Concordia (Cora) Evgenievna Antarova is a representative of the Silver Age of Russian culture. For two decades she performed at the Bolshoi Theater. Teacher, writer, philosopher, Honored Artist of the RSFSR. Author of the philosophical and esoteric treatise "Two Lives".
Kora Antarova is one of the greatest opera singers of the early 20th century, undeservedly forgotten today. There are practically no recordings of her voice. That is why modern lovers of classical music will never be able to hear and enjoy the singer's magnificent vocals, which were legendary. Among the seekers of truth and esoteric knowledge, the book "Two Lives" is well known, published only after her death.
Cora Antarova's biography
Not much is known about Antarova's personal life.
Concordia's biography began in Warsaw, where she was born in 1886, on April 13. Father is an ordinary ordinary employee who worked in the field of public education in the Ministry. Mom was a cousin of Arkady Tyrkov, a famous People's Will, a participant in the case of Sophia Perovskaya and later exiled to Siberia.
The girl was left without parents early. First, the father dies, and the family lives on a modest pension and a small income from private foreign language lessons. A few years later, her mother dies, and the girl remains an orphan. At that time, she was already studying at the gymnasium, and even after the death of her parents she did not quit her studies, continuing to give private lessons.
At some point, life becomes unbearably difficult, and Cora decides to end worldly life and go to a monastery. Staying within the monastery walls taught her a lot. First of all, she began to sing in the church choir, thanks to which her natural gift began to develop. Already in those years, her voice sounded in a special way. They came to listen to her singing specially.
Gradually, Antarova began to understand and feel that leaving the real world was not her way. Cora finally decides to leave the monastery and return to real life, continuing her studies, after meeting with John of Kronstadt. Her friends helped her raise some money, and she went to the capital to get an education.
In St. Petersburg, Antarova successfully enters the Bestuzhev Higher Courses for Women and at the same time begins to study at the Conservatory in the vocal class with the famous teacher Ippolit Pryanishnikov, who was the head of the opera association in Russia.
Money was required for study and food, and Concordia began to work hard. Due to constant overwork and hard physical work, she often gets sick and faints from malnutrition and lack of sleep, and as a result, she ends up in the hospital with an asthma attack, which she could not cure for the rest of her life.
When the course was over, Antarova was offered a job at the Department of Philosophy. But the girl's dream of a theater and a singer's career was the only goal of her life.
Opera singer career, creativity and personal life
It was 1907, spring came and the teacher Antarova said that she was completely ready to perform on stage. At this time, the selection of new performers began at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. More than 150 people came to the audition, and there was only one to choose. And Cora passes the test with success. She is accepted into the troupe of the Mariinsky Theater. Thus begins Concordia's theatrical and artistic career.
A year later, Kore was offered to replace the artist of the Moscow Bolshoi Theater, who needed to move to St. Petersburg. Antarova agrees and moves to live in Moscow. The singer's unique contralto helped her to immediately get almost all solo parts in leading opera productions. Cora has performed roles in such famous operas as Ruslan and Lyudmila, The Snow Maiden, A Life for the Tsar, The Queen of Spades, Mermaid, Sadko and many other productions. Her triumph was the role of the old countess in The Queen of Spades. Working on the image, Cora takes acting lessons from the actress A. P. Krutikova, who for a long time performed the part of the Countess, and the actor B. B. Korsov, who also once served at the Bolshoi Theater. Cora learned a deeper penetration into the image of Z. S. Sokolova, the sister of K. S. Stanislavsky.
In addition to working in the theater, Antarova gave numerous solo, chamber concerts. The audience adored her and there was always a full house at Cora's performances. She was often seen surrounded by celebrities. Among her friends were Chaliapin and Rachmaninov, Sobinov.
Her work, numerous performances and career are cut short in an instant when she learns about the death of her husband in the Gulag. Antarova is immediately deprived of the opportunity to perform at any events and is expelled from the troupe of the Bolshoi Theater. However, fate has prepared an unexpected gift for her. The leader of the peoples liked Antarova's voice very much, and at one of the performances he asked why the main part was performed by another singer. After that, Concordia was immediately returned to the troupe and offered leading roles. By this time, the disease, which Antarova suffered all her life, began to progress. Each performance was given to her more and more difficult and in 1932 she decides to finally leave the stage.
Concordia Antarova and K. S. Stanislavsky
The meeting with Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky became one of the most significant events of her life for Antarova.
Stanislavsky was a teacher and mentor for many great stage masters. During Antarova's work at the Bolshoi Theater, he taught acting there. Stanislavsky in all his studies tried to awaken true spirituality in his students and expand consciousness. Concordia did not miss a single lesson of the great director and transcribed his lessons.
Later, Konkordia Evgenievna published the book "Conversations of K. S. Stanislavsky in the Studio of the Bolshoi Theater in 1918-1922. Recorded by Honored Artist of the RSFSR KE Antarova". Classes were organized in a small studio at the theater, where the Stanislavsky Opera Theater was later formed. The lessons taught by the great master were invaluable for young actors seeking to expand the boundaries of their creativity.
The book itself was published in 1939, was translated into many languages and republished more than once not only in our country, but also abroad.
Antarova was an active promoter of the teacher's ideas and for this she organized Stanislavsky's cabinet at the WTO in 1946. Many great actors supported her in this endeavor.
"Two Lives" by Antarova
Concordia wrote her amazing book during the war and, according to her close friends, it was not intended for the general public, Antarova was not going to publish her work. The characters of the novel are great souls who decided to stay on Earth to help people after the completion of their spiritual evolution.
The handwritten notes were kept for a long time by Antarova's closest friend and student, EF Ter-Arutyunova. Elena Fyodorovna introduced excerpts from the book to her close circle and dreamed of publishing it.
It is believed that the novel was written with the help of "clairaudience", in fact, dictated by Antarova's great teachers and mentors. Few knew that Cora had been engaged in a spiritual search for many years of her life. Antarova's famous novel "Two Lives" was published in our country only in 1993.
Antarova Koncordia Evgenievna passed away in 1959, on February 6. She was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow.
