Lyrical career

Informations prove to be extremely hard to obtain concerning Kondrashin's operatic career. His parents had been musicians of the Bolshoï Orchestra. It is said that he was first appointed at the Staniskavsky Children's Theatre in Moscow from 1931 on, even before attending Boris Khaïkin's Conducting Class at the Conservatory (1932).
Then he was appointed at the Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre, Moscow, from 1934, where he debuted conducting the French comic opera "Les cloches de Corneville" by Planquette, then a very popular piece.
Granted that Stanislavsky died in 1938, and that he was more and more attentive to opera toward the end of his life, it is very likely that Kondrashin has been in direct contact with him. Several notices assert that, in those times, Kondrashin was exclusevily interested by musical theatre, and that he was rather reticent to conduct anything else.
After having graduated from the Moscow Conservatory with a first award, in 1936, he was appointed at the Maly Tiatr (Little Theatre) in Leningrad, a very famous, kind of experimental musical theatre. In this theatre Samuil Samossud had premiered Shostakovich's two operas, "The Nose" and "Lady Macbeth from the district of Mzensk", and Vsevolod Meyerhold regularly staged new productions, among which, the famous and debated 1935 "Queen of Spades" by Tchaïkovsky, again conducted by chief conductor Samossud. The Administrative Director, Nikolaï Smolich, was himself a famous and creative stage director, and often worked in collaboration with composers. Once again, if we don't have material to prove it, it is very likely that the young Kondrashin immerged in the North city, and attended as much concert and performances as he could, and went to Samossud to express his will to premiere new operas. In a speech he pronounced shortly before his death in New York, Kondrashin evoked his long friendship with Shostakovich and said it had started in Leningrad. At that time, Shostakovich must have been very attentive to young conductors who claimed their enthusiasm toward his operas.
In 1936 Kondrashin could witness the two first big attacks against Shostakovich: the first concerned "Lady Macbeth", and the second, still a mystery, regarded the 4th Symphony. Shostakovich was now prevented from writing operas.
Kondrashin is said to have debuted at the Maly Tiatr with "Madama Butterfly", and then conducted "La fanciulla del West" by Puccini, and works by Pashchenko and Cheremukhin, among others.
When he attended the Great 1938 Conducting Competition, he was awarded an Honor Diploma for his uncommon skill for training orchestras, virtuosity of conducting, and his almost hypnotic effect on the musicians. Samossud himself mentioned the young conductor's qualities in the Competition's report, in the "Pravda".
Kondrashin declined all the offers to be appointed to any orchestra: he simply didn't want to conduct symphonic repertoire. His was so strong a passion for theatre that he sometimes staged himself the productions! Only Herbert von Karajan began to do the same, in the 30s, in Germany. Alongside with his master Boris Khaïkin, Samossud and Shostakovich obtained from Nikolaï Golovanov a concert evening at the Bolshoï Tiatr (the Great Theatre), Moscow, in 1943. We don't know which programme Kondrashin conducted: it was a real triumph!
Kondrashin was immediately offered an appointment as permanent conductor at the Bolshoy. This time he accepted! He didn't long for any other promotion. Aged 29, he already achieved his dream.
We know very few things about his time at the Bolshoï. We know that, alongside with Samossud, he obtained for Shostakovich an appointment as 'operatic consultant' at the Bolshoï: since many of his works were forbidden, this appointment was intended to prevent him from misery.
Kondrashin often worked with the then young stage director Boris Pokrovsky. He conducted productions of Smetana's "Bartered bride", Moniuszko's "Halka" (for which both Pokrovsky and him were awarded a Stalin Gold Medal), then "The Malevolent Power" by Serov, and "Snegurochka" by Rimsky-Korsakov.
He recorded numerous arias with several singers, among which his favourites seem to have been Irina and Leokadiya Maslennikova, Veronika Borisenko, Sergeï Lemeshev, Gyorgy Nelepp, Mikhaïl Shchegolkov, Aleksieï Ivanov, Andreï Ivanov, Maxim Mikhaïlov and Mark Reïzen.
How many complete operas did he record is one of the most difficult questions about him. Glinka's "Ruslan and Ludmila" is the best known, since it immediately proved to be a best-seller (and still is nowadays), because of its impressive musical and vocal quality, and because the recording, for the first time, was really complete. What is puzzling about this recording is the fact that he may not have conducted the work on stage, which seems to be the only case in his discography.
Indeed, the 3 other operas he actually recorded were works he conducted on stage. Rimsky-Korsakov's "Snegurochka" is a magnificent one, and is very difficult to date. Moniuszko's "Halka" and Smetana's "Bartered bride" still prove to be exceedingly difficult to find, but they do exist and contain some magnificent operatic moments.
Persistant rumors regarding a complete "Prince Igor" by Borodin are still impossible to verify, as well as a complete "Malevolent power" by Serov.
The problem is all the more difficult that it is impossible to say if Kondrashin had already recorded some complete operas when he was in Leningrad (this isn't unlikely), and if he performed some for the Radio...
In fact, a very theatrical event occured, that has ever since made his whole operatic career very difficult to document: he resigned from his position as permanent conductor at the Bolshoï Theatre in 1956, to dedicate himself to symphonic repertoire.
Meantime he had started a very successful concert career, as accompagnist to such great solists as David Oïstrakh, Emil Gilels, Yakov Zak, Tatiana Nikolayeva, Leonid Kogran, Daniil Shafran, Sviatoslav Richter and Mstislav Rostropovich.
The circumstances of his resignation are extremely mysterious. The official biographical notices mention that Kondrashin was dissatisfied with the working conditions in opera.
Anyway, this resignation was interpreted as a rupture by both the professional musicians and the public. This is probably why the informations concerning his operatic career (his complete schedule with the complete casts, the comprehensive list of his recordings, his broadcastings, with precise dates) is absolutely unavailable.
If anybody knows something, he will be most welcome...
You must know that Kirill Kondrashin conducted his very last opera evenings in Chicago, October 13 and 15, 1958: it was a production of "Madama Butterfly", the first opera by Puccini he conducted, featuring Renata Tebaldi for her first Cio-Cio-San, Giuseppe Di Stefano and Cornell MacNeil. Kondrashin was invited on the occasion of the triumphant tour with the great Van Cliburn, back from his winning the 1st Prize at the Tchaïkovsky in Moscow. As a great amount of live recordings by Giuseppe Di Stefano have been circulating, I call for any information regarding a recording of those evenings...