FRANCOIS NOUVION - A CRAZY OLD FRENCHMAN
 
HOT UPDATE:

Look at how Francois Nouvion systematically goes through my whole blog, singer by singer, collecting more information he can steal and put on his site:

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WHO IS FRANCOIS NOUVION?

Well, sit comfortably, bring some popcorn and enjoy the story.

It so happened that not very long time ago I found myself in some kind of a Kafkaesque predicament, which is probably not as serious as it is odd and funny. But in a short while you will see that this has happened not only to me, but to many others, and most recently to Ashot Arakelyan and his blog forgottenoperasingers.blogspot.com.

I will start from the very beginning. Brace yourself. Unlike somewhat (understatement) maniacal Nouvion, I was never that much into this whole thing as to save e-mails that I thought proved my points, to mark some dates on the calendar, to keep ip-addresses, to start spying on him all over the internet, but I think I remember the most important parts of the story, which isn't at all so terribly complicated as Nouvion's somewhat (understatement) paranoiac mind pumped it up to be.

Okay then. Having a long time interest in singers of the Soviet Era, and some interest in Italian classical singers, one day I was surfing the net and came by an interesting site called "Historical Tenors". This site had a sizable although not very well ordered (understatement) "Eastern-European-Tenors" section (including soviet ones) and it was nice to take a look at it from time to time and come back to it.

I even wrote an email to the owner of the site - this Francois Nouvion - congratulating him for his nice work, and asking him about two things - the first was the russian collector that helped him with the pages of the soviet tenors, thinking it could be an interesting person to talk to about my hobby; and about the daughter of one of the soviet singers that gave Nouvion the information for her father's page, which I found intriguing.

All was fine. Nouvion answered in a civilized manner, telling me that he has not heard from the russian collector for years, and giving me the mail of the daughter of the singer whose biography I found special.

About the same time and in the same random manner I stumbled upon another interesting site, called "Grandi-Tenori". It was also a site about tenors all throughout history. But unlike Nouvion's site it had an interesting forum with interesting people talking about different styles and eras in operatic singing, about different singers from all over the world, and I decided to write something there about singers of the soviet era and about cantors.

It wasn't long before I got involved in quite a number of disputes on this forum and in some point the moderator/new partial owner (I never get nor want to get into what's behind the stage) of the site contacted me and asked me to contribute to the site's new sections dedicated to Soviet Tenors and Cantors. I told him that I don't really want to deal with the Cantor part, as it interests me less, but I will gladly help with the Soviet Tenors section. As we got no know each other more, it turned out that we even lived in the same place, consequently we had more talks about the Soviet Tenor section, and I promised I will try to make such a section for him.

At some point the fact that I will be making the Soviet Tenors section was mentioned on the forum itself. Then, out of the sudden I received a very strange e-mail. It said something like: "Hi, you traitor". I thought: "what on earth"?! After a second I realized it's from Nouvion. At first I didn't know what to make of it, but it was shortly followed by some more accusations, curses and threats. I understood at this point that it isn't just some one-time or even a-couple-of-times thing, and I am probably dealing with someone who is half-crazy. Of course, I didn't answer with similar threats or curses, and tried to give reason a chance. I wrote Nouvion exactly what is going on, that I don't have anything against him, and asked him not to be intimidated or afraid I will steal something from his site. By this time I was already told that Nouvion has a personal vendetta with Grandi-Tenori, and even a whole section on his site dedicated to portraying everyone that has something to do with this site as a nazi (no less). So, just to be on the safe side, I also wrote him I was not aware of his very problematic history with Grandi-Tenori nor want to have any part in it.

No need to mention, reason didn't work. I kept getting dirty mails full of the lowest kind of curses from Nouvion each day (!), from about a dozen of different e-mail accounts (!), both under his name, anonymous, or under other names, such as Samuel Goldenstein or Jack Fertiger. This, of course, doesn't stop him from keeping accusing me of staying anonymous, although he knows my name, with which I signed the very first e-mail I sent to him (LOL), and accusing me of having more than one e-mail account (LOL).

