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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Abdylas Maldybaev (1906)





Singer and composer. Born on 7th of July in the village of Kara-Bulak, in the Semirechensk District. People’s Artist of the USSR (1939).
In 1929 graduated from the Kirgiz Pedagogical College and was accepted to the troupe of Kirgiz Studio. After that studied in Kazakh-Kirgiz Institute in Alma-Ata.
In 1929-30 was a director and a teacher in the Kirgiz Musical-Dramatical Studio. In 1930-33 – a director of the Kirgiz Musical College.
In 1933-36 worked in the Kirgiz State Theater, and from 1936 was a soloist of the Kirgiz Opera Theater.
In 1940-41 and 1947-50 studied in a branch of Moscow conservatory (with G.Litinsky, then V.Ferre).
Along with the composers V.A.Vlasov and V.G.Fere was the creator of the first Kirgiz operas – “Adjal orduna” (1938), “Aychurek” (1939), “Patrioty” (1941), “Manas” (1946), “Togtogul” (1958).
Was the author of many songs, romances and oratories.
Composed the hymn of the Kirgiz Soviet Socialistic Republic.
As a singer took part in Kirgiz musical dramas and operas.
Was the first singer to perform in the role of Lensky in Kirgiz Soviet Socialistic Republic. Also performed in the roles of Berkut (“Adzal Orduna”), Kulchoro (“Aychurek”), Asker (“Arshin mal alan”).
Was also a prominent public and political figure.
In 1953-54 was the director of the Musical-Choreographic College in Frunze.
Received Kirgiz Soviet Socialist Republic Premium (1970), the Lenin Award (1939), the Sign of the Red Banner of Labor (1946, 1951, 1958). the Sign of The October Revolution (1976), the Honor Sign (1966).
Died on June 1st 1978 in Frunze.