Yuri Lyubimov: "My foot will not be in the Taganka Theater - neither during life nor after death." Lyubimov even directed his own funeral. Memoirs of Taganka actors

Yuri Lyubimov is buried. His parents and brother David are buried here. On the grave of the founder of the Taganka Theater, only a wooden cross and a plaque with his name and dates of life have been installed so far. Hundreds of people came to the memorial service for Yuri Lyubimov at the church at the Donskoy Monastery.

Patriarch Kirill called Yury Lyubimov in a special address "a skillful stage designer, an outstanding figure in theatrical art and a person with a unique creative talent." The appeal of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' was read at the beginning of the memorial service, TASS reports. After that, a funeral service was held.

It was crowded in the Vakhtangov Theater. More than 3 thousand people came here to say goodbye to the talented director.

"Yuri Petrovich himself determined the funeral ceremony," his widow Katalin explained. "He wanted the farewell to take place at the Vakhtangov Theater, his alma mater, where he began his journey into art."

The coffin was placed on the stage of the Vakhtangov Theatre. To his right they hung a portrait of Lyubimov with a black mourning ribbon, and to the left - an icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, under which two candles burned.

On the back of the stage, part of the scenery from the director's latest production at the Vakhtangov Theater "Demons" based on Fyodor Dostoevsky was exhibited.

“The era is gone, a genius recognized during his lifetime, who created a new direction in art,” said Yulia Borisova, the oldest actress of the Vakhtangov Theater, at parting. “Despite the political bias of the Taganka Theater, Yuri Petrovich’s works were highly artistic. his performances were amazing, turned the soul. And it was impossible not to cry. I think that his name will stand next to Stanislavsky, Vakhtanov and Tovstonogov."

Yuri Lyubimov Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky. He was one of the first to come to say goodbye to Lyubimov. The head of the Moscow Department of Culture Sergei Kapkov, actor Veniamin Smekhov, actress Yulia Borisova, artist Boris Messerer also came to say goodbye.

At parting, the music of Vladimir Martynov, with whom Lyubimov worked for many years, sounded.

Rimas Tuminas, director of the Vakhtangov Theater Kirill Krok, actor Sergei Yursky and children's doctor Leonid Roshal were the last to stand in the mourning guard. They went to the edge of the stage and bowed to the master.

Then Vladimir Martynov's "Magnificat" sounded. At this time, the huge screen above the stage turned white, and the curtain closed. But after a while the curtain opened again and the Pokrovsky Ensemble, led by Rimas Tuminas, performed the spiritual verse "Hallelujah".

To the singing of the Pokrovsky ensemble, the coffin with the body of Lyubimov was carried out of the hall. At parting in the theater, the last will of the director was carried out: Lyubimov was escorted on his last journey without mourning speeches or applause. wanted the founder of the Taganka Theater.

Yuri Lyubimov's funeral was attended by his widow Katalin and son Pyotr, head of the Vakhtangov Theater Rimas Tuminas, Alexander Solzhenitsyn's widow Natalia Solzhenitsyna, actresses Lyudmila Maksakova, Alla Demidova, Marina Politsemaiko, directors Sergei Artsibashev, Anatoly Vasiliev, actors Veniamin Smekhov, Leonid Yarmolnik, composer Vladimir Martynov and many others.

At the Taganka Theater, Lyubimov staged about 50 performances, including Hamlet, The Dawns Here Are Quiet..., The Fallen and the Living, Pugachev, The Life of Galileo, Listen, The Master and Margarita , "House on the Embankment", "Boris Godunov", "Sharashka", "Electra", "Suicide", "Medea", "Chronicles of V. Shakespeare", "Eugene Onegin" and others.

On July 11, 1984, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, he was deprived of Soviet citizenship. Soviet citizenship was returned to Lyubimov only in 1989.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin supported the initiative of one of the streets of the city.

"This is where my circle of life began, and I want it to end here..."

How did he die? - many ask in surprise, as if we are talking about a young man who suddenly passed away. Do not be surprised - this is just the case when everyone, for some reason, is sure that such a person will live forever and is generally immortal, contrary to common sense and the laws of nature. Nevertheless, in the early morning of the fifth day of October, the heart of the founder of the famous Taganka stopped. Six days ago, he celebrated his 97th birthday.

Write: . And this will be true, with the only difference being that an era that not only left, but collapsed with his departure into the abyss. The era is special, impossible, unique. The scale corresponds to the scale of the country. Thinking that falls out of the ideology of the country. Art ahead of its time.

The same age as the October Revolution. Those who started with him were then surprised: “Wow, Yurka, he is an artist, but he became like that ...”, and then it was not easy to choose the words - director, creator, artist, figure. And he is simply Lyubimov, and that says it all. In 1936 he entered the Vakhtangov Theater School, graduated in 1940, and in 1946 became an artist of the Vakhtangov School, having previously served in the Song and Dance Ensemble of the Military District. A handsome artist entered the troupe and immediately began to receive heroic roles. But also as a characteristic artist, according to the recollections of those with whom he worked, Yuri Lyubimov was wonderful.

