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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Nodar Andguladze (1927)






Dramatic tenor. People's Artist of Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (1965).
His father was also a famous tenor, and a legendary Georgian vocal teacher.
Studied singing, piano, and painting from a very early age.
Studied in the Philological Department of Tbilisi University, later becoming a lecturer of courses in philology. At the same time he studies in a Musical College in the class of piano and continues to develop his vocal abilities under the guidance of his father.
During his years in university he was a soloist in an amateur studential orchestra, which also made trips to other Republics of the USSR. During one of these trips his singing impressed the hosts so much that he was even offered to start singing in the Kiev Opera Theater. After such a success as an amateur the director and the leading conductor of the Tbilisi Opera Theater invite him to be an apprentice singer in the Theater. His debut was in the role of Jose in Bizet's "Carmen".
For three years - 1956-1959 - he works both as a lecturer and an opera soloist. He also takes part in multiple vocal competitions with great success. With the magnitude of his talent being apparent, the rector of the Tbilisi conservatory lets him begin his studies there without any preliminary tests.
Anguladze travels through the Soviet Union, at some point going to the Bolshoi Theater, where is received enthusiastically. In later years he would come back there with multiple appearances.
In 1960 he is chosen to go to Italy and perfect his skills in La-Scala together with a few other gifted Soviet young singers.
After returning to USSR he gets back to the Tbilisi Opera Theater.
Toured Germany, Yugoslavia, Italy, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Canada, Turkey, Italy, where his singing received the highest possible praise.
In 1968 started teaching in Tbilisi conservatory, turning the head of the vocal department in 1974, and a professor in 1982.
Worked tediously for many years researching the theory, history and methodology of vocal art, trying to develop a basis for a contemporary Georgian vocal school, which he thought should be a synthesis between the classical Italian vocal school and the Georgian singing tradition. Another important goal for him was to come to a general understanding of the relations between the scientific and the creative elements in vocal art.
Andguladze is a member of the juries of countless international vocal competitions, among which the Tchaikovsky Competition, the Glinka Competition and others.
Among his students: Z.Sotkilava, Ts.Tatishvili, D.Dashiev, V.Lomakin, E.Gutauskas, L.Ataneli, N.Ga­m­ge­be­li, G.Oniani, L.Martirosyan.