Dear Gentlemen,

In this blog I have tried to assemble a list of prominent Soviet tenors – tenors behind the Iron Curtain – singers the careers of which went largely obscure from the Western public because of the political realities of the era they were part of – realities which dictated the detachment of the Soviet opera from its Western counterpart.
It just so happened that these times were the Golden Era of the Russian Opera, and the voices that were hidden behind the Iron Curtain were of a remarkable quality.
In addition to that, the revival of these voices in the West is also of much interest because of the unique character and the idiosyncratic nature of the Soviet school of operatic singing, which was different from the Western in many aspects.
By “voices behind the Iron Curtain” I mean those artists whose entire career or a significant part of it developed during the most ideologically radical years of the Soviet rule and the Soviet Union’s disconnection from the West, and not those who had already established a name for themselves in an earlier period, or those who have only started their way in Soviet Union’s very last days or are singing well into the present – both are more familiar to the Western public.
In cases of some of the singers the information and the recordings presented here is all that is left of them, and in some cases appears for the first time in the internet, or in English and for the Western public.

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Sergey Danielyan (1929)





Born on 31st of July in Baku. People’s Artist of the Armenian Soviet Socialict Republic (1967).
In 1957 graduated from Baku Musical College.
In 1969 graduated from the Faculty of Directing of Yerevan Theatrical Institute.
In 1974 graduated from Yerevan conservatory.
In 1956 made his debut in Baku Opera Theater.
In 1957, for having extraordinarily beautiful voice he was invited to the Armenian Theater of Opera and Ballet, where he quickly turned one of its leading singers.
Among his roles: Herman, Manrico, Rhadames, Othello, Don Carlos, Richard, Canio, Cavaradossi, Jose, Tannhauser, Oedipus rex (“Oedipus rex”, I.Stravinsky), Ovod (“Ovod”), Alexey (“Optimisticheskaya tragediya”), Mindia (“Mindia”), Abovyan (“Abovyan”).
Gave concerts.
Made many tours abroad and received countless honorary awards and prizes.
From 1968 taught in the Komitas Yerevan State conservatory (professor), where among his students were many of the most famous present Armenian opera singers.
Died on 4th of December 2009 in Yerevan, and the ceremony of his burial was carried with state honors.
 

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