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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Viktor Guryev (1914)



Born in Riga, Latvia. Lyric-dramatic tenor. People’s Artist of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (1960).
During World War I his family moved to the city of Narva, where his parents started working in the weaving industry. His family was very poor and as a small child, the youngest of five, he had to work as a delivery boy and later as a mechanic and locksmith assistant. As he was working in a factory he participated in amateur musical activities, playing mandolin and guitar and at some point started singing. In 1937 he was invited to play in the popular Kirillov mandolin quintet.
     In 1940, in spite of great competition, was accepted to the vocal faculty of the Tallinn State Conservatory, where he studied with the famous Estonian baritone Tiit Kuusik. His studies were interrupted by the start of World War II.
In 1942-45 he sang in an ensemble, and in 1945-1950 was the soloist of the Academic Choir of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Graduated from Tallinn city conservatory in 1951 (class of M.Pats).
In 1949-1970 was a leading soloist of the “Estonia” Opera Theater. Among his roles: The Yurodiviy ("Boris Godunov"), Imposter Prince ("Boris Godunov"), Lenskiy ("Eugene Onegin"), German ("Queen of Spades"), Paolo ("Francesca da Rimini"), Alfred ("Traviata").
     In 1956-1963 was teaching in Tallinn Musical School, and in 1963-1985 - in the Tallinn State Conservatory, serving as the head of the Vocal Department from 1968 to 1970 and from 1970 to 1982 - the rector of the Conservatory. Among his disciples were Ivo Spruce, Anu Weight and Voldemar Kuslap.
Laureate of the all-USSR competition of performers of soviet songs (1st premium, 1956).
Had very warm relations with the famous Estonian baritone Georg Ots and frequently sang with him.
Died on 14th of October 1985 in Narva.