Ukrainian singer (tenor) and teacher. Soloist of the Kyiv and Kharkiv Opera and Ballet Theaters, Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. Professor of the Kyiv Conservatory. People's Artist of the Ukrainian SSR (1971). Father of Taras Mykysha, Ukrainian pianist and composer.
Biography
Mykhailo Mykysha was born on June 6, 1885 (May 25, according to the old style) in the city of Myrhorod. At first he studied at the Myrhorod Art and Industrial School named after M. Hohol, in 1904-1910 - at the Kyiv Music and Drama School of Mykola Lysenko (in the singing class of Oleksandr Myshuga).
He sang at the Mykola Sadovsky Theater (1910-1914), Kyiv City Opera (1914-1922), Bolshoi Theater (Moscow, 1922-1931), Kharkiv (1931-1942) and Kyiv (1942-1944) Opera and Ballet Theaters. Since 1919, he has been the director of the newly created Ukrainian Musical Drama Theater.
From 1937 he taught at the Kharkiv Conservatory. In 1941 he was repressed and exiled to Siberia.
From 1944 he taught at the Kyiv Conservatory. In 1946, he was promoted to professor (among his students was A. Serdiuk). In 1971, his book "Practical Fundamentals of Vocal Art" was published.
He died in Kyiv on November 20, 1971, and was buried at the Baikove Cemetery. A street in Myrhorod is named after him. A memorial plaque is installed on the house on Pankivska Street in Kyiv, where he lived.
Creativity
The memorial plaque in Kyiv
Mykhailo Mykysha had a strong, expressive, wide-ranging voice and was known for his performances in dramatic roles. A large place in the singer's repertoire was occupied by the works of Mykola Lysenko, and his singing partners were Maria Lytvynenko-Volhemut, Fyodor Chaliapin, and others.
Repertoire
Andriy (The Cossack Beyond the Danube by S. Hulak-Artemovsky)
Petro, Levko ("Natalka Poltavka", "Drowned" by M. Lysenko)
Radames (Aida by Giuseppe Verdi)
Yontek (Pebbles by Stanislav Moniuszko)
Yenik (The Sold Bride by Bedřich Smetana)
Turrido (Rural Honor by Pietro Mascagni)
Herman (The Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky)
Golitsyn ("Khovanshchina" by M. Mussorgsky)
Grishka Kuterma (The Tale of the Invisible City of Kitezh by N. Rimsky-Korsakov)
Herod (Salome by Richard Strauss)
