction business, but life decreed otherwise. For the sake of his father, he left everything and moved to Moscow. Together with his mother, Peter began working at the Taganka Theater.
Many people blamed Katalina Kunz for all sins. Allegedly, she sowed discord in the troupe, established a dictatorship, completely knocked out the creative atmosphere from the theater. Perhaps the aesthetics of the "street theater" really suffered. However, Lyubimov himself only benefited from the methodicality, integrity and loyalty of his wife.
Exile
A lot of sudden twists and turns in the biography of Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov. Children who absorbed his wisdom and creativity can be called not only his own sons, but also his favorite artists. In 1980, Vysotsky died. Around his death there were many rumors. The Taganka Theater was considered almost a hotbed of resistance to official ideology. The struggle lasted more than one year and ended tragically - Yuri Petrovich was deprived of Soviet citizenship. It happened in 1984. Since 1981, for seven years, our hero, along with his family, traveled the world. He lived and worked in Israel, USA, England, Scandinavia, Italy, Germany. And everywhere his productions were wildly successful. A special discussion deserves his directorial experiments in the theater of La Scala. Milan applauded opera productions from the famous Soviet director. But, like any patriot, Lyubimov was drawn home. In 1988, he had the opportunity to return to Moscow. He was greeted as a winner.
Conflict in the theater
However, soon everything went wrong. Yuri Petrovich - a supporter of strict discipline. He sought to obey the actors unquestioningly. His policy did not suit everyone. As a result, the Taganka troupe split in two. One part united under the leadership of Nikolai Gubenko and founded the "Commonwealth of Taganka Actors", the other chose Lyubimov as its leader and was called the "Taganka Theater". The artists settled in the old theater building on Zemlyanoy Val. The period from 2000-2003 can be described as the “Boldino Autumn” of the artist. He staged six grand performances and earned brilliant reviews from critics. However, in 2010, Yuri Petrovich still resigned. He explained his departure as a conflict with the Department of Culture of Moscow.
Last years
Until his death, Lyubimov managed to maintain interest in his person. In 2012, the 94-year-old director presented to the audience a performance based on Dostoevsky’s novel “Demons”. The 4-hour epic production opened up new facets of the talent of the famous director. In 2013, the premiere of the opera Prince Igor was performed on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater. All tickets were sold out several months before the appointed date. The success was deafening. The audience applauded while standing. However, over time, the master’s health irreparably worsened. An indispensable support in these years for the director was his family. Katalin was always there, guarding the peace of her beloved spouse. On October 5, 2014, Lyubimov died. He died at the age of 97, leaving an indelible memory of himself.