Anyhow, at this point I pretty much did not know what to do with this nuisance and just manually transferred all of his daily spam to my trash-box. But new interesting developments came along. My work with Dan (the moderator/new partial owner of Grandi-Tenori) came to a halt, and although I have already put a lot of energy and thought into the new site and the new section, all I was getting from him is perpetual excuses that he has no time (and even that only when he would decide to write me back). I thought that was disrespectful. Then things between us went completely downhill and I asked him to completely remove my work from his site. I wasn't prepared for this public humiliation after already completing 95% of the work and supplying it on a platter to Dan like a fool. I was mad like hell. Imagine - here I was being bombarded every day by some lunatic for participating in Grandi-Tenori, and there I was desperately sending e-mails, SMS messages and even calling Dan on the phone and getting sloughed off.

Nouvion saw this quarreling on the forum of Grandi-Tenori, and started sending me messages of a little different nature, in the spirit of: "see whom you got yourself with", "I told you this would happen", etc'. He hit a painful spot, me being then totally enraged with Dan. I said to myself: "I had enough of both these clowns. I'm the only victim in this story. I can use them to fight each other". So I told Nouvion: "yeah, whatever, you just make Dan put my material down, and I will help you with your soviet section". Nouvion got all happy that I now turned against Grandi-Tenori, started bragging about that on his site, arguing with people from Grandi-Tenori over me, and defending me as much as he could. One VERY interesting thing was that for some reason he also kept asking me casually-like over and over which singers exactly I intended to put on my Soviet Tenors section... But that also didn't last very long. After a couple of general talks with Nouvion about soviet tenors I understood that he doesn't know the first thing about them, and is too full of pride to take anyone's advice. Again I was trying to use reason with him, but again it did not work (not unexpectedly now, of course). Very quickly he started foaming at the mouth, blaming me again in everything aside of American Civil War, and sending me the good old curse-spam every day.

Then I was still peeking at the Grandi-Tenori forum from time to time, and I don't exactly remember what happened - either I wrote something and someone reacted, or someone wrote a remark on my old post, but I saw a message that touched my heart, and made me think again about leaving the project of the Soviet Tenors. I decided to clench my teeth hard, suffer a bit with my pride, forget the old and keep doing the Soviet Tenors section with Dan. I said to him: "I'm all yours now. Whatever. At your own pace. On your conditions. Let's work". We agreed. That was the last time I or anyone else have heard from him. He disappeared into thin air, no one knows what happened with him till now, Grandi-Tenori site is down. Once again I was a victim.

Now back to Nouvion. Some time ago I entered the Grandi-Tenori forum and could not believe my eyes - there was a message from... the russian collector from Nouvion's site! Years have gone by but the lost son came back! He sent a message echoing all of Nouvion's old familiar tunes about me, first writing in broken Russian, then in English, with a style very resembling Nouvion's somewhat (understatement) problematic English. Then a second strange figure quickly entered the stage in the same argument - someone that identified himself as no less than the legal representative of the Historical Tenors site in Germany. He also echoed Nouvion, again notably with the same recognizable style of writing. I very argumentatively, fact after fact, replied to everything those clones of Nouvion had to say, and they quickly disappeared with their laughable and senseless accusations and threats. I guess that happened so quickly because all that was left for Nouvion to do at that point in the factual argument is start cursing, but that would of revealed his clone game.

But all is not lost, because Nouvion now has a new page on his site dedicated to me, referring to me as "dr. Goebbels", like the pages he already has dedicated to many of the participants on Grandi-Tenori, whom he already given the names of different nazi leaders, with the same outlandish and funny accusations and lies. Of course, he also keeps sending me his usual hate-spam too. But see, beside being similar to an historical nazi leader, in his eyes, I am also an actual KGB agent, which is something he keeps mentioning time after time (I'm not kidding).

