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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Grigoriy Bolshakov (1904)







Born on 23rd of January in Saint-Petersburg. People's Artist of Russian Soviet Federative Socialistic Republic (1951).
Born into a family of a simple worker. His father loved to sing and he inherited this passion.
In their home the Bolshakov family had a gramophone and opera records. Among all other recordings his favorites were the aria of Demon and the couplets of Escamilio, which he dreamt to perform once on operatic stage himself. He often sang in amateur concerts on workers parties. By then he already had a resonating, beautiful tenor.
Bolshakov went to study to Musical School in Vyborg district of Saint-Petersburg and started to study with A.Groholskiy, which gave him an advice to go study with the Italian teacher Riccardo Nuvelnordi. He studied with him for a year and a half, learning the basics of setting and controlling his voice. He had no money, and couldn’t afford to pay his teacher, but Nuvernoldi agreed to teach him for free, even helping him out when he couldn’t get ends meet.
After completing three years of studies in the Musical School, he undergoes an audition to be accepted to Saint-Petersburg Maliy Opera Theater. The legendary conductor S.Samosud and the famous stage manager D.Smolic listened to his singing and told him he was not yet ready to be a soloist in the Theater, buy could start singing in the Theater choir.
After working as a chorist for a year he goes to study in the Third Saint-Petersburg Musical College to the class of professor I.Suprunenko, which he later reminisced with great warmth. At that time Bolshakov started working on a railroad to support himself.
After graduating from the Musical College in 1928 he started performing in the Theater of Comical Opera. His debut there was in the role of Fenton in The Merry “Wives of Windsor” of Otto Nicolai. The conductor was the famous Ariy Pazovskiy, who gave the young singer a lot of valuable advice. Later Bolshakov recalled how he froze before his first entrance on stage and could not move. The assistant conductor had to push him to the stage, but when he came out and saw the great audience, he gained control over himself and performed marvelously.
He worked at the Theater of the Comical Opera until 1930 and then, after an audition, got accepted to the Saing-Petersburg Mariinsky Opera Theater. Among his roles there were Lensky, Andrey (“Mazeppa”), Sinodal, Guidon, Andrey Khovansky, Jose, Arnold (“William Tell”), Prince (“The Love for Three Oranges”).
Bolshakov was gradually turning into a first class tenor, but he wasn’t getting the chances to sing in all the roles he wanted to perform in the Mariinsky Theater, so in 1936 Bolshakov decides to start working in Saratov Opera Theater. There his repertoire included the roles he craved: Rhadames, Herman, Faust, Duke, Almaviva. He had commented his work on the role of Almaviva by saying that the preparation to this role had contributed greatly to his singing ability, and “Il barbiere di Siviglia” is a great school of singing for anyone.
In 1938 Bolshakov goes to an audition in the Bolshoi Theater and gets accepted. He makes his debut on the stage of the Bolshoi in the role of Davydov in “Podnyataya zelina” by I.Dzerzhinsky. After only one month he already performs in the role of Duke in “Rigoletto”. Once he had to be urgently called to the Theater after the legendary Ivan Kozlovskiy started feeling sick in the first act of “Rigoletto”. He was hurriedly prepared to go out on stage, and he did so very hesitantly – after all he was about to get in the shoes of the great Kozlovskiy. At first the audience was reserved, but after Duke’s song people started cheering and applauding.
Bolshakov would work in the Bolshoi until the last days of his career. True to the traditions of F.Chaliapin and K.Stanislavsky, Bolshakov put a lot of work into overcoming operatic conventions, thoroughly went through all the minute details of his conduct on stage, creating realistic and convincing characters in his roles. Among his greatest successes are roles in Russian classical operas – Sobinin (“Ivan Susanin”), Andrey (Mazeppa”), Vakula (“Cherevichki”). Another success of his was the role of Herman, which was a great achievement giving the fact that at the same time this role was performed by such great singers as N.Khanaev, N.Ozerov, B.Evlahov, Yet another great achievement of his was the role of Vodemon in “Iolanta”. The critics said that “in the role of Vodemon all of the best traits of Bolshakov showed very clearly -  his high musical and acting culture, bright and resounding voice, a refined taste, true and genuine temperament, great dramaticism”. In the Western repertoire his rendition of Jose in “Carmen” was also noted by the critics, as well as Arnold in “William Tell”.
Took part in the movie version of P.Tchaikovsky’s opera “Cherevichki” (1944).
It was often noted by the critics that Bolshakov tended to dramaticize lyric figures and his lyricism was not sentimental and melodramatic, but rather full with all-engulfing real-life emotions.
Received the Stalin Award twice (1942, 1950), for his appearance in the movie “Cherevichki”, and for the role of Andrey in Tchaikovski’s “Mazeppa”.
Died on February 3rd 1974.