When did he cross the line between acting and directing? When did a great artist emerge from a promising artist? No one knows for sure - this process is secret and rational calculation is not subject. Lyubimov the director was born along with The Good Man from Sezuan, which he staged with his students at Shchuka. What was it?! A typhoon, a tsunami, a bolt from the blue - all of Moscow, professional, snobbish, was eager for this student work. The “kind man” walked across the main path of the Soviet theater, was too open in his convictions, impudent in his boldness of statements. Like some kind of eccentric, not familiar with the rules of behavior in society, he shouted the truth that no one in the USSR was allowed to speak. And he had some kind of unusual aesthetics ... And then he came with his students to Taganka, by that time a quiet, unpopular theater, and began to build his own.

Taganka is a whole era, although it took only a few decades. But what! And how they influenced the domestic and world theater! Thanks to his theatre, the street that used to appear mainly in criminal folklore (“Taganka, all the nights full of fire, Taganka, you ruined me ...”) and marked on the maps as “the old street of Moscow”, has turned into a sociocultural concept. You pronounce "Taganka", and pour out a whole synonymous series: Vysotsky, Filatov, Zolotukhin, Trofimov, Demidova, Farada, Gubenko, Slavina, Shapovalov, Policemako, Yarmolnik and many, many more. Fates held and broken. And yet - the performances that shook the world. One was called “Ten Days That Shook the World.” “Alive”, “Master and Margarita”, “House on the Embankment”, “Hamlet”, “Pugachev”, “The Dawns Here Are Quiet”.

With the advent of Lyubov's Taganka, it was, and now it will finally be: Taganka is him. A short man with the back of a wrestler. Gray-haired (grayed early), elegant. Paradoxical, sharp, witty. Furious, but kind, not kind. As time will show, he is generous: he knows how to forgive. Here he is sitting in his office, behind him is a wall in the autographs of the greats. A strong man, brave: he makes a theater of truth. But not the one that anyone who brazenly called himself a director can concoct now - it’s enough to throw out all the dirt of life from the stage into the hall with obscenities, elements of the social bottom or reading the roles of posts and reposts from social networks. His truth is deep, based on powerful literature and music, on good taste and impeccable professionalism. His art rethinks life, and this art is highly artistic. One does not contradict the other - only a few can do this, and each in his own way: Efremov, Efros, Lyubimov.

Lyubimov is the tragedy of the theater, which, although he survived, it is a fact that she shortened his life. The artists raised by him, raised from nothing, essentially kicked their "father" out of the house. On this day, I don’t want to remember the vileness of the act that Prague, more precisely, its main drama theater, witnessed. The artists staged a public showdown because of the fee, there was a fuss, and Lyubimov was confused, did not believe in the reality of what was happening. But he did not stoop to showdown with petty people - he slammed the door and left the house. What happened in it later only confirmed which side the truth was on: Taganka, as a theater, as a phenomenon, died without Lyubimov.

And he, miraculously surviving this blow, found the strength in himself to work. The Vakhtangov Theater, where he once started as an artist, called his Master, and he released a huge performance based on Dostoevsky's "Demons" there. The premiere took place in March 2012. Not only the participants in the production, but also all the theater workers were shocked (you can’t pick another word) how this almost 95-year-old man led the rehearsals. In the morning I would come to the theater with the rehearsal score written literally to the point, and worked with the artists for three hours. Then he went to the buffet, after a break he resumed rehearsals. His assistant was the actor Ruben Simonov, to whom Yuri Petrovich gave instructions - to check the readiness of the artists, as a poster hangs at the theater. Once Ruben could not stand it: "Yuri Petrovich, you completely drove me" - "Ruben, how old are you? For 50? What are you, my dear, I only did Petka (son) at your age.

The premiere aroused great interest and was a great success. In the same place, in Vakhtangov, they celebrated the 95th anniversary of the Master. There were many distinguished guests, many words were said. Yuri Petrovich seemed pleased - after all, in this theater in 1946 his acting life began.

At that banquet, he confessed to Vakhtangovsky's artistic director Rimas Tuminas and director Kirill Krok:

“Thank you very much for everything,” Yuri Petrovich told us. “My life circle began here, and I want it to end here,” Kirill Krok told MK: “My foot will not be in the Taganka Theater - neither during life nor after death. Just let it go here."

Of course, the last word will be for those close to Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov - his wife Katalin and son Peter: as they decide, so be it. But until they get in touch: one can understand that it is difficult to survive such a loss. I ask director Vakhtangovsky:

- Is your theater ready to fulfill the desire of Yuri Petrovich?

- Of course, this is not even discussed. Everything will be done to the highest standard.

And now, the latest information: Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov will be buried at the Donskoy cemetery - this is his will. His family lies there - mother, father and brother David. A farewell to the great director will take place on Wednesday from 10 to 12 at the Vakhtangov Theater. Just like the Master wanted.

And lastly, the Lyubimov family categorically refused financial assistance for the funeral from the Moscow Department of Culture. As his wife Katalin Lyubimova said, the department did not protect the honor and dignity of her husband and, together with artists and trade unions of cultural workers, expelled the Master from his theater (the cultural department at that time was headed by Sergey Khudyakov). The statement of the current director of the Taganka Theater Vladimir Fleischer, who said that the theater is on tour and mourns, looks strange. Fantastic hypocrisy - "you need to grieve according to your conscience, together with the trade union of cultural workers," says Kirill Krok, director of the Vakhtangov Theater.