Coretti Utina - Coretti Arle Titz's career in Imperial Russia

(1904-1920)

After touring two years with the, Louisiana Amazon Guards, Corette Alefred and another girl, Emma Harris from the vaudeville troupe departed Germany in the spring of 1904 for St. Petersburg, Russia. Initially opening at the Aquarium Gardens (Feb.1904) as the 'Kristy Kreol' duo, they were soon joined by Fannie Smith, who joined them the following month for an engagement in Helsinki and at Moscow's Aumont Theatre. 

During the winter of 1904, the girls joined Georgette Harvey and her Creole Belles in St. Petersburg for three months at the Krestovsky Theatre. The engagement ended abruptly on January 22, 1905 with the horrific event known as Bloody Sunday. Emma Harris organized the Harris Trio (with Corette & Fannie) and quickly returned to Moscow's Aumont Theatre. The trio lasted a month, afterwards Emma left for her own solo tour across Siberia. Corette and Fannie, as Koretty und Kreolin appeared in Poland to much success throughout the summer before returning for another series of engagements in Russia.

In 1908/09, Coretti met a wealthy businessman named Utin during a performance in St. Petersburg, five months later the couple married. Under the name, Coretti Genrichnova Utina, she continued touring across the Russian Empire, singing in Russian and French. In 1910, after a trip home to New York, Coretti began to dream of opening a musical school for children. Her touring became much more hectic afterwards, particularly performing across the Ukraine and the Baltic coast. Corette divorced her husband in the fall of 1913, as she enrolled into the Imperial Conservatory. There she met pianist and fellow student, Boris Borisovich Titz. So smitten was Boris, that the following year he offered his hand in marriage, however Coretti was still distraught over her previous marriage and refused. 

Upon completing her studies in 1916, she appeared in a series of performances alongside nearly 100 other students from the conservatory at the Theater of Musical Drama. The range of programs organized was very wide. The participants of the public concerts at the Musical Drama Theatre were well-known singers Zoya Lodiy, M. Brian, O. Butomo-Nazvanova, E. Donner, Coretti Utina (Arle Titz), A. Alexandrovich. V. Voitenko, P. Zhuravlenko, M. Zakopayko, P. Kurzner, N. Rozhdestvensky and others, cellist Yu. Bildstein (Van Oren), violinist I. Lesman, pianists M. Bichter , N. Kasatkina-Mikhaleva, composer and the critic V. Karatygin and others. As a pianist accompanist, sometimes Nikolai Burenin performed at concerts.

The following year, Coretti entertained the Bolshevik leaders at private vaudeville shows organized by pianist Nikolai Burenin at the industrial plants on the outskirts of Petrograd. Late 1917, despite Ukraine's political issues, she followed Mikhail Bichter & the Philharmonic Society Orchestra to Kharkiv where she performed frequently in musical productions organized at the Kharkiv Conservatory. From 1918-20, in-between her appearances in Kharkiv, toured the Ukraine apart of the Political Dept. Concert Brigade of the Southwestern Front. She performed for the Red Army in barracks and canteens, as they fought against occupying Germans and White Army troops.

Before departing Ukraine, in early 1920 Coretti made her triumphal appearance in the Philharmonic Orchestra's production of 'Aida', which was extremely well received by the Bolsheviks and often seen as her debut into the artistic world of the Soviet Union. This success was followed by her marriage to Boris Titz and her enrollment into the Moscow Musical Conservatory where she remained until her appearance at the Bolshoi Theatre in the spring of 1924 as Coretti Arle-Titz.

Coretti & Boris Titz at home in Moscow (1939)