Isaak Osipovich Dunayevsky (Russian:Исаак Осипович Дунаевскийlistenⓘ; alsotransliterated asDunaevski orDunaevskiy; 30 January [O.S. 18 January] 1900 – 25 July 1955) was aSoviet film composer and conductor of the 1930s and 1940s, who composed music foroperetta and film comedies, frequently working with the film directorGrigori Aleksandrov.[1][2][3]
Dunayevsky was born to aJewish family inLokhvytsia in thePoltava Governorate of theRussian Empire (nowMyrhorod Raion,Poltava Oblast,Ukraine) in 1900. He studied at theKharkiv Musical School in 1910 where he studiedviolin underKonstanty Gorski andJoseph Achron. During this period he started to study the theory of music underSemyon Bogatyrev (1890–1960). He graduated in 1919 from theKharkiv National Kotlyarevsky University of Arts. At first he was a violinist, the leader of the orchestra in Kharkov. Then he started a conducting career. In 1924 he went toMoscow to run the Theatre Hermitage. In 1929 he worked for the first time for a music hall ("To the icy place") with theMoscow music hall and began collaborating withLeonid Utesov.[4] Later, he worked inLeningrad (1929–1941) as a director and conductor of theSaint Petersburg Music Hall (1929–34), and then moved to Moscow to work on his own operettas and film music.[5]
Dunayevsky wrote 14 operettas, 3 ballets, 3 cantatas, 80 choruses, 80 songs and romances, music for 88 plays and 42 films, 43 compositions for light music orchestra and 12 for jazz orchestra, 17melodeclamations, 52 compositions for symphony orchestra and 47 piano compositions and a string quartet. Among other works, he set to musicMikhail Svetlov's ‘Song of Kakhovka’, written in 1935, which became extremely popular.[6]
He was one of the first composers in theSoviet Union to start usingjazz. He wrote the music for three of the most important films of the pre-war Stalinist era,Jolly Fellows,Circus and the film said to be Stalin's favorite filmVolga-Volga, all directed byGrigori Aleksandrov.
In a reply to the British bookThe World of Music, he listed the following as his chief works:The Golden Valley operetta (1937),The Free Wind operetta (1947), and music to the filmsCircus (1935) andThe Kuban Cossacks (1949).
He died of a heart attack in Moscow in 1955. His last piece, the operettaWhite Acacia (1955), was left unfinished at his death. It was completed by Kirill Molchanov and staged on 15 November 1955, in Moscow.
A previously unknown opera librettoRachel (1943) byMikhail Bulgakov, was later found in his archive. The libretto was based onGuy de Maupassant'sMademoiselle Fifi and was published in a book byNaum Shafer (see references and links below).
A book of his essays and memoirs was published in 1961.
Dunayevsky was named aPeople's Artist of the RSFSR in 1950. He was twice awarded theStalin Prize (1941, 1951) and received two orders and many medals (includingOrder of the Red Banner of Labour,Order of the Red Star, andOrder of the Badge of Honour).
The asteroid (4306) Dunayevsky is named in his honour.[7]
His brother Semyon (1906–1986) was a conductor; another brother, Zinovy (1908–1981), was a composer.
Dunayevsky was married once. He had a son Yevgeny (b. 1932) by his wife Zinaida Sudeikina, and another sonMaksim (b. 1945) by his lover, the ballerina Zoya Pashkova (1922—30.01.1991).[8] Maksim is also a well-known composer.
The American journalistVladislav Davidzon is a descendent of the composer.[9]
The American drag performerPlane Jane (Andrew Dunayevskiy), who appeared onSeason 16 ofRuPaul's Drag Race, is a distant relative of Dunayevsky.[10]
Also:
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