Vladimir Sergeyevich Rosing (; November 24, 1963), also known as Val Rosing, was a Russian-born operatic tenor and stage director who spent most of his professional career in the United Kingdom and the United States. In his formative years he experienced the last years of the "golden age" of opera, and he dedicated himself through his singing and directing to breathing new life into opera's outworn mannerisms and methods.
Rosing was considered by many to rank as a singer and performer of the quality of Feodor Chaliapin."Chaliapin and Rosing Typify Russian Music", Christian Science Monitor, April 1, 1922. pg. 16. In The Perfect Wagnerite, George Bernard Shaw called Chaliapin and Vladimir Rosing "the two most extraordinary singers of the 20th century".Shaw, George Bernard. The Perfect Wagnerite, 4th Edition., p. 132, London: Constable & Co. (1923).
Vladimir Rosing's best-known recordings are his performances of Russian art songs by composers such as Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Gretchaninov, Borodin and Rimsky-Korsakov. He was the first singer to record a song by Igor Stravinsky: Akahito from Three Japanese Songs.Hogarth, Basil. "Igor Stravinsky: The Stormy Petrel of Music". The Gramophone, June 1935. pg. 7.
As a stage director, Rosing championed opera in English, and he attempted to build permanent national opera companies in the United States and Britain. He directed opera performances "with such acumen and freshness of approach that some writers were tempted to speak of him as a "second Reinhardt".Ewen, David. Living Musicians, pg. 301., New York: H. W. Wilson Co. (1940)
Rosing created his own system of stage movement and acting for singers. It proved very effective in his own productions, and he taught it to a new generation of performers.Rosing, Ruth Glean. "Val Rosing's Technique of Acting for Singers", The New York Opera Newsletter, pg. 7. May 1995.
Early life Rosing was born into an aristocratic family in St. Petersburg, Russia, on January 23, 1890. His father was descended from a Swedish officer captured by Russian forces at the Battle of Poltava. His mother was descended from the Baltic German nobility.Rosing, Ruth Glean. Val Rosing: Musical Genius. pg. 8, Manhattan: Sunflower University Press (1993).
Rosing's parents separated when he was three, and his mother took Vladimir and his two older sisters to live in Switzerland. After four years they returned to Russia to live in Moscow near Rosing's godfather, General Arkady Stolypin, who was the commandant of the Kremlin and father of Russian prime minister Pyotr Stolypin. For a time they lived in the Poteshny Palace at the Kremlin as General Stolypin's guests.Val Rosing pg. 10-14.
Rosing spent the summer of 1898 on his godfather's country estate south of Moscow near Tula. He traveled with his mother to meet Leo Tolstoy at his nearby estate, Yasnaya Polyana. At Tolstoy's request, Rosing's mother carried a message meant for the Tsar to General Stolypin, who later declined to deliver it.Val Rosing pg. 14-16.Ascher, Abraham. P. A. Stolypin: The Search for Stability in Late Imperial Russia, pg. 13-14. Stanford; Stanford University Press (2001)
When Tsar Nicholas II visited Moscow, Vladimir and his family attended a performance of Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin, with the baritone Mattia Battistini, at the Bolshoi Theatre. They sat in General Stolypin's box just a few feet away from the Royal Box occupied by the Tsar and his family.Val Rosing pg. 20-21.
Rosing's parents reconciled the next year, and the family moved back to St. Petersburg. Rosing completed his studies at the Gymnasium (school) which lasted for eight years in Russia, and the family spent summers on their country estate in Podolia (present-day Ukraine).Val Rosing pg. 22-25.
Russia was one of the biggest early markets for recorded music. Rosing's father brought home a gramophone in 1901, and Vladimir began to listen to and imitate the great singers of the day. He learned a repertoire of songs and arias, singing baritone as well as tenor parts.Val Rosing pg. 26-27. His real desire was to be a bass and sing Boito's Mefistofele.Val Rosing pg. 34.
In 1905, Rosing witnessed the massacre in front of the Winter Palace on Bloody Sunday. He then ceased being a monarchist and allied himself with the Constitutional Democratic Party. To please his father, a successful lawyer, Rosing reluctantly studied law at Saint Petersburg University, where he was very active in the fiery student politics that followed the first Russian Revolution of 1905. He sparred in heated debates with future Bolshevik commissar Nikolai Krylenko. He acted as a student deputy to the Saint Petersburg Soviet where he heard speeches by Leon Trotsky and others. Rosing soon developed a lifelong animosity towards the Bolsheviks.Val Rosing pg. 37-40.
Aside from politics, he focused on music and theatre. When his parents finally accepted the primacy of his musical interests, he began to study voice with Mariya Slavina, Alexandra Kartseva, and Joachim Tartakov.Juynboll, Floris. "Vladimir Rosing", The Record Collector, Vol. 36 No. 3, July, August, September 1991. pg. 187
In 1908 Rosing fell in love with an English musician, Marie Falle, whom he met while on holiday in Switzerland.Val Rosing pg. 46. They married in London in February 1909. He studied voice in London with Sir George Power, before returning to Russia to finish law school.
