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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Azat Abbasov (1925) 





Born on January 19th in Elabuga. Lyric-dramatic tenor. People's Artist of the USSR (1977).
His family was a musical one - he was raised on the tradition of Tatar folk singing.
After finishing only 7 classes of school, he started studying in Kazan Aviation College, obtained his degree, and in 1943 started working as an aviation designer in the Kazan Helicopter Building Factory.  
A family friend, the composer Salih Saydashev, having heard his singing, gave him an advice to study vocal. In 1944 he entered the Tchaikovsky National Opera Studio of the Moscow conservatory (class of S.N.Strelcov), and after finishing it got back to Kazan in 1950.
In 1950—90 - soloist of the Tatarian Opera Theater in Kazan. Performed in more than 100 roles, the most memorable of which were in the operas of Russian composers of the 20th century.
Among his roles: Nadir, Sinodal, Harlequin, Rudolf, Faust, Richard, Duke, Alfred, Cavaradossi, Pinkerton, Shuyskiy, Imposter Prince, Vladimir, Jalil ("Jalil", N.Ziganov), Jik ("Altynchech", N.Ziganov), Tyulak ("Tyulak i Su-Slu", N.Ziganov), Samat ("Samat", H.Valiullin), Bulat ("Naemshchik", S.Saydashev), Galimdzan and Karim-bay ("Bashmachki", G.Faizi).
Had a remarkably high vocal culture, an impeccable diction.
Performed tatarian folk songs and songs of soviet composers.
Received the State Premium of the Tatar ASSR (1971).
Was also a prominent public figure.
Died on 11 of October 2006.