Yuri Solovey is a cultural and artistic figure whose life and work began in the Soviet Union and continued in Germany. He is an actor, artist, sculptor and theater director. But in Russia he is best known as the former third husband of the famous actress Alisa Freindlich. And Yuri Solovey was burdened by this fact - it is not easy to live in the shadow of another, more successful creative person.
Biography facts
Yuri Anisimovich Solovey is a creative and enthusiastic person. It so happened that his talent was fully revealed only after 50 years, when he moved to live abroad. The homeland of Yuri Nightingale is the Ukrainian city of Kirovograd, where he was born on May 23, 1949. Yuri's father was a military pilot, so the boy's childhood was spent in constant travel from one garrison to another.
In his youth, Yura Nightingale had two hobbies: theater and painting, and he could not choose which one was stronger. At the time of graduation, the theater won: the guy went to the Russian city of Yaroslavl and entered the theater school, where his teacher in acting was the People's Artist of the USSR Firs Efimovich Shishigin, a famous director and teacher. During his studies, Yuri Solovey was also engaged in painting.
Theater career and personal life
In 1969, Yuri Solovey completed his acting education and was assigned a job at the Odessa Theater for Young Spectators. The first role of the young actor on this stage was the role of the Wolf in Little Red Riding Hood. The little spectators hated the Wolf, yelled with all their might and shot at him with slingshots, and the Wolf pretended to be afraid of children, which brought them into indescribable delight.
During this Odessa period of his life, Yuri Solovey first married, his wife's name was Nelly Sobolkova. In 1969 she gave birth to the only son of Yuri Solovy - Dmitry.
The marriage broke up a few years later, but father and son communicate and make friends with families all their lives. Dmitry got married, he has a son Ivan Solovey, grandson of Yuri Anisimovich.
In the early 1970s, at the suggestion of former classmates at the theater school, Yuri Solovey became an actor at the Dostoevsky Novgorod Academic Drama Theater, and in 1975 he moved to Leningrad and joined the troupe of the Leningrad Lensovet Theater. By this time, the young actor was already a member of the Union of Theater Workers of the RSFSR, was full of hopes and career ambitions. In addition, in 1978-79, the Nightingale tried himself as a film actor - he starred in episodic roles in the films People and Passions, The Wonderful Shoemaker and Ball at Lenfilm.
Marriage with Alice Freundlich
At the Lensovet Theater, Yuri Solovey met the then already famous actress Alisa Brunovna Freundlich. Both actors were involved in the play "Warsaw Melody", directed by Igor Vladimirov, the artistic director of the theater and Freundlich's second husband, with whom she divorced in 1981. Yuri was younger than Alice by as much as 15 years, but this did not stop the lovers from starting a family. The couple lived together for about 12 years, but the marriage did not stand the test.
As an actor, Yuri was constantly in the shadow of his famous wife, he was known as "Freundlich's husband." He rushed about, was jealous, even scandalized. In addition, the Nightingale was faced with a choice of what to do next - acting, which was not very successful, or painting, which more and more fascinated him. Yuri Solovey began to realize his other talent - he began to design performances, and also painted a lot at home.
Freundlich's daughter from her marriage to Vladimirov, Varvara, also became a hindrance to family life: as a teenager at that time, the girl disliked her stepfather, was rude, did not go to communication, deliberately interfered with work. Growing up, Varvara realized that her stepfather was a good person, and found a common language with him, but it was too late: Freundlich and Nightingale decided to leave. At the same time, they maintained good relations, Alice even bothered with the management of the theater to allocate an apartment to Yuri. The former spouses communicate to this day, Alisa Brunovna attends exhibitions that the Nightingale periodically arranges in St. Petersburg.
Artist career
Since 1985, Yuri Solovey begins to cooperate with St. Petersburg creative associations and theaters as a production designer: until 1987 he worked at the T / O Fakel, then until 1989 at the Concert Studio of Theater Artists, and from 1989 to 1996 worked in the theater "Russian Entreprise named after Andrei Mironov". In addition, in 1989, he opened his own art studio in St. Petersburg at number 10 on Pushkinskaya Street, which later became a meeting place and communication for St. Petersburg's musical and artistic bohemia. Since that time, Yuri Solovey devoted himself entirely to painting, as well as sculpture. He developed his own original creative style, the artist impressed with his incredible efficiency and fertility. Since 1992, his works have been exhibited at many international exhibitions in countries such as the USA, Israel, France, Germany, etc.
After a divorce from Alisa Freundlich, Yuri Solovey married for the third time to actress Rimma Shibaeva, a graduate of the Moscow Shchepkin Theater School. In the late 1990s, the couple decided to move to another country, and at first they lived in Israel for one year. And since 1999, Nightingale and Shibaeva settled in Germany, in the city of Hamburg. Here the couple opened their studio for two: Yuri has an art studio, and Rimma has a Russian-language theater studio, where she conducts classes with young people who want to learn the basics of acting.
Yuri Solovey today is a world-renowned freelance artist. He annually holds personal exhibitions in galleries in various cities in Germany, Europe, USA, Israel. A lot of the artist's works were sold to private collections around the world.
Recently, the Nightingale more and more often comes to Russia with exhibitions: the homeland beckons the artist, and his wife too. One of the master's creative discoveries was the combination in his works of two of his hobbies: painting and theater. He draws Russian and Soviet actors in their theatrical images, and he does it in his original style. For example, in October 2015, the St. Petersburg theater "Russian Entreprise" named after Andrei Mironov, where Nightingale once worked, hosted an exhibition of his paintings entitled "Great artists of the twentieth century." In total, 14 canvases with portraits of Nikolai Karachentsov, Yuri Nikulin, Anatoly Papanov, Alexander Shirvindt, Yevgeny Leonov, Arkady Raikin and other outstanding artists, captured in the characteristic moments of the "life" of their stage characters, were presented.
Yuri Anisimovich Solovey made a significant contribution to domestic and world art. In addition to creative work, he also conducts social activities - for example, he is a member of international organizations such as the International Art Fund, the European Academy of Natural Sciences and others. His work in the latter was rewarded with the Leonardo da Vinci Medal.
