Lydia Lipkowska

Lydia Yakolevna Lipkowska (née Marschner; 10 May 1882 – 22 March 1958) was a Russian operatic soprano born in Babino, in the Bessarabia Governorate of the Russian Empire, now part of Ukraine, to the family of a rural teacher. A lyric coloratura soprano, she built an international career across the first half of the twentieth century, performing at major opera houses including the Mariinsky Theatre, the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House, La Scala, and the Opéra-Comique.

Lipkowska received her conservatory training in Saint Petersburg, studying under Natalia Iretskaya, herself a pupil of voice teacher Pauline Viardot. She was engaged at the Mariinsky Theatre during two periods, from 1906 to 1908 and again from 1911 to 1913. Her roles there included Gilda in Rigoletto, Juliette in Roméo et Juliette, Marfa in The Tsar's Bride, Micaëla in Carmen, Olga in Ivan IV, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, and the title roles in Iolanta, Lakmé, Lucia di Lammermoor, and The Snow Maiden. In 1909, prior to traveling to the United States, she appeared in Paris, making her debut at the Théâtre du Châtelet before performing at the Opéra-Comique as Lakmé and at the Paris Opera as Gounod's Juliette.

Lipkowska joined the Metropolitan Opera in New York City for the 1909 to 1911 seasons, making her debut there on November 18, 1909, as Violetta in La Traviata, with Enrico Caruso singing the role of Alfredo. Concurrently, she was a member of the Boston Opera Company for the 1909/1910 and 1910/1911 seasons, debuting in Boston in November 1909. Her Boston repertoire included Gilda, Lakmé, Rosina in The Barber of Seville, Violetta, and the title roles in Manon and Lucia di Lammermoor. She also performed with the Chicago Grand Opera Company in 1910. During her time in Boston, The Lenox Hotel placed menu items named after her — the "cup Lydia" and the "Soufflé à la Lipkowska" — prompting Lipkowska to petition a judge for an injunction against the hotel, arguing that the items were injuring her reputation and holding her up to ridicule.

In 1910, she returned to the Opéra-Comique to perform Verdi's Violetta. The following year she made her debut at the Royal Opera House in London as Mimì in Puccini's La bohème, and her debut at the Vienna Volksoper in the title role of Bizet's Carmen. She returned to the Royal Opera House that same year as Violetta, Gilda, and in the title role of Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's Il segreto di Susanna for the United Kingdom premiere of that work in July 1911. In 1912, Lipkowska charged New York gangster Sam Schepps with usury, alleging that she had borrowed $12,000 from him, left two diamonds worth $80,000 as security, and that he demanded $5,000 in interest before returning the jewels. She also returned to Henry Russell's Boston Opera Company for the 1912/1913 season that year.

Lipkowska married Russian baritone Georges Baklanoff in the years before World War I, though the marriage later ended in divorce. The two appeared together in numerous operas at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, frequently collaborating as well with tenor Giovanni Martinelli. In 1914, she sang in the world premiere of Amilcare Ponchielli's I Mori di Valenza at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo. During the 1914/1915 season she was a resident artist at La Scala in Milan, where she continued vocal training with Vittorio Vanza.

When the Russian Revolution began in 1917, Lipkowska was again engaged at the Mariinsky Theatre. Following the Bolshevik seizure of power during the October Revolution, she fled Petrograd with her daughter, Aidenna, eventually reaching Odessa by way of a remote area of the Caucasus region. In Odessa she met French military officer Pierre Bodin, who secured passage for Lipkowska and her daughter on a ship to Constantinople in April 1919. She subsequently married Bodin and emigrated to France in 1919.

Lipkowska traveled to New York in February 1920 aboard the RMS Adriatic of the White Star Line. In September of that year she sang Gilda in Rigoletto with the San Carlo Opera Company in Manhattan. In 1921, she appeared on Broadway at the Knickerbocker Theatre in the title role of Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow, and that same year performed a concert of Russian and French opera arias at Carnegie Hall. Throughout the 1920s she performed at various theatres in the United States and Europe, concluding her performance career with a tour of the Soviet Union in 1928 and 1929.

Following her retirement from the stage, Lipkowska settled in Romania and worked as a voice teacher; among her students was soprano Virginia Zeani. She came out of retirement in 1941 for a final performance at the Odessa Opera, singing the role of Violetta. In 1945 she relocated to Paris, later moved to Milan, and ultimately settled in Lebanon, where she spent her final years. Lipkowska died in Beirut at the age of 75 on 22 March 1958.