Fatma Mukhtarova
| Fatma Mukhtarova | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Born |
26 March 1893 Urmia, Iran |
| Died | 19 October 1972 (aged 79) Baku, Azerbaijan |
| Genres | Opera |
| Years active | 1914–1954 |
Fatma Sattarovna Mukhtarova (Azerbaijani: Fatma Muxtarova, Russian: Фатьма Мухтарова; 26 March 1893 or 1898 in Urmia – 19 October 1972 in Baku) was a Russian and Soviet opera singer (mezzo-soprano),Honorary Artist of Georgia, and People's Artist of Azerbaijan.
Fatma Mukhtarova was born in Urmia, northwestern Persia (now West Azerbaijan Province, Iran) to a Persian or Iranian Azeri father Abbas Rzayev and a Lipka Tatar mother Sara Chaseniewicz. Soon after their daughter's birth, the family moved to Russia and settled in Rostov-on-Don. In 1901, Mukhtarova's father, a street singer, died of tuberculosis at the age of 28 and her mother married organ-grinder Sattar Mukhtarov, also an immigrant from Persia. The family lived in very poor conditions and moved from one city in Russia to another until eventually settling in Saratov in 1910. Mukhtarova's mother sent young Fatma to learn from street singers. The girl known as Katya the Organ-Grinder now performed publicly dressed in a Ukrainian costume and accompanied by an accordion and a tambourine. It is said that once while singing near a factory, she was noticed by young Lidia Ruslanova who worked there and who was so touched by Mukhtarova's singing that she gave the latter all the money she had on herself.
Soon a news story by journalist Arkhangelsky about young and talented Katya Mukhtarova appeared in the newspaper Saratovsky Vestnik. She was fostered by cello-player Kamensky, son of the Russian opera diva Maria Kamenskaya. However, in her new home, Mukhtarova felt she was treated like a servant who was only allowed to the master dinner table when guests from the "high society" were visiting and needed to be entertained by her singing. Offended by this attitude, Mukhtarova left the Kamensky estate and continued to give charitable concerts in cities and towns of the Saratov Governorate saving money for her future music education as suggested by Arkhangelsky. In 1912, she attempted to get admitted to the newly established Saratov Conservatory but was rejected due to her "less than one-octave-range voice gone hoarse from singing in the cold". Luckily she was noticed by prominent opera singer Mikhail Medvedev who decided to train the young singer and fixed her voice within two weeks. Thus Fatma Mukhtarova was among the first students of the Saratov Conservatory. She continued to live with her parents and supported her family financially by giving concerts in different cities across the empire, despite the fact that the code of the Conservatory did not allow this. During one of such concert tours, in 1913, she visited Baku where she met opera singer Huseyngulu Sarabski. Sympathetic to her cause, Sarabski convinced the Baku oil magnate Murtuza Mukhtarov (the singer's namesake) to provide financial assistance to the struggling young singer.
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