Meliton Balanchivadze

Meliton Balanchivadze was a Georgian composer and one of the creators of the national opera tradition. He was born on 5 January 1863 in the village of Banoja, in Kutais Governorate of the Russian Empire, in the family of a priest. He later became known also as the father of the choreographer George Balanchine and the composer Andria Balanchivadze. In 1933 he was named People's Artist of the Georgian SSR.

He studied at the Kutaisi theological school, sang in a church choir, and later in the choir of the Tiflis Theological Seminary. In 1880 he entered the choir of the Tiflis Opera Theatre. During this period he became deeply interested in Georgian musical folklore and, in order to popularize it, organized an ethnographic choir. His work with the choir involved arranging folk melodies and required mastery of compositional technique.

In 1889 Balanchivadze entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in composition, V. Samus in singing, and Y. Iogansen. His studies with Rimsky-Korsakov, as well as his friendship with Anatoly Lyadov and Nikolai Findeizen, helped him shape his own artistic position. At its core was the conviction that Georgian folk songs should be organically connected with the means of expression developed in broader European musical practice.

From 1895 to 1917 he organized choirs performing Georgian music in cities across Russia, wrote articles for the Russian Musical Gazette and the journal Theatre and Art, and patronized Georgian Evenings in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Throughout his creative life he collected Georgian folk songs, organized and led Georgian ethnographic choirs, and became the first among Georgian composers to present solo, ensemble, choral, and orchestral arrangements of song folklore.

Balanchivadze was one of the founders of Georgian national opera and the author of the first Georgian opera, Darejan the Cunning, based on Akaki Tsereteli's poem Tamara the Cunning, completed in 1897. The first version of the opera was created with the participation of Nikolai Tcherepnin, and the second with the participation of his son Andria Balanchivadze. After Balanchivadze's death, the work remained for many years in the repertory of the Tbilisi State Opera and Ballet Theatre named after Zakaria Paliashvili, and gramophone records were issued with excerpts from the opera.

In 1918 he founded a music school in Kutaisi and became its first director. With his assistance, music schools and colleges were opened in Samtredia, Gori, Velistsikhe, and five music schools in Tiflis. From 1921 to 1924 he served as head of the music department of the People's Commissariat of Education of the Georgian SSR. From 1923 he lived on Giorgi Akhvlediani Street in Tbilisi.

Balanchivadze was married twice and had children from both marriages, including George Balanchine and Andria Balanchivadze. He received the Order of the Red Banner of Labour on 14 January 1937 for outstanding services in the development of Georgian opera, Georgian music, songs, and dances. He died on 21 November 1937 in Kutaisi and was buried in the pantheon at Mtsvanekvavila in that city.

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