Recital career and politics After spending the 1912 season in St. Petersburg as an up-and-coming tenor with Joseph Lapitsky's innovative Theatre of Musical Drama, appearing as Lensky in Eugene Onegin and as Hermann in The Queen of Spades, Vladimir Rosing made his London concert debut in Albert Hall on May 25, 1913. He spent the summer in Paris studying with Jean de Reszke and Giovanni Sbriglia. Sbriglia finally gave Rosing the technique and direction he needed to set aside thoughts of a career in law forever.Manuscript of Memoirs by Vladimir Rosing, Bakhmeteff Archive - Columbia University
From 1912 to 1916 Rosing released 16 discs on the His Master's Voice label, many of which were recorded by the pioneering American record producer Fred Gaisberg in St. Petersburg and London.Juynboll, Floris. "Vladimir Rosing", The Record Collector Vol. 36 No. 3, July, August, September 1991. pg. 192-194 In 1914, he signed a 6-year contract with impresario Hans Gregor to perform leading tenor roles at the Vienna Imperial Opera, but World War I broke out before the fall season started, and Rosing returned to London.Manuscript of Memoirs by Vladimir Rosing, Bakhmeteff Archive - Columbia University
London's appetite for Russians and Russian music was high after Serge Diaghilev's historic seasons of Russian opera and ballet, and Rosing's recitals in England soon became extremely popular.Newton, Ivor. At the Piano: the world of an accompanist, pg. 44, London: Hamish Hamilton (1966) In addition to his public recitals, Rosing was in demand as a performer for London society's exclusive "At Homes", where he became friendly with rich, famous and powerful people like Manchester Guardian editor C. P. Scott, Observer editor James Louis Garvin, David Lloyd George, Lord Reading, Alfred Mond, and Prime Minister H. H. Asquith and his wife Margot.At the Piano. pg. 47.
He socialized with writers like Ezra Pound, George Bernard Shaw, Hugh Walpole and Arnold Bennett, and his circle included the artists Glyn Philpot, Augustus John, Walter Sickert and Charles Ricketts.At the Piano, pg. 44.
In May 1915 he produced a brief Allied Opera Season at Oscar Hammerstein I's vacant London Opera House. Rosing presented the English premiere of Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades and introduced Tamaki Miura in Madama Butterfly, the first Japanese singer to be cast in that opera's title role. The season was brought to an early close when London was targeted by zeppelin raids for the first time in the war.Williams, Gordon. British Theatre in The Great War: a reevaluation pg. 271-273., New York: Continuum (2003) He returned to Russia for two months in the summer of 1915 after the Tsar called up the 2nd Reserves. As an only son, he was officially assigned to the Serbian Red Cross and he returned to London to organize benefit concerts. He was later awarded the Serbian Order of St. Sava Fifth Class for his service.Val Rosing pg. 70.
When the Russian Revolution broke out in March 1917, Rosing went to see Lloyd George to urge him to support the new Provisional Government.Wilson, Trevor. The Political Diaries of C. P. Scott 1911-1928. p. 270-271. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY (1970). He headed up the newly formed Committee for Repatriation of Political Exiles. A few months later, when Georgy Chicherin was imprisoned by the British, Rosing met again with Lloyd George to seek Chicherin's release.Manuscript of Memoirs by Vladimir Rosing, Bakhmeteff Archive - Columbia University
As a result of the Bolsheviks' seizure of power, Rosing was one of many Russians to lose his wealth. As Russian refugees poured into London, Rosing was at the center of the action. He socialized with Prince Felix Yusupov, organizer of the murder of Rasputin, and Alexander Kerensky, Prime Minister of the failed Russian Provisional Government.Manuscript of Memoirs by Vladimir Rosing, Bakhmeteff Archive - Columbia UniversityThe Political Diaries of C. P. Scott 1911-1928. p. 346-348.
Rosing's recitals were more popular than ever. In the fall of 1919 he joined soprano Emma Calvé and pianist Arthur Rubinstein for a concert tour of the English Provinces.At the Piano, pg. 44. He filled in for John McCormack in Belfast, winning acclaim from the Irish.At the Piano, pg. 47. On March 6, 1921, in Albert Hall he gave his 100th London recital.Living Musicians, pg. 301.
Rosing recorded 61 discs for Vocalion Records in the early 1920s, often accompanied by pianist Frank St. Leger.Juynboll, Floris. "Vladimir Rosing", The Record Collector Vol. 36 No. 3, July, August, September 1991. pg. 194-196
In 1919, Rosing formed LAHDA, the Russian Musical Dramatic Art Society, in London with director Theodore Komisarjevsky and dancer Laurent Novikoff. The purpose of the organization was to "bring closer friendship and understanding" between England and Russia "by means of art and its beauty of expression."Letter and Enclosure from Vladimir Rosing to James Louis Garvin, December 1919. James Louis Garvin Collection, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin. In June 1921, Rosing and Komisarjevsky presented a season of Opéra Intime (Intimate Opera) at London's Aeolian Hall with Adrian Boult conducting.Boult, Adrian Cedric. My Own Trumpet (1973), p.48, Hamish Hamilton, London. The reduced orchestra was made up of principals of the British Symphony Orchestra, with piano and organ. At Rosing's invitation, Isadora Duncan attended one of the performances.Manuscript of Memoirs by Vladimir Rosing, Bakhmeteff Archive - Columbia University The Opéra Intime company then toured Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Rosing left England for his first concert tour of the United States and Canada in November 1921. On December 31, 1921, Rosing gave one of the world's first vocal recitals broadcast on radio from WJZ (AM) in Newark."Russia's Noted Tenor to be Heard Tonight", The Morning Call Allentown PA, Dec 31, 1921, Page 10. The successful tour also generated an invitation to sing at a White House State Dinner held by President Harding on February 2, 1922. With his friends, writer William C. Bullitt and sculptor Clare Sheridan, Rosing organized the last concert of the tour in New York on March 10, 1922, as a benefit for Herbert Hoover's American Relief Administration, raising money to help fight the terrible famine in Russia.