Ukrainian and Russian singer (lyrical and dramatic tenor), vocal teacher, director, Honored Artist of the Republic in 1924. He had a not very strong, but equal in all registers voice - according to critics of the time - of a pleasant soft timbre, natural musicality, and artistic temperament.
Biography.
He was born into a teacher's family; his parents did not consider his passion for music serious, wanting him to become a photographer. He studied at the Melitopol Real School, from which he ran away, intending to pursue music; to complicate his search, he called himself Sasha Davidov. At the age of 12, when he moved to Kyiv, he started singing in various choirs and cafes. In Kyiv, he met musicians. I. Pryanishnykov helped him to join the Kyiv Opera Choir. In 1890-1892, he studied singing privately with Camillo Everardi, who was a professor at the Kyiv Music School in 1890-1897.
He was a soloist with the Hypolit Pryanishnykov Society of Opera Artists in Kyiv, opera companies, including one in Katerynoslav in 1889; here he performed the roles of Faust (Faust by Gounod) and Alfred (La Traviata by Verdi), and was the first in the city to perform the role of Chekalynskyi (The Blame Game by Tchaikovsky). Subsequently, he performed in Kazan - an opera company under the direction of Otto Fuhrer - where he was the first to perform the role of Tannhäuser (Tannhäuser by Wagner), Kislovodsk (1899), Odesa, Saratov and Kharkiv - with the entrepreneur Oleksiy Tsereteli, and in V. Lyubymov's private entrepôt in Tiflis (1892). In 1893, he prepared opera parts under the direction of E. K. Ryadnov at the State Theater, Lyubimov's and V. Forcatti's (Ludwigov-Forcatti Victor Ludwigovich) intermission, and in Tiflis he was the first to perform the role of Frederick in A. Thom's "Mignon" and Beppo in Ruggiero Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci". He sang in the private opera of Sava Mamontov in Moscow.
In 1900-1914 he was a soloist at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. He made his debut in the role of Hermann (The Guilty Beauty by Pyotr Tchaikovsky). At that time, he performed with Nadiia Zabila, Volodymyr Kastorsky, Fylya Lytvyn, Joakim Tartakov, and Fyodor Chaliapin; his repertoire included 85 operas and 30 operettas.
He performed under the direction of Ivan Arkadyev, Silvio Barbini, Felix Blumenfeld, Emil Cooper, Eduard Nadezhda, Jan Palice, Arthur Nikisch, Josef Prybik, Vaclav Suk, Josef Truffy, and Nikolai Cherepnin.
During this time, he toured in Nizhny Novgorod - the Bolshoi Yarmarkovy Theater (Anton Eichenwald's intermission), the Hermitage Theater in Moscow - 1903, the Bolshoi Theater - 1911, Kyiv - 1903, 1905, 1909.
He performed his first roles at the Mariinsky Theater:
Sadko - Rimsky-Korsakov's Sadko, 1900
Mime - "Siegfried" by Wagner, 1901
Mozart - Mozart and Salieri by Rimsky-Korsakov, 1905,
Nal - "Nal and Damayanti" by A. S. Arensky,
Synodal - "The Demon" by A. Rubinstein.
The critics of the time listed the following among his best works: Herman (The Guilty Beauty), Impostor (Boris Godunov by Mussorgsky), Sadko (Sadko by Rimsky-Korsakov), and José (Carmen by Bizet).
During his years at the Mariinsky Theater, he toured Europe: 1903 - Budapest, 1908 - Monte Carlo, 1908 - Vienna and Berlin - together with Anton Bonacic, 1909 - Paris - at the invitation of Diaghilev, the first in the city to perform the role of boyar Nikita Matuta (Rimsky-Korsakov's Pskovian).
His stage partners were also Maria Kuznetsova-Benoit, Lidia Lipkovskaya, Maria Polyakova, Maria Slavina, Alexander Smirnov, Vasily Sharonov, and Leonid Yakovlev.
He performed on concert stages, singing romances, Russian folk and gypsy songs. Later, he became ill and was forced to leave the stage due to deafness (however, in 1919 he still performed in the role of Herman).
In 1924-1934 he lived in Paris. At that time, Chaliapin invited him to direct the production of the opera Prince Igor at the Opera Comique Theater in Paris, with Alexander Glazunov as musical director. He consulted on the artistic side at the Russian Opera in Paris in 1934-1935.
In 1936, he was already in the USSR, teaching at the evening singing school at the former Mariinsky Theater.
About 400 pieces of music were recorded on gramophone records, including the duet José and Escamillo, performed by him together with Yevhenia Zbruieva.
His wife, Sofia Yosypivna, was his accompanist.
