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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Nikolay Momot (1932)





Born in the village of Grodovka, Donetsk Region. Lyric-dramatic tenor. People's artist of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (1976).
His parents loved music and singing, especially folk songs, and young Nikolay would sing along with them or accompany them on a mouth-organ. He also often sang with his friends.
Graduated from a Railroad College in Simferopol. His first profession was a railroad worker, later a locomotive driver in Jasenovatski branch of Donetsk Railroads. Sang in an amateur troupe of the Railroad School.
Participated in the VI World Festival of Youth and Students in Moscow and drew a lot of attention with his beautiful voice.
He wanted to begin studying music, but had a contract according to which he still had to work for 4 more years in the railroad depot. He asked the administration to let him go, but they blatantly refused. Momot was not about to give up, and went straight to the chief of Donetsk Railroads, Yakov Krivenko. The high-ranking official treated him very cordially and released him from his contract, wishing him well in his new beginning.
Went to Saint-Petersburg conservatorium and was accepted immediately after his voice was first heard, without the regular preliminary tests. The piece he sang before the admission board was the famous Ukranian folk song “Dark Brows, Brown Eyes”. The board members were shocked to hear he did not even know notes.
In 1965 graduated from Saint-Petersburg conservatory (class of N.G.Rishanov and A.K.Alexandrovich). It so happened that Momot studied alongside the later famous singers Elena Obrazcova, Evgeniy Nesterenko, Alexej Seleznev, Irina Bogacheva, Vladimir Atlantov. During his years of study Momot had to work to support himself, working as a loader in the city port. In the conservatory he also studied with the Czech teacher Pshemesele Koci, who tried to instill in the young singer the understanding of spinto and lamento sound.
After finishing the conservatory, Momot became the soloist of the Central Ensemble of the Soviet Forces in Germany. On one occasion Leonid Brezhnev, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, attended a concert of the ensemble. He was impressed with Momot’s singing and gave an order to give him an award.
From 1969 - soloist of the Donetzk Opera Theater, where he worked for 35 years. His first role there was Johnson in Puccini’s “The Girl of the West”.
Performed on the stages of the Saint-Petersburg Mariinsky Opera Theater, Kiev Opera Theater, the Bolshoi Theater. Also sang in Belorussia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldavia, Turkemnistan. He was also among the handful of singers that agreed to go to Afghanistan and sing to the Soviet soldiers fighting there.
Toured abroad. On one occasion in a concert in Italy he had to sing an aria from “La Boheme” 8 times, on the demand of the audience.
Sang in more than 30 leading roles. Among them: Othello, Canio, Cavaradossi, Alfred, Herman, Don Carlos, Manrico, Andre, Rudolf, Jose, Pinkerton, Johnson, Vodemon, Turridu, Edgar, Andre Chenier.
The legendary Russian tenor Ivan Kozlovsky thought highly of Momot, and once even told him that he should have been a soloist in the Bolshoi Theater. Another legendary Russian tenor – Anatoliy Orfenov - described Momot’s singing as “magnificent”, noting how melodic, convincing and easy it was. He also thought that Momot deserved to be a soloist in the Bolshoi.
If Momot would of made a clear decision to make all that is necessary in order to be accepted to the Bolshoi Opera Theater, he would of probably achieved that goal, but he was very much attached to his home town and did not want to leave it.
In 1975 - started teaching in Donetsk Musical-Pedagogical Seminary, where he is a professor. Among his students: Fatima Kasyanenko, Vladimir Hamraev, Valentina Fedeneva, Anna Maksudova, Victor Shevkun, Valentina Perova, Vadim Babunov, Nikolay Melnichuk, Alisia Peteckaya.