A World Famous, Yet Unknown, Countertenor: Basile Bolotine of Serge Jaroff’s Don Cossack Choir

Abstract

A World Famous, Yet Unknown, Countertenor: Basile Bolotine of Serge Jaroff's Don Cossack Choir Donna Arnold (bio) PROVENANCE prov·e·nance (prǒv´ ə nəns) n. Place of origin, source. [Lat. Provenire, to originate.] Well before countertenors became prominent in classical music's early music movement of the mid-twentieth century, countless concertgoers in Europe and America had already experienced their artistry. This was because Serge Jaroff's Don Cossack Choir, a world famous a cappella Russian émigré ensemble, showcased singers they called falsettists. We now would call them countertenors. Basile Bolotine (1895–1981) was a beloved falsettist in the choir for many years, and thanks to his recorded legacy, his music is still cherished. Because his name has never been well known, this essay seeks to introduce him by name both to those who have and have not yet experienced his music. The choir had an extraordinary history. It was founded late in 1920 at a wretched internment camp in Turkey. Thousands of Don Cossack soldiers who were expelled from Russia after losing the civil war to the Bolsheviks were detained there. To raise their morale, the camp commander ordered that a choir be formed from the best singers in the regimental choirs. Detainee Serge Jaroff (1896–1985), a graduate of Moscow's prestigious Synodal School of Church Singing, was ordered to establish it.1 All of his potential choristers were amateurs. Against all odds, he selected thirty-six men, arranged repertoire for them from memory, and in a few months transformed them into a brilliant world class ensemble. Despite daunting circumstances, they worked hard to hone their craft after the troops were transported to the island of Lemnos in March of 1921 and freed in Bulgaria later that year. They attracted influential supporters who, cognizant of their precarious hand to mouth existence, exerted strenuous efforts to help them undertake a professional career.2 It began with a groundbreaking concert at Vienna's Hofburg Palace on July 4, 1923. Still dressed in their shabby military attire, they sang so expressively and with such superb technique that the huge audience, which had attended mainly out of curiosity, was ecstatic.3 They became internationally famous overnight, were booked for tours immediately, and would enthrall millions of people in the non-Soviet world for nearly sixty years (Figure 1). [End Page 517] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. The choir in Bregenz, Austria, December 1923. Serge Jaroff, who was of very short stature, is sitting in the middle of the front row.4 As founding members occasionally left the choir, Jaroff was able to replace them with outstanding professionals from the Russian émigré community. Basile Bolotine was one of them (Figure 2). He joined the choir in 1930, and was already the featured falsetto soloist in their 1930 recording of Aliabiev's "The Nightingale."6 He would go on to play a vital role in their stellar career, last singing with them around 1970. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 2. Bolotine in his Cossack uniform, 1930s.5 There is very little information about Bolotine's life. He was born in Kiev, Ukraine on January 1, 1895.7 He, too, had fought on the losing side of the Russian Civil War and escaped from Russia in 1919.8 His recorded legacy attests that he was a highly trained singer, but no information has come to light about his musical background except that he was a tenor soloist in another Cossack choir before joining Jaroff's ensemble.9 He married a woman named Ksenia in Yugoslavia in 1921, and their son, Vladimir, was born in 1922. Any exile who had opposed the Bolsheviks was cruelly deprived of Russian citizenship in 1922. Thus, Jaroff's choristers, although based in Berlin for years, were stateless. Providentially, however, their untenable situation would improve dramatically after 1930. In the fall of that year, they began to make annual tours of the United States with phenomenal success (Figure 3). Dismayed by ominous military buildups in Europe, and encouraged by admirers, Jaroff and his singers decided to move their base of operations from Berlin to New York City and seek American...