A talented Soviet actor and wonderful parodist Viktor Chistyakov was born in Leningrad on June 30, 1943. From a very young age, he surprised others with the ability to skillfully imitate any sounds he heard - birds, animals, people. Viktor Chistyakov copied people even in intonations. Parents saw their son’s future acting when he accurately copied excerpts from the ballet Swan Lake, which they watched in the theater. The child was sent to a choreographic school, where he studied until the seventh grade. Then physical activity became exorbitant for him, and he changed the ballet to music - he entered the school in the clarinet class.
Study at the institute
After graduating from high school, Viktor Chistyakov began his studies at the acting department of the Leningrad State Institute of Theater, Music and Cinema. The course was cohesive, fun and talented, and the program was experimental. It was thanks to her that Viktor Chistyakov learned to skillfully imitate anyone, using the flexibility of his voice, and the fidelity of intonation, and the accuracy of facial expressions, and the eloquence of gesture. Friends of the students and teachers were delighted. Not a single event was held without his participation. Even then Chistyakov Victor was a great parodist.
He easily sang not only for Kozlovsky with Lemeshev, but even for Lyalya Chernaya. After graduation, he was invited to the Komissarzhevskaya drama theater, where he made his debut as a beggar ("The Prince and the Pauper"). However, talent was called on the road, and Viktor Chistyakov, whose biography as a parodist really has not even begun, goes to Moscow. First on short visits. It was 1966, only in 1971 he began work at the Gogol Theater, already being a well-known pop artist.
Stage
In 1968, a new star appeared on the stage - Victor Chistyakov, a parody artist. Solo performances made him incredibly popular, he had no equal in a musical parody. Little by little, he left the theater field, because he felt that his fate would not work out there as brilliantly as on the stage.
Already his first independent number showed how richly gifted by nature this performer is. Not only the gift of the parodist and imitator impressed the listener, but also the absolute pitch, range of voice and true talent of the actor. The range was really unique: Viktor Ivanovich Chistyakov re-chanted Claudia Shulzhenko, and Lyudmila Zykin, and Edith Piekha, and Mireille Mathieu. Almost immediately, real fame came to him.
Persons
It is a pity that not all the work that Viktor Chistyakov did was saved on film, but something was nevertheless done in order to remember the great parodist, his exceptional artistry and phenomenal vocal data. It was not far from miracle and mysticism - what he did with his voice. All parodied were absolutely recognizable: breathing, timbre coloring, character of performance. Viktor Chistyakov did not make parodies with the help of a certain vocal trick, it was always an image, and always a good one. Although often parodied were still offended.
Nikolai Slichenko was offended, persuaded Polad Bul-Bul Ogly not to mimic him, Lyudmila Zykina was angry. However, absolute recognition was recognized by all. And how gracefully artist Viktor Chistyakov sang for Anna German! This is the absolute identity of singing. Once on the radio, the listeners were checked right on the air: out of two couplets of the song by Maya Kristalinskaya, one sang Victor Chistyakov. Even experts could not distinguish performers. Shulzhenko, getting ready to go on stage, heard the parodist singing with a “Blue handkerchief” and exclaimed in surprise: “What is this? I'm singing this!” Sometimes Victor sang better than his parodied (Claudia Ivanovna, of course, this does not apply, but there were many).
Your voice
A great actor, parodist presented the audience with not only fantastic musicality. He incredibly subtly conveyed the manner of singing of all his characters. However, his personality did not dissolve in the parodied, always his own attitude prevailed in the construction of each parody. It was clearly not a copy, it was a high creativity.
Chistyakov’s vocal mastery was at such a high level that when the elderly Lemeshev couldn’t technically cope with some fragments of arias when filming a documentary, unsuccessfully dubbing the soundtrack a dozen times, Victor helped him. Not only the audience did not notice this substitution, but even specialists who were not aware. However, Viktor Chistyakov was, in turn, unhappy; he could not sing anything with his voice. He didn’t even know what he was like. I tried, but all the time I switched to imitation.
In four years
Work on the stage took all the time of the parodist and took all his strength. He only sold out for only four years. During this time he managed to make his work remembered for many decades. He managed to give more than a thousand concerts, that's about three a day. On vacation and public holidays, there were six and ten performances per day, and even in different cities. The geography of his trips covered the whole country.
Here you need to remember what a bunch. The voice apparatus has been preparing for concert activity for many years, and Victor did not have a singing school. Absolutely. But even professional singers lead a strict lifestyle, try their best to protect the ligaments from colds and overloads.
Companions
The starry numbers were first written to the parodist by his theatrical colleagues - Ilya Reznik and Stanislav Landgraf, then he worked closely with Yuri Entin, a poet who was sensitive to the subject. Viktor Chistyakov wrote five songs for the cartoon "Blue Puppy" to his poems, then Gennady Gladkov decided to bring him to the second series of his legendary "Bremen Town Musicians". But in both cases, it did not work out. “Puppy” was voiced by Alexander Gradsky, Andrei Mironov, Mikhail Boyarsky and Alisa Freindlich, and Leonid Berger sang for “Bremen Town Musicians-2”.
Gennady Khazanov recalls Viktor Chistyakov very warmly. According to him, this artist was far from any politics, he was a valuable act of art. And this is much more of an eternity than the presence of certain political views. He was a truly theatrical person, his world was closed and fragile. Victor Chistyakov is a unique parodist in which the artistic beginning prevails over a talented imitation.
To Kharkov
In May 1972, the Kharkov Operetta Theater celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary, Viktor Chistyakov was among those invited to participate in a gala concert on this occasion. Tickets were bought in advance, the plane took off in the morning, and Viktor Chistyakov, as was almost always the case, overslept. At night, he usually stayed for a long time at work or books. The day before, he was late at a party, and then signed a huge pile of photographs received from the photographer.
Victor still managed to get on the plane. And this was the last flight planned: the departure was delayed due to a malfunction, the pilots refused to lift the car into the air. But this old one, flying off its equipment to Kharkov, was attributed, and therefore it was decided to still not cancel the flight in order to drive off the plane at the address. He did not reach the place, collapsed in the air. Killed almost a hundred passengers, the entire crew. Viktor Chistyakov was also on board this ill-fated plane. He sat in thirteenth place.
Foreboding
It was as if he foresaw his death. Suddenly, a few days before the flight, he returned all his debts, began to wear a black shirt and stoically transferred all comments about this. Even when there was a performance in the Hall of Columns - this was his last concert - and Boris Brunov gently asked Victor why he was not in such a concert form, the answer was far from immediately understood. Chistyakov explained the black shirt with mourning, although none of his relatives died. A few hours later he died himself.
The artist was not as light and cloudless as his work depicts. It was a real depth, full of complex, fragile and delicate components, which is what distinguishes real artistry. Just because of this, it’s not strange that Viktor Chistyakov, a completely unsuitable person to fight for a place in the sun, has reached incredible heights. He was only twenty-eight, and during this time he managed to not only take place professionally, he became truly loved by the widest sections of modern society. Inwardly, he was not a joyful man, but his sadness was bright.
