FROM KATYA THE ORGAN-GRINDER TO CARMEN

The story of Fatma Muxtarova's life [1893-1972], especially her difficult childhood, is worthy of the pen of Charles Dickens and Victor Hugo. She suffered many privations and misfortunes, and mean "guardians" thirsting for profits, but also had contacts with noble, intelligent people who helped and supported the talented girl in her hard, but incredibly interesting life.

The little Gavroche-type girl 

At the turn of the 20th century this was a territory beset with constant revolution, instability and, as is usually the case in such situations, total poverty. The outstanding opera singer Fatma Muxtarova was born into the family of the Azerbaijani Abbas Rzayev and the Polish Tatar woman Sara Hasenewicz in the town of Urmia in the Iranian province of [West] Azerbaijan on 26 March 1893. 

Female singing as such in the Azerbaijani opera started with her, but that all happened later. It was 1900 in the courtyard, where, in a bid to escape poverty, the Rzayev family with the two-year-old girl in arms, left their native land for [the southern Russian city of] Rostov-on-Don. A year later, the girl's 28-year-old father died of tuberculosis, leaving behind his wife and three-year-old daughter. Abbas Rzayev was a musician, a good tar [Iranian musical instrument - tr.] player, and had many friends in the province, including Sattar Muxtarov, also hailed from northern Persia and was practically a fellow-countryman. The latter was also quite poor, worked, if one could call it working, as a busker [street musician], an organ-grinder. Fatma's mother took him as her second husband. Since the family had nowhere of their own  to live in this foreign land, they wandered from city to city and lived half-starving. Her organ-grinder stepfather played his instrument and the little six-year-old girl would sing to his music. It was a hard life. Frequently they had to work in the cold. This is what happened in St. Petersburg, one frosty winter, when the little girl and the organ-grinder went out to one of the wells in the courtyards that were typical of the city and performed songs, hoping that someone would throw a few coins down to them from the window. 

In 1910, the family settled in Saratov [a Russian city on the river Volga] The mother was greatly influenced by the stepfather, who exploited the little girl. When Fatma was twelve years old, she went out alone from courtyard to courtyard in Saratov, accompanying her singing with her organ. In the city, the girl became known as "Katya the organ-grinder girl". One of the people who used to listen to her singing at that time was the young Lidiya Ruslanova, who later became the extremely well known performer of folk songs and Russian romances. At that time, Ruslanova herself was only ten and was working at a factory even at her young age. The singer later recalled that she was so deeply moved by Muxtarova's singing, that she gave her all the change she had in her pocket.

Fatma used to take all her earnings home, where she was subjected to beatings. This made her put money by. Over a year she managed to save up 1,000 roubles, which was a large sum at that time.  The Saratov newspaper "The Inquirer" [//Spravochnik//] wrote that with this money she set out for the family of the railwayman L. Kamensky, whose wife was an opera singer. There they had promised to teach her music. But in actual fact everything turned out quite differently. Fatma washed the dishes, cleaned the flat, ate with the cook in the kitchen, and, when guests from "high society" came, they dressed her up and sat her at the table  with "the gentlemen" and "guests". She was greatly offended by this state of affairs and recounted everything to the journalist and editor-in-chief of the "Saratov Rag" [//Saratovskiy listok//], an intelligent man who took an interest in her, a certain Nikolay Arkhangelskiy, a theatre and opera lover, who promised that from that day on this type of "tuition" would stop. He organised a charity concert for her at the school of music. Sufficient people attended the concert to provide the funds for her to study at the conservatoire in Saratov.

"Katya's" protectors

But now she had another problem - her stepfather. He himself did not work and lived off the money that the 13-year-old girl used to bring in. He categorically refused to let her go and study, "having confiscated" a rather large sum of money to compensate for the forthcoming lack of her earnings. One of the people who sympathised with the talented young woman was the outstanding Russian physicist Vladimir Dmitrievich Zernov. He recalled that a variety concert was organised at the conservatoire, in which Katya herself performed, in order to pay her father off.  Once again, she was very successful … Katya was accepted at the conservatoire, and began to study under Professor Medvedev, who was a well-known tenor at that time, and soon it was impossible to recognise the former organ-grinder and street singer in the typical, interesting and somewhat happy-go-lucky conservatoire student.

Besides buying him out, "Katya's" protectors threatened the stepfather that, if he continued to exploit the child, they would get him thrown out of the country. In order to do this, they even contacted the embassy of Persia. However, the young talented person continued to be dogged by problems. The parents convinced her that sharia law forbids a muslim woman to go on the stage, and, in spite of the promises they had given, they continued to exploit her during the breaks at the conservatoire. Muxtarova later recalled herself , "they took me on guest tours with such shady impresarios to sing gypsy romances and Russian songs. They earned a lot, but the impresario did of course claim the lion's share…"

She had no alternative, but it was moreover thanks to these guest tours that Muxtarova came to Baku for the first time. This was in 1913. But there, which seemed like home, the 15-year-old girl was faced with something she had not expected, she did not enjoy any success. On the contrary, the public was shocked that a woman could appear on the stage and sing. Here she came a across a person whose fate was in many ways similar to her own. This was Huseynqulu Sarabski, who had also endured a difficult childhood, poverty and the conservatism of the traditional muslim society. He was already a sufficiently well-known singer and immediately recognised Fatma's talent. Sarabski appealed to the wealthy oil magnate Muxtar [Murtuza] Muxtarov to sponsor the young  girl. The venture paid off. Fatma returned to Saratov, received financing from Baku for two years and was able to completely concentrate on her studies.

Two years later, after completing her studies, Fatma headed for Moscow for an audition with the Fyodor Shalyapin. The famous performer received the would-be singer and actress at his private residence at Smolenskyy market. He listened to Fatma singing, accompanied by his eldest daughter, Irina, on the grand piano. Once he had listened to her singing right through, he said, "Your voice has been beautifully trained. You are ready to go on the stage. If you have the gift to perform on stage, then it will be extremely worthwhile, but if not, you won't be able to learn that." The singer later recalled that, after the conversation with Shalyapin, she felt as if she had grown sings, and she decided not to falter, but go as far as she could. Her money came to an end and, risking everything, she applied to the private Zimin opera house, which was, as it happened, taking on  a new troupe in Moscow at the time. In a city she did not know, without contacts or protection, this young girl had to go through a tough selection process before she was taken into the troupe. Many years later she sang in the threatre with Shalyapin himself.

Carmen

Eight years went by. When she returned to Saratov, after gaining recognition at the Bolshoi Theatre and the Mariinskiy Theatre, Muxtarova sang in the role of Carmen to an audience, who had known her as a child street singer not so longer ago. In short, when she was rehearsing for this production, Muxtarova had made a thorough study of the special features of Spanish dancing and even learned to play the castenets. Then the war started. Muxtarova sang [to the troops] in the theatres on the fronts; then the revolution took place and once again she performed on the fronts, going on guest tours in Ukraine, the Volga area and Transcaucasia. At the beginning of the 1930s she appeared at theatres in Tbilisi and then in Baku theatres.  In 1938, she became a soloist at the Azerbaijan State Opera and Ballet Theatre where she remained till she retired 1954. Muxtarova spent the remaining 18 years of her life coaching young Azerbaijani soloists for the theatre.