Piekha moved from a St. Petersburg apartment outside the city in 1999. She was given a plot of land in the usual gardening “North Samarka”, extreme to the forest, part of this forest Edita Stanislavovna rented for 49 years, as a result she had 20 acres of land. She calls her house a manor.
31 May 2014
The path on the site leads to a real forest
To make her look the way she looks now, I worked for her for ten years. I redid everything a lot of times, because I met professional builders only in the fifth year of my “construction of the century”.
The house is light green outside, inside the walls in many rooms are covered with light green wallpaper, a greenish sofa in the living room. Green is my color. It calms, and it seems to me, protects in difficult times. And my grandson Stas claims that this is the flower of hope. I am sure that your favorite colors determine the character of a person, his relationship with the world. Therefore, I settled myself outside the city in order to see the greenery more often.
The flower garden in front of the house pleases the eye of the hostess
I am inspired by nature. And I am glad that I have a living forest, and specially planted shrubs, and flower beds on my site. An assistant looks after flowers and flower beds. I would love to do it myself. But, alas, I cannot. Already at the age of 30, I was diagnosed with osteochondrosis of the spine. After all, I grew up during the war years, then they ate poorly, there was not enough calcium. And my bones are fragile, as thin as parchment. There have already been six fractures, so you have to take care of yourself all the time. Once at a concert I ran backstage (and they turned out to be wooden, only externally draped with cloth), hit hard and … broke three ribs. And I constantly say to myself: it is absolutely impossible for me to fall – neither in spirit, nor even more so physically.
Offstage, I’m a little wild. I don’t collect friends. I don’t have many guests at home.
Edita Piekha and her dog Fly
At the site I have a “pavilion of memories”, in which I keep all the gifts from the audience. My audience is not the wealthiest, and the gifts are usually modest. True, once during a concert the oilmen went on stage and put a raccoon coat on my shoulders. In Barnaul I was once presented with a beautiful mink jacket. In my museum there are both porcelain vases and dolls dressed like me. There is also the piano of my first husband and my first artistic director, San Sanych Bronevitsky. San Sanych played this instrument and composed songs for me. I have never allowed myself to transfer or throw anything away. Once from the stage, I said to the audience: “Thank you, someday this gift will speak with your voice.” A person is alive as long as he is remembered. It cannot be said that I have the Hermitage on the site, but there are enough “silent voices” there, which personify a good attitude towards me.
For example, many people know that I collect coffee cups, and they are often presented to me. A Palekh box with my portrait was presented by fans in 1967 for my 30th birthday. We collected money and sent it to Palekh with my photograph, and then presented this beauty on stage. There is also an inscription: “Leningraders who love you.” When I saw this thing, I was simply speechless.
Once upon a time in St. Petersburg there was a “queen of diamonds” – the artist Vera Nekhlyudova, who sang in the “Bear” restaurant for merchants, and they threw jewelry on the stage for her. Maybe, knowing about this story, the first mayor of the city Anatoly Sobchak awarded me the title of “Queen of the Song of St. Petersburg”. But Valentina Matvienko, being the governor, said: “You were not born in this city, therefore you cannot receive the title of an honorary citizen.” This is bureaucratic absurdity! However, the most valuable title for me is People’s Artist of the USSR, because it is tortured. They didn’t want to give it to me – they said that I was a foreigner. And at one of the concerts, my fan from Zhitomir took the stage and addressed the audience: “Please, stand up! Edita Stanislavovna, in the name of the Soviet people, we are assigning you the title of People’s Artist! ” After that, the regional party committee was bombarded with indignant letters. After a year and a half, I was still awarded this title. Thanks to my audience.