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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Vasiliy Tretyak (1926)






Dramatic tenor. Was born on December 6th in the village of Komarovka, Kursk region. People's Artist of the USSR (1980).
In 1958 graduated from Harkov conservatory (class of T.J.Veske).
In 1958-62 - soloist of the Moldavian Opera Theater, from 1962 - Kiev Opera Theater, where he made his debut in the roles of Canio and Jose.
As a young singer was highly regarded by the legendary Ukranian singer Boris Gmyrya.
Among his roles: Imposter-Prince, German, Lykov, Othello, Radames, Manrico, Canio, Jose, Cavaradossi, Oleg Koshevoy ("Molodaya gvardiya"), Andrey ("Zaporozec za Dunaem"), Bogun ("Bogdan Hmelnitskiy"), Vasiliy ("Milana").
Had a very flexible voice of rich timbre, wide diapason, and particularly high level of dramaticism and energy.
Was considered one of the most prominent dramatic tenors of his time.
Went to France, Germany, Romania, Yugoslavia, Spain, Poland, Czechoslovakia and other countries.
Also gave concerts.
In 1976 - started teaching in Kiev conservatory.
Died on April 16th 1989 in Kiev.