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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Konstantin Pluzhnikov (1941)






Born on April 15th in Batumi. Adjaria. People's Artist of Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (1983).
Received his early musical education in the Musical College of Batumi.
In 1963 entered Rimski-Korsakov St-Petersburg State Conservatory (class of E.G Olhovsky), graduating in 1969.
In 1968, while on a fourth year of his studied, he drew a lot of attention in the All-USSR Glinka Competition with his brilliant renditions of Glinka’s romances, becoming a laureate.
In the same year – 1968 – he was accepted to Saint-Petersburg Maliy Opera Theater, where his first roles were the Duke in Dargomyzhsky’s “The Mermaid”, the Young Gipsy and Benvenuto Cellini (“Benvenuto Cellini” by Berlioz). His next successful roles were Vodemon in “Iolanta” and Duke in Verdi’s “Rigoletto”.
In 1970 Pluzhnikov reached the second place and received the Silver Medal in the International Enescu Vocalists’ Competition, which paved his way to the St-Petersburg Kirov Opera Theater, where he started performing in 1971, and where he performed in most leading tenor roles. One of his favorite roles was that of Werther.
Among his other roles: Tamino in “The Magic Flute”, Alfred in “Traviata”, Sir Edgardo in “Lucia di Lammermoor”, Lensky in “Eugene Onegin”, Ivan Lykov in “The Tsar’s Bride”, Bayan in “Ruslan and Ludmila”, Abesalom in “Abesalom and Eteri” by Paliashvili, Manilov in “Mertvye dushi” by Schedrin.  
Appeared many times in the Great Hall of Saint-Petersburg Conservatory as a soloist in such major symphonic pieces as Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis”, Mozart’s “Requiem”, Bach’s “Johannes Passion and “Matthæus Passion”, Verdi’s “Requiem”, Berlioz’s “La damnation de Faust”, Puccini’s “Gloria”.
Laureate of the all-USSR Vocalists Competition (Minsk, 1968), the winner of international competitions in Bucharest (1970), and Geneva (1972).
With his partner, the pianist Elena Matusovskaya, gave concerts of romances, Italian and Russian folk songs.
Has went on solo tours and tours with the Kirov St-Petersburg Opera Theater in Italy (La-Scala), Germany (Hamburg Opera), Spain, France (Opera de Bastille), Scotland (Edinburg Fesival), Finland, Israel, USA (Metropolitan Opera), Austria, Holland, Japan, and other countries.
In 1979 started teaching in Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory.
Has written 6 books about vocal art.
From 1998 - the director of the Academy for Young Singers of the Kirov St-Petersburg Opera Theater.
In 2005 became the founder of the Fund for Promotion of Musical, Theatrical and Artistic Development.