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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Isidor Bolotin (1907)





Lyric-dramatic tenor. Was the first one to be awarded the title of People's Artist of the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (1944).
Was born to a Jewish family, and his original name was Israel Bolotniy.
Still as a child decided to become a musician. Became addicted to opera at a very young age and would many times spend the little money he had just to buy a ticket to an opera staging.
As a young man worked at a wood processing plant and sang at an amateur troupe headed by Evgeniy Kikotskiy, who later became a famous composer, and who supported and encouraged the young singer to further develop his skills.
In 1927 Bolotin went from his home town of Bobruysk to study in Minsk Musical College. His talent was then noticed by the famous Russian tenor Anton Bonanich, a former colleague of Chaliapin.
Bolotin was a member of the pioneer group of singers that were the founders of the Belorussian national opera. From 1933 - soloist of the Belorussian Opera Theater.
During his 30 year career he performed in 60 leading roles, among which were: Faust, Werther, Cavaradossi, Werther, Lensky, Dubrovsky, Vodemon.
It was many times noted that one of the biggest merits of his singing was its enormous emotional power.
Almost all of his family members were killed by Nazis in World War II in the town of Bobruysk. It was a great blow for him and he subsequently suffered two heart attacks.
Performed in Moscow, St-Petersburg and other cities with great success.
Bolotin was also a member of the Belorussian Soviet Socialistic Republic parliament and a prominent public figure.