Alexander Vertinsky is a pop artist, film actor, composer, poet and singer, pop idol of the first half of the 20th century, winner of the Stalin Prize of the II degree (1951). The father of actresses Marianna and Anastasia Vertinsky.
Alexander Vertinsky was born on March 20, 1889 (according to other sources - March 21, 1889) in Kiev in the family of a railway employee. Vertinsky's mother was from a noble family. When the boy was three years old, his mother died, and two years later his father died of consumption. Later, Sasha was expelled from the 5th grade of the gymnasium, and then his aunt kicked him out of the house. Back in high school, the boy admired the theater, worked as an extra at the Solovtsov Theater in Kiev. Therefore, it was the artistic environment that warmed him up.
Vertinsky earned his living in various ways: he sold postcards, worked as a loader, a proofreader in a printing house, played in amateur performances, was an accountant at the hotel "European".
In 1913, Vertinsky, hoping to make a literary career, moved to Moscow. In the same days, Vertinsky met Mayakovsky.
Also in 1913, Vertinsky tried to fulfill an old dream and enter the Moscow Art Theater, but was not accepted due to a diction defect: the exam was taken by K. S. Stanislavsky himself, who did not like that the examinee did not pronounce the letter "r" well.
After the outbreak of the First World War, Vertinsky voluntarily went to the front as an orderly. After receiving a slight wound, Vertinsky returned to Moscow, was awarded the silver medal "For Diligence" on the Stanislavsky ribbon.
After returning from the front, Vertinsky actively starred in films. At the same time, he met Vera Kholodnaya.
Alexander Vertinsky's debut on the stage took place in 1915 with the program "Songs of Pierrot". Gradually, Vertinsky developed his own style of performance, an important element of which was a melodious recitative with characteristic grassing. Later, the image of the "black Pierrot" appeared: the deathly white makeup on the face was replaced by a domino mask, the white Pierrot costume was replaced by a black robe with a white scarf around the neck. The artist turned each song into a small play with a complete plot and one or two characters. The singer, who called his works "ariettes", began to be called "Russian Pierrot".
On November 7, 1917, the day of the beginning of the October Revolution, Vertinsky's benefit was held in Moscow. Life in Moscow became increasingly difficult for Vertinsky. The romance "What I have to Say", written under the impression of the death of three hundred Moscow junkers, aroused the interest of the Cheka, where the author was called for explanations. In 1919, Vertinsky returned to Kiev, moved from there to Kharkov, then ended up in Odessa. The last city of his stay in his homeland was Sevastopol.
From Sevastopol in November 1920, together with the remnants of Baron Wrangel's army, Alexander Vertinsky crossed to Constantinople, where he began giving concerts, then left for Romania, where he performed in cheap nightclubs. In 1925, Vertinsky moved to France and continued his active concert activities there. The years spent in Paris are considered the heyday of the singer's creative life.
In the autumn of 1934, Alexander Vertinsky sailed to America. At Vertinsky's first concert in New York, many famous representatives of the Russian emigration gathered: Rachmaninov, Chaliapin, Boleslavsky. The singer's French friend, Marlene Dietrich, was also present.
In 1935, Vertinsky left San Francisco for China. At first he lived in Harbin, where he gave concerts. The singer stayed here until his departure to the USSR. He arrived in Moscow in November 1943 with his wife and three-month-old daughter Marianne.
Vertinsky toured at the front, performed patriotic songs - both by Soviet authors and his own composition.
Track listing of the collection of songs by Alexander Vertinsky":_
01. Tango Magnolia (00:00)
02. Purple Negro (02:48)
03. Dear long (05:31)
04. Your fingers (08:24)
05. Daughters (11:07)
06. Drink, my girl (17:03)
07. Refined woman (19:52)
08. Only once in a lifetime there are meetings (23:32)
09 Yellow Angel (26:22)
10. Madam, the leaves are already falling (29:45)
11. What I have to say (34:19)
12. Piccolo bambino (37:32)
13. Days are running (41:41)
14. Johnny (46:14)
15 Farewell dinner (49:04)
16. I'm laughing at myself today (55:09)
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