Heorhii Mykhailovych Nelepp (real name Nelip; 7 (20) April 1904, Bobruyky - 18 June 1957, Moscow) was a Ukrainian singer (lyrical and dramatic tenor), People's Artist of the USSR (1951), three times winner of the Stalin Prize (1942, 1949, 1950).
He was born on 7 (20) April 1904 in the village of Bobruyky, Chernihiv province of the Russian Empire (now Kozelets district, Chernihiv region of Ukraine). He graduated from the Military Topographic School. He participated in military amateur performances. In 1930, he graduated from the Leningrad Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory (class of Yosyp Tomars). In 1929-1944, he was a soloist at the Kirov Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theatre, and in 1944-1957 - at the Bolshoi Theatre of the USSR. He has been a member of the CPSU since 1940.
Nelepp was one of the greatest opera singers of his time. Possessing a beautiful, sonorous, soft-tempered voice, Nelepp created psychologically deep, relief images. He had a bright personality as an actor.
He died on 18 June 1957. He was buried in Moscow, at the Novodevichy Cemetery (plot No. 3).
Opera roles
"Ivan Susanin by Mikhail Glinka - Sobinin;
"Ruslan and Lyudmila by M. Glinka - Finn;
"Boris Godunov by M. P. Mussorgsky - Impostor;
Mussorgsky's "Khovanshchina" - Golitsyn;
"The Pskovian by Rimsky-Korsakov - Mikhail Tucha;
"May Night by Rimