Lina Prokofiev
| Lina Prokofiev | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Carolina Codina 21 October 1897 Madrid, Spain |
| Died |
3 January 1989 (aged 91) London |
| Spouse(s) | Sergei Prokofiev |
| Children |
Sviatoslav Prokofiev (b. 1924) Oleg Prokofiev (b. 1928) |
Lina Prokofiev (born Carolina Codina, 21 October 1897 – 3 January 1989) was a Spanish singer and the wife of Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. She spent eight years in the Soviet Gulag.
Life
Carolina Codina was born in Madrid on 21 October 1897 to Olga (née Nemïsskaya) and Juan Codina. Both of her parents were singers, her mother from Ukraine and her father from Spain. Carolina traveled with her parents to Russia when she was young. The family lived in Switzerland before sailing across the Atlantic on the Statendam to New York City in 1907. Lina graduated from Commercial High School in 1913.[1]
She worked for a month as an assistant to Russian socialist Catherine Breshkovsky in 1919.[2]
She married Prokofiev in 1923. Her stage name was Lina Llubera.[3]
By around 1943, Sergei's relationship with the 25-year-old writer Mira Mendelson (1915–1968) had finally led to his separation from his wife Lina, although they were never technically divorced. Prokofiev tried to persuade Lina and their sons to accompany him as evacuees out of Moscow, but Lina opted to stay.[4] On 20 February 1948, Lina was arrested for 'espionage', as she tried to send money to her mother in Spain. She was sentenced to 20 years, but was eventually released after Joseph Stalin's death in 1953 and in 1974 left the Soviet Union.[5]
Lina outlived her estranged husband by many years, dying in London on 3 January 1989.[6] Royalties from her late husband's music provided her with a modest income. Their sons Sviatoslav (1924–2010), an architect, and Oleg (1928–1998), an artist, painter, sculptor and poet, dedicated a large part of their lives to the promotion of their father's life and work.[7]
Notes
- ↑ Morrison 2013, pp. 19–20
- ↑ Morrison 2013, p. 25
- ↑ Prokofiev Diaries 1915-1923, trans. Phillips: p. 428.
- ↑ Morrison 2008, p. 177
- ↑ Prokofiev Biography: Twilight (1945–1953). Prokofiev.org (1953-03-05). Retrieved on 28 August 2010.
- ↑ "Lina Prokofiev, 91, Widow of the Composer". The New York Times. January 5, 1989. Archived from the original on 2013-03-24.
- ↑ Norris, Geoffrey (23 January 2003). "My father was naïve". The Daily Telegraph (London). Retrieved 23 May 2010.
References
- Morrison, Simon (2008). The People's Artist: Prokofiev's Soviet Years. Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-518167-8.
- Morrison, Simon (2013). The Love and Wars of Lina Prokofiev: The Story of Lina and Serge Prokofiev. Random House. ISBN 978-1-4481-5626-9.