Maria Kuznetsova - Life in Exile

Life in Exile

After the Revolution in 1917, Kuznetsova fled Russia, making a suitably dramatic escape dressed as a cabin boy and hidden inside a steamer trunk aboard a ship headed for Sweden. Her first performance in exile was with the Stockholm Opera in 1919.

Later that year, she was engaged at the Gaiété-Lyrique in Paris, singing alongside Lucien Fugère, Maria Barrientos, Lydia Lipkowska, Georgette Leblanc, André Gilly, and Vanni Marcoux.

In 1920, Kuznetsova participated in a large a charity concert at the Paris Opéra along with Vera Karalli and others, to raise funds to aid impoverished fellow Russian émigrés.

Kuznetsova's other performances during the 1920s were of a more practical and less philanthropic nature. She organized private concerts and recitals where she would sing Russian and Spanish folk music, Gypsy music, and opera. At these recitals she would often perform Spanish folk dances and Flamenco after singing. In addition to these private performances, Kuznetsova worked as a soloist at Covent Garden, the Copenhagen Opera House, and other theaters and opera houses throughout Europe. She founded the Theatre of Miniatures with Léon Bakst in 1922, where, for a very brief time, she performed.

In 1927, with the help of the Ukrainian baritone Mikhail Karakash and his wife Elizaveta Popova, and of the Count Alexis Ceretelli, Kuznetsova founded the Opéra Russe à Paris. The Opéra Russe staged a number of ballets and operas in London, Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Milan, and as far afield as Buenos Aires and Japan, between 1927 and 1933.

Kuznetsova gave fewer performances after 1933, but as late as 1947 her name appeared on the program of a choreographic competition held in Copenhagen, hosted by Rolf de Maré. Her contribution to the event was described quite simply: "Songs and dances of Spain, by Maria Kousnetzoff and a flamenco group."