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.

You can reach me at:



Eduard Bagdasaryan (1928)




Born on 5th of February in the Soviet Republic of Turkmenistan in the city of Mary to the family of a construction worker. Acclaimed artist of the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic
Started singing as a boy at a very young age. In 1941 with the beginning of World War II had to start working at odd jobs to support his family after his father and older brother were drafted. At the age of 19 was incidentally discovered as a talented amateur and began to attend a musical school and then the Baku city conservatory in the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan where he started studying with the famous singer Suzanna Mikaelyan that studied in Italy with Georgette Everardi. 
During his studies was a member of the Azerbaijani State Entertainment Association and a member of the Azerbaijani State Orchestra. Also sang on Radio. His debut was in a role of Trike in the staging of "Eugene Onegin" in the conservatory. At some point he was invited to Yerevan (Armenian Soviet Republic) and in 1954 became a soloist of  the Armenian Theater of Opera and Ballet, turning one of its leading singers. In 1968 started performing with the Armenian State Philharmonic Orchestra.
Won the second prize in 1957 Moscow World Youth Festival, the first prize going to another Armenian singer – Artur Aidinyan.
Received several state awards.
Gave concerts all over USSR. Toured abroad. Appeared in several motion pictures.
Died on the 6th of January 2015 in Yerevan, Armenia.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)