Galiya Mutygullovna Kaibitskaya is a Soviet actress of Tatar origin and an opera singer with a magnificent coloratura soprano, sister of the "Tatar Chaliapin" singer Kamil Mutyga. Galia was the first of all the leaders of the Tatar ASSR to receive the title of People's Artist.
Childhood and youth
The biography of Galiya Kaybitskaya begins in Uralsk at the very beginning of the 20th century. She was born in the spring of 1905. The father of the girl Mutygulla Tukhvatullin-khazrat was a prominent religious figure, imam-khatib of the Red Mosque, the founder of the Mutygiya men's madrasah, where he taught personally. His wife Gizzinas founded a madrasah for girls. The spouses, who knew Arabic and Russian culture well, made a huge contribution to the development of Islamic education in the Russian Empire.
The family had 15 children, eight of whom died in childhood. Galia's mother and father were fond of classical music and from childhood instilled in children a love of creativity, giving them all an excellent education. When Galia turned 15, his older brother Kamil in his native Uralsk created the Workers' Arts Union, where he tried to attract creative youth. Galia, along with another brother, Adgam, joined the "union" from the first days of its existence and were the most active participants and agitators.
In 1922, the Tatar Theater College was opened in Kazan, where several children of Mutygulla and Gizzinas, including Galia, immediately went to study. Since 1923, the young actress began performing on the stage of the Tatar Academic Theater and at the same time taking vocal lessons at the Kazan School of Music. It was then that she finally decided on her future, deciding to become an opera singer and went to Moscow to continue her education.
Creative way
After graduating from the conservatory, Galia returned home and from 1938 to 1958 performed on the stage of the Opera and Ballet Theater. She performed absolutely all the parts intended for the coloratura soprano. Having become one of the most famous opera singers, Galiya Kaibitskaya became famous also as a performer of songs of her people and works of Soviet composers.
During the Great Patriotic War, Galia performed in hospitals, military units, supported soldiers in the most dangerous places of battles, without fear of any hardships. In 1943 alone, she gave more than a hundred concerts on the front lines. The singer was wounded and received a well-deserved state award. After the war, the singer returned to the Tatar Theater, where she continued her opera career. In 1963, she retired and began writing memoirs, which she could not finish.
Today her unpublished memoirs are on display in the house-museum dedicated to the great opera singer. It is located in the Tatar village of Bolshiye Kaibitsy.
Personal life and death
Galia met her husband, violinist and conductor, honored art worker Aukhadeev Ilyas Vakkasovich just before the war, when he was the chief conductor of her theater and director of the Kazan Musical College. They had three children. The couple raised two more adopted girls who were orphans after the war. Her husband died in 1968, and Galia passed away, surrounded by loving children and grandchildren, in 1993. She was buried in Kazan, where she lived in recent years.