Recently there has been a new development. Nouvion has find himself yet another new victim, whose story mirrors mine exactly - Ashot Arakelyan, who opened his blog forgottenoperasingers.blogspot.com. He is too now blamed by Nouvion of stealing and spying, and is getting mails full of curses and threats, and that after giving Nouvion some rare materials and considering him as his friend. Ashot too did not realize he was dealing with a maniac.

The most recent news are that Nouvion has blocked his site for all new visitors. He has obviously finally lost it. Hahah... Let me quote from his site:

"Site update:
There is a new registration procedure for new readers wanting to register to the site. This new procedure will direct you to send to the site owner your name, phone number and country of residence. You will be called and upon approval you will get a user name and password." LOL.


Now lets go through the main issues Nouvion has with me:

1) He says I somehow took information from his site. The only proof he supplies is... that he has records of me visiting it.

Duh. The answer:

- Visiting isn't taking information. Nouvion visits my new page every day, and when I told him that, he said: "I will visit it as long as I want to". Actually, he not only visits it, but quickly steals the names of the new singers I add to my page, and adds them to his site, that hasn't seen any new names for years. LOL. But really, he now goes to some length to make these pages of the new singers he steals from me much better than his old ones, and generally takes rapid measures in order to make his russian tenors' pages better, so the competition has definitely done him some good, and so he should be thanking me instead of cursing. LOL.

A simple truth is that I could have easily done the same to Nouvion - for example, "borrrow" all the sound files from him and transfer them to my page (not forgetting to write on them "stolen by Francois Nouvion"). Or, otherwise, copy all the different soviet posters, LP covers, stickers, collector-cards and other such things he now rapidly stuffs his singer pages with. Or, aiming that much higher, I could of started copying the random contextless little details he now adds to the biographies, trying to make them look more serious. Etc', etc'... But why would I do that? All I want and all I need is a simple page that basically presents some major Soviet singers. That's all. The simpler, the better, that is the idea. Anyone who wants more information can e-mail me. But don't you reveal ANY of this to Nouvion - he actually thinks this is a major strategical conflict between two empires. LOL.

- If he has any proof of me taking any information from his site, why doesn't he simply... TELL WHAT EXACTLY I TOOK? But he can't. LOL. I, on the other hand, can tell you exactly what singers magically, in a split of a second, appeared on Nouvion's Eastern-European tenors section just after I added them to my page. Interestingly, it were the same names exactly, no others were added. What a surprize! LOL.
- Why would I take information from Nouvion, if my knowledge and access to materials about soviet singers are much greater than his? LOL.
- Why would I take information for my Soviet Tenors page from his "Eastern-European-Tenors" section, if it is such a mess? Even when it comes only to Russian singers, there he has some random bunch of pre-soviet singers, some random bunch of first-row soviet opera singers, some random bunch of third-row soviet opera singers that shouldn't even be there, some random bunch of not the best of Red Army Ensemble soloists, some random little bunch of today's singers, a random bunch of jewish cantors who just happened to be born in Russia but made their whole career in the West, etc'. Recently, I guess because of his desire to add more singers to the section, he even started adding singers who aren't even tenors. But even then, the information he gives about the singers in many cases comes to one line, and sometimes... just isn't there, and all you see is the singer's name. LOL.

2) He says that on my page I don't give credits to the places I take the information from.

Duh. The answer:

- Neither does he. In most cases he just gives a credit to the guy that supplied him the information, not to the sources it was originally taken from. And the guy that supplied him the information doesn't give credits to any sources, although in many cases they are obvious. LOL. Yes, you got it right - Nouvion DOES NOTHING BY HIMSELF when it comes to russian singers, HE KNOWS NOTHING about them, he has someone else (a russian guy) doing it all for him, and he just puts it on the site, sometimes making basic mistakes. LOL.
- As I have many times said when it came to my section on Grandi-Tenori or my new page: I am not trying to write an encyclopedia or present a science project. All I want to do is to present to the people some of the most prominent soviet tenors, so I just gather some basic information from obvious sources in most cases and don't have to give credits where they aren't necessary. If the source is clearly not his site, what business is it of his? LOL.

