Valentina Semyonova Serova (maiden name Bergman) (1846 – June 26, 1924) was a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

of German-Jewish descent. Her family had converted to Lutheranism before she was born.

Early life

Serova's parents were merchants who operated a shop that specialized in colonial wares. She studied briefly at the

St. Petersburg Conservatory The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory (russian: Санкт-Петербургская государственная консерватория имени Н. А. Римского-Корсакова) (formerly known as th ...

with

Anton Rubinstein Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein ( rus, Антон Григорьевич Рубинштейн, r=Anton Grigor'evič Rubinštejn; ) was a Russian pianist, composer and conductor who became a pivotal figure in Russian culture when he founded the Sai ...

but left to study with the composer and critic

Alexander Serov Alexander Nikolayevich Serov (russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Серо́в, Saint Petersburg, – Saint Petersburg, ) was a Russian composer and music critic. He is notable as one of the most important music critics in ...

, known both for his writings and his successful first opera '' Judith''. Introduced through a shared friend, she married Serov in 1863 and in January 1865 their son

Valentin Serov Valentin Alexandrovich Serov (russian: Валенти́н Алекса́ндрович Серо́в; 19 January 1865 – 5 December 1911) was a Russian painter and one of the premier portrait artists of his era. Life and work Youth and educ ...

was born. Valentin would grow up to become a famous painter, renowned for his portraits.

The Power of the Fiend

Alexander Serov died of a heart attack in January 1871, and Valentina completed the last act of his third and final opera, ''

The Power of the Fiend ''The Power of the Fiend'' (russian: Вражья сила, ''Vrazhya sila'') is an opera in five acts by Alexander Serov, composed during 1867-1871. The libretto is derived from a drama by Alexander Ostrovsky from 1854 entitled '' Live Not As You ...

''. She used his sketches and her memory of what Alexander had played to her to finish the work. The composer N.F. Solovyov helped her with some of the instrumentation and editing. The opera premiered in April 1871. Initially unsuccessful, its revivals fared rather better and was the only opera by Serov to be performed in Soviet times.

Second marriage

After Serov's death she married a second time to a physician, Vasilii Nemchinov, who died in 1881. They had two children; a son who died in childhood and a daughter, Nadezhda, who married into the aristocratic Zhilinsky family. Serova's son-in-law and grandson from Nadezhda's marriage were both executed during Stalin's rule. One of her great-grandsons perished in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

; the other was the painter Dmitry Zhilinsky.

Composer

The experience of finishing her first husband's opera inspired Serova to compose her own operas. Her first opera, ''Uriel Acosta'', premiered in 1885 at the

Bolshoi Theatre The Bolshoi Theatre ( rus, Большо́й теа́тр, r=Bol'shoy teatr, literally "Big Theater", p=bɐlʲˈʂoj tʲɪˈatər) is a historic theatre in Moscow, Russia, originally designed by architect Joseph Bové, which holds ballet and ope ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. She had shown the score to

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

earlier that year, and he had pointed out a number of faults. Valentina asked him if he would give her some lessons in harmony, but he recommended she seek out the guidance of

Anton Arensky Anton Stepanovich Arensky (russian: Анто́н Степа́нович Аре́нский; – ) was a Russian composer of Romantic classical music, a pianist and a professor of music. Biography Arensky was born into an affluent, music-loving ...

instead. Her second opera, ''Maria d'Orval'', was never performed and is considered lost. Her third opera, ''Il'ya Muromets'', was successfully staged in Moscow with

Feodor Chaliapin Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin ( rus, Фёдор Ива́нович Шаля́пин, Fyodor Ivanovich Shalyapin, ˈfʲɵdər ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ ʂɐˈlʲapʲɪn}; April 12, 1938) was a Russian opera singer. Possessing a deep and expressive bass v ...

in the title role in 1899. Serova's fourth and last opera has not been preserved and even the title is now unknown. She died in

on June 26, 1924.

Relatives

Valentina Serova's sister, Adelaida, and brother-in-law, Yakov Simonovich, were early childhood pedagogues who, in 1863, founded Russia's first kindergarten. Her son, Valentin, married their adopted daughter, Olga Trubnikova, and had five children with descendants now living in Russia, France, Cyprus, and Lebanon.

References

Sources

www.classical-composers.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Serova, Valentina Russian opera composers Russian women classical composers Russian Jews 1846 births 1924 deaths Russian people of German-Jewish descent Women opera composers