Mikhail Savoyarov

Mikhail Savoyarov (Russian: Михаи́л Никола́евич Савоя́ров, Mikhai'l Nikoláevič Savoyárov) (18 November [O.S. 30 November] 1876, Moscow – 4 August 1941, Moscow) was a Russian chansonnier, composer, poet, comic actor and mime. In the first quarter of 20th century he was a famous satirical singer-songwriter. His popularity peak was in the years of war (1914–1917) when he began to be called the King of eccentrics. It was also the time when he became friends with Aleksandr Blok. Considering that the period of his greatest popularity was almost at the exact time as the brief period of renaming the capital, Savoyarov can be called the Petrograd artist in the strict sense of the word.

Mikhail Nikolayevich Savoyarov (Solovyov) was born on 30 November 1876 in Moscow. As a child he didn’t receive music education. He learned to play violin without a teacher, also took private lessons. In the end of the 1890s Savoyarov moved to Saint Petersburg, started working as a violinist in a private opera house, and then in the Palace Theatre. The repertoire of these theatres included mostly operettas, which influenced his style. Savoyarov made his début on stage as an operetta tenor comedian by chance substituting for an ill actor. He had a success though not grand. Having an independent streak, soon he quit the theatre and started living on his own resources. Since 1905 he was seen playing in musical single-show companies (so called “capellas”), Russian, Little Russian, Gipsy or pseudo-French ones which were in fashion and brought profit.

In 1905 Savoyarov began to compose and sing topical songs, set at first to operetta or folk songs music and later to his own melodies. Poetic and musical talent advanced him as a singer-songwriter. His repertoire included mostly songs and trolls accompanied by piano, violin, dancing, pantomime and eccentric acting often turned into brazen antics and buffoonery. It’s significant that his style of acting coincides with his last name Savoyarov that comes from French word savoyard which means a strolling musician, a troubadour from Savoy.

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