Eduard Bagdasaryan (1928)

Born on 5th of February in the Soviet Republic of Turkmenistan in the city of Mary to the family of a construction worker. Acclaimed artist of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic

Started singing as a boy at a very young age. In 1941 with the beginning of World War II had to start working at odd jobs to support his family after his father and older brother were drafted. At the age of 19 was incidentally discovered as a talented amateur and began to attend a musical school and then the Baku city conservatory in the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan where he started studying with the famous singer Suzanna Mikaelyan that studied in Italy with Georgette Everardi. 

During his studies was a member of the Azerbaijani State Entertainment Association and a member of the Azerbaijani State Orchestra. Also sang on Radio. His debut was in a role of Trike in the staging of "Eugene Onegin" in the conservatory. At some point he was invited to Yerevan (Armenian Soviet Republic) and in 1954 became a soloist of  the Armenian Theater of Opera and Ballet, turning one of its leading singers. In 1968 started performing with the Armenian State Philharmonic Orchestra.

Won the second prize in 1957 Moscow World Youth Festival, the first prize going to another Armenian singer – Artur Aidinyan.

Received several state awards.

Gave concerts all over USSR. Toured abroad. Appeared in several motion pictures.

Died on the 6th of January 2015 in Yerevan, Armenia.

Lutfiyar Imanov (1928)

Born on 17^th of April in the city of Petropavlovka (now Sabirabad). People’s artist of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan (1977).

First started to sing in school, and sang with its chorus in Sabirabad State Theater of Drama. In the age of 18 he created his own dramatic group.

In 1943 made his first amateur debut in Sabirabad State Musical Theater in the drama “A bride for five pennies”.

In 1948 started working as an art director in the Sabirabad City Culture Hall.

In 1957 graduated from the vocal department of the Zeinalla Baku city Musical College after three years of studies (class of A.Milovanov).

In 1954-56 he was a soloist of the Azerbaijani Radio Society, in 1956-57 - a soloist of Azerbaijani State Stage Orchestra, and in 1956-59 - a soloist of the Theater of Musical Comedy. In 1959 he also made his professional operatic debut in the main role in a play “Kerogly” by Uzeir Gadzibekov in Moscow.

From 1958 to his death he was a soloist of the Azerbaijani State Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet.

In 1962 he enrolled into the Faculty of Theatrical Studies of the Azerbaijani University of Culture and Arts, graduating from it in 1968.

In 1965 he underwent an apprenticeship in the Bolshoi Theater and in 1975 – in La-Scala.

Starting from 1968 he sang in the main roles in more than 30 operas. Some of his best roles were Rhadames, Jose, Herman, Manrico, Othello, Duke, Faust, Cavaradossi.

In 1980 and 1985 he was elected to be a member of the High Soviet of the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialistic Republic.

In 1987-1991 he was the chairman of the Azerbaijani Society of Theater Artists.

Along with his singing career, he was also teaching in Azerbaijani State Conservatory, where he was a professor, and in 1991-1995 – in the Musical schools of Istanbul and Izmir.

During the 1990-ies went to tours in Italy, Germany and Iran.

Was given the highest award of the Republic of Azerbaijan – the “Istiglal” sign.

Died in January 2008.

 

Murtuza Mamedov (1897)

Born on June 22nd in the village of Hanbagy, near the town of Shusha, Elizavetpolskaya province. Lyric-dramatic tenor. People’s artist of the Soviet Union (1938).

Born into a family of a tanner.

Already in his childhood for his exceptional voice and musical talent he received the nickname Bülbül, which means “nightingale” in Azeri, which stayed with him for his whole life.

In 1915 he was invited to sing in Tiflis, and astonished the famous Georgian singer Vano Saradjashvili. By 1916 he was already renown all over the Caucasus region. The same year he also sang in his first opera role.

He received his musical education in the Moscow conservatory (class of N.Speranski), also studied with V.Nikolskiy, finishing his studies in 1927. Then went to La-Scala, where he studied with G.Anselmi and R.Grani for four years.

The Italian journal “Arte Nostra” published an article about him, the “Colombia” record company approached him for recordings, many opera theaters around the world invited him to perform with them. It was said that his Italian pronunciation was perfect.

He had the opportunity to hear the legendary Russian tenor Sobinov when being in Moscow, and “could not get enough of him”, according to his words. When being in Italy he once spent all his money to go and hear Chaliapin sing. According to his words, after that experience he could not sleep the whole night and had profound visions of the essence of vocal art.

In the 1920ies he was one of the founders of the Azerbaijani national musical theater and opera, as well as its soloist, and also a folk singer.

One of the characteristic traits of his style was the combination of Azerbaijani folk motives with the traditions of Italian classical operatic singing. He was said to have a very gentle, light, swift, silver-like voice with a beautiful timbre. He could sing in both lyrical and dramatic roles.

He also was a very successful and colorful dramatic stage actor.

Became a laureate of the First all-USSR Competition of pianists, violinists, cellists and vocalists in Moscow in 1933.

From 1932 to 1961 - taught in Azerbaijani State Conservatory (from 1940 – professor).

His contribution to the gathering, studying and development of Azerbaijani folk music is enormous. For example, his articles are to this day being used as a basis for study books for Azerbaijani folk music, and the first study books for playing on the Azerbaijani folk instruments as tara, kemancha and balaban were written by him.

He also consulted the most prominent Azerbaijani composers in their work, and was many times the first and the main soloist in their operatic works. He has done a great deal to spread the Azerbaijani musical culture all over USSR.

In addition to that, he was one of the founders of the Azerbaijani Institute of Arts and Architecture.

Was also a deputy in first, second and third convocation of the High Soviet of the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialistic Republic.

Received the Stalin Premium (1950). The Medal of Lenin (1946, 1956), The Red Banner of Labor (1936, 1958), The Honor Sign (1938) and the Italian sign “Garibaldi Star”.

Died on 26th of September 1961 in Baku.

 

Avak Petrosyan (1912)

Born on March 29th in the village of Gyamrez (now the Abovyan region of Armenia). Lyric-dramatic tenor. People’s Artist of the Armenian Soviet Socialistic Rebublic (1956) and the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialistic Republic (1962).

Studied in the Moscow conservatory in 1940-1941 (class of K.N.Dorliak), and in Erevan conservatory (class of N.G.Kardyan), finishing his studies in 1942.

Starting from 1941 – soloist of the Opera and Ballet Theater of Armenia.

Among his roles: Manrico, Cavaradossi, Radames, Raoul, Saro (“Anush” by Tigranyan), Santur (“David-Bek” by Tigranyan), Ashug and Sheikh (“Almast” by Spendiarov), Tirit ("Arshak II" by Chuhadzhyan), Seyran (“Namus” by Hodza-Einatov).

Toured throught USSR.

Also gave concerts, and among his concert repertoire were more than 200 pieces, including Armenian folk songs and classical compositions.

Received the Stalin Premium (1951) for the part of Vagan in the play “Heroine” by Stepanyan.

Gave concerts abroad.

Died on 2^nd of November in Yerevan.

 

Ivan Shvedov (1898)

Born on December 25th in the village of Liptsi, near the city of Kharkov. Acclaimed Artist of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialistic Republic (1940).

Studied in Kharkov Musical-Dramatic Institute in 1926-1931 (class of M.Chemezov).

