On September 10, Igor Kostolevsky celebrates his 75th birthday. Photo: Sergey PETROV
Igor Kostolevsky is still in excellent creative shape, girls still fall in love with him, and directors continue to overwhelm him with work.
He began acting in films early and immediately in leading roles. Either it is the young and romantic Decembrist Annenkov (“The Star of Captivating Happiness”), then the Komsomol leader Yevgeny Stoletov (“And that’s all about him”), then the Soviet intelligence officer Andrei Borodin (“Tehran-43 ”), or the naïve and touching cosmography professor (“Nameless Star”)
In the theater. Mayakovsky is the main artist. Although at first his life in the theater was not easy. He started as an extra. For a long time, the chief director, Andrei Goncharov, did not entrust him with serious roles. Even when the young Kostolevsky was recognized on the street and fans stood guard at the service entrance, in the play “Conversation with Socrates” he moved a furka across the stage on which Armen Dzhigarkhanyan was sitting. Dzhigarkhanyan, of course, played Socrates.
And yet, he always considered theater to be the most important of the arts. He was delighted when, in the late 1980s, he was offered a contract in Norway, where he played one of his best roles, the Messenger in Aeschylus’ Oresteia, in a performance that lasted 6 hours. When he returned to Moscow six months later, he was invited by the famous German theater director Peter Stein. And also in the “Orestiad” of Apollo. Who else should I entrust this role to? And only after that he began to really work in his theater.
Kostolevsky does not cling to his external data, which are still impressive, and tries himself in different roles, which the viewer does not always accept.
For example, in the premiere play “Love According to Marquez”, released on the occasion of its anniversary (production director Yegor Peregudov), Kostolevsky plays a 90-year-old man. He comes on stage with prosthetic makeup, gray hair and a shuffling gait. His youth and his years of maturity passed stormily: 514 women were known by the sad wise Gabito of him. But no family, no love, no affection. He still believes that everything is ahead. He calls his 90-year-old friend, the brothel owner Rosa Cabarcas (played by Olga Prokofieva) and asks her for a gift for her anniversary: a night of love with a young virgin…
In the premiere work “Love According to Márquez”, released on the occasion of the actor’s anniversary, Kostolevsky plays a 90-year-old man. Photo: Sergey PETROV
At the same time, in life Kostolevsky is not at all like his hero. He is married to a French woman, the lovely Consuelo de Aviland, to whom he has been devoted for 25 years. And he says that he is happy: near him is his beloved wife, who understands him and helps him in all matters. “When I saw her for the first time, my heart sank. And that moment decided everything,” Kostolevsky once admitted to KP. It was a difficult period in his life, he was invaded by doubts, both creative and personal. He was married to Mayakovsky Theater actress Elena Romanova. But his marriage was on the verge of breaking down. And then he met a woman with the divine name Consuelo.
There are at least two versions of their relationship, both put forward by Kostolevsky himself. According to a source, the Frenchwoman acted in Valery Fokin’s play “The Diary of Tatyana Repina.” Igor Matveevich saw her on stage and “realized that she was coming from above…”. According to another version, their meeting took place at the Pushkin Theater, where Consuelo arrived as a businesswoman from the Avignon Festival. And she came to see the play in which Kostolevsky acted.
Be that as it may, they met at the theater. And it is even strange that he met his French wife only when he was 50 years old. From the outside it is easy to imagine that he was condemned to marry a foreigner. He has French charm. And even luxurious hair, like Joe Dassin’s. Despite their purely theatrical relationship, Consuelo put pressure on him in Moscow and, incidentally, promoted the idea of reestablishing railway communication between Russia and France.
After that, he traveled to Moscow from Paris by train. Unlike my husband, who travels by plane the old-fashioned way.
He is conservative, although he says that over the years he has become less categorical and features that were not characteristic of him before have appeared.
His colleagues call him a sensitive romantic and a Samoyed with eternal doubts.
Mayakovsky Theater actress Tatyana Orlova played his wife in his graduation performance “Savage” during her student years.
“He has an incredibly fantastic ability to work; calling him a workaholic is an understatement,” Orlova testifies. -He can rehearse and play non-stop. As they say now, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
I heard approximately the same recommendation from another artist, Olga Prokofieva. She collaborates with Kostolevsky in several performances. Her mother, Mrs. Higgins, plays Pygmalion.
“Igor gained popularity thanks to his work,” says Olga Prokofieva. – As a partner he is wonderful, he loves theater and is behind it like a mountain. What else is he? Kind, detail-oriented, disciplined, intelligent…
And we had no doubts. Therefore, we wish Igor Matveevich physical and creative longevity. By the way, he has every reason for this: his mother lived to be 101 years old.
And one more interesting fact. Igor Kostolevsky and the former Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Mikhail Shvydkoy are classmates and schoolmates, they even sat at the same desk. In previous years, they celebrated their birthdays together (Shvydkim is five days older than Kostolevsky).
