A seventeen-year-old Chaliapin, the future Great Russian singer, came to Ufa in the September of 1890 with a troupe of a commercial opera and operetta. He worked as a chorister in the building of the theatre which was situated on the crossing of Frolovskaya, Telegraphnaya, Sadovaya Streets (now they are Tukaev, Tsurupa, Matrosov Streets). He also sang in the building of the Ufa Nobility Society (now it is Ufa State Academy of Arts named after Zagir Ismagilov). On the 18th of December 1890 Chaliapin had his first solo part of Stolnik in the opera by S. Manushko ‘Pebble’. Much later, in 1901 Feodor Chaliapin recalled his feelings at La Scala playing the part of Mephistopheles: ‘The performance has begun. I trembled as strong as on my first performance in Ufa in ‘Pebbles’, I didn’t feel the stage under my feet and my legs were like cotton wool’. In Ufa he had a benefit performance in ‘Askold’s Grave’ (the aria of unknown). Besides the ticket price the Ufa spectators presented him with 50 rubles together with the silver watch with a cover. The troupe left the city and Chaliapin stayed: the local opera lovers decided to collect the money for his studies in the conservatoire. He served as a calligrapher in the Ufa province Zemstvo and kept singing. On the 6th of May of 1891 he performed the part of Mephistopheles. In 1891 he lived on Gogol Street, 1 in Borisovs’ house. The Ufa period (1890–1891) of Feodor Chaliapin’s life was a beginning for his acting career. There is the memorial board on the building of the former Ufa Nobility Society, where Chaliapin performed and near this building there is a sculpture of young Feodor Chaliapin (sculptor R.A.Khasanova). Contests of young and professional vocalists named after Feodor Chaliapin take place in Bashkir Theatre of Opera and Ballet.