In 1929-33 – soloist of the Kharkov Opera Theater, in 1933-36 – Odessa Opera Theater, 1936-43 – Kiev Opera Theater.

Had a beautiful and very musical voice of wide diapason, even in all registers, a very expressive artistic performance on stage.

Sang with the most famous Ukrainian soloists, like the legendary Oksana Petrusenko, and was one of the idols of the Ukrainian opera lovers.

Was one of the few carefully selected Ukrainian artists to go to Moscow for the “Celebration of the Ukranian Art” jubilee, where he was received with great enthusiasm.

Among his roles: Cavaradossi, Andriy (“Zaporozhez za Dunaem” by Gulak-Artemovsky), Petro, Andriy (“Natalka Poltavka”, “Taras Bulba” by Lysenko), Andriy (“Mazeppa” by Tchaikovsky), Davydov (“Podnyataya Zelina” by Dzerzhinskiy), Pavlo (“Perekop” by Rybalchenko, Meytus, Tiz), Enik (“The Bartered Bride” by Smetana).

In the beginning of the World War II he stayed at the German occupied territory, and continued to sing at the Kiev Opera Theater along with his wife, also a soloist of the Kiev Opera Theater – Sofia Yudina, even forced to sing in German. But he decided to leave the theater and went to Germany, and then to Italy. When he was there, he met with the professor Evgeniy Onatskiy, who was one of the most prominent figures of the Ukrainian community in Italy. When being there Shvedov gave a single concert, together with the other artists that escaped with him, and it had amazed Evgeniy Onatskiy to such a level that he begged him to go to trials in Rome’s Opera Theater. But Shvedov completely rejected that idea.

In 1950 Shvedov and his wife went to Argentina, where they gave some concerts from time to time, but this great singer never again enjoyed an operatic career.

Because of what happened during the World War II, the name and the recordings of Shvedov were completely erased from all Soviet books and archives.

Died on 28 of July 1959.

 

Sergey Danielyan (1929)

Born on 31st of July in Baku. People’s Artist of the Armenian Soviet Socialict Republic (1967).

In 1957 graduated from Baku Musical College.

In 1969 graduated from the Faculty of Directing of Yerevan Theatrical Institute.

In 1974 graduated from Yerevan conservatory.

In 1956 made his debut in Baku Opera Theater.

In 1957, for having extraordinarily beautiful voice he was invited to the Armenian Theater of Opera and Ballet, where he quickly turned one of its leading singers.

Among his roles: Herman, Manrico, Rhadames, Othello, Don Carlos, Richard, Canio, Cavaradossi, Jose, Tannhauser, Oedipus rex (“Oedipus rex”, I.Stravinsky), Ovod (“Ovod”), Alexey (“Optimisticheskaya tragediya”), Mindia (“Mindia”), Abovyan (“Abovyan”).

Gave concerts.

Made many tours abroad and received countless honorary awards and prizes.

From 1968 taught in the Komitas Yerevan State conservatory (professor), where among his students were many of the most famous present Armenian opera singers.

Died on 4^th of December 2009 in Yerevan, and the ceremony of his burial was carried with state honors.

 

Tigran Levonyan (1936)

Born on December 14th in Beirut (Lebanon). People’s Artist of Armenia. 

Singer, actor and producer.

In 1958 graduated from Yerevan city Theatrical Institute. Also studied singing with his wife, the famous Armenian singer Goar Gasparyan.

Was a soloist of the Armenian Theater of Opera and Ballet and also gave concerts.

During his career he performed in leading roles in classical European and Armenian operas, among which were “Pagliacci”, “Troubadour”, “David Bek”, “Anush”, “Arshak the II”, “Siberian barber”.

Perfected his skills in La-Scala.

From 1991 was the director of the Erevan Theater of Opera and Ballet.

Was a professor in the Komitas Erevan State conservatory.

Died on 25^th of June 2004 in Yerevan.