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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Virgilius Noreika (1935)





Born on September 22nd in Shaulyay (Lithuania). People's artist of the USSR (1970).
In 1958 graduated from Vilnus city Conservatory (class of K.Petrauskas).
His debut was in the Lithuanian Opera Theater as a student, in 1957.
In 1959 learnt with V.V.Barsova in Moscow.
In 1965-1966 went to train in La-Scala, where he was even asked to perform in the role of Pinkerton in “Madame Butterfly”.
Sang in opera theaters of different cities of the USSR, among which was the Bolshoi, where he took part in 8 operas, and also in Berlin, Budapest, Prague, and other cities.
In 1975-1991 - art director and head of Lithuanian Opera Theater.
Among his roles: Lensky, Vladimir Igorevich, Boyan, Duke, Almaviva, Rudolf, Volodya Gavrilov ("Not Just Love"), Tadas ("Lost Birds" by Laurushas), Skudutis ("Dalya" by Dvarionas).
Gave more than 800 solo concerts.
Starting from 1974 Noreika is the chairman of the Theatrical Society of Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic.
He is the head of the faculty of solo singing in Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater.
Among his many students were Sergey Larin, Algis Janutas, Edgaras Montvidas.
For two years he taught and the Latino-American Singing Academy in Venezuela. For 5 years he perfected the skills of the soloists of the “Estonia” Opera Theater in Estonia and was the head of the Vocal Department in the Music Academy of Estonia.
Received the State Premium of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (1960, 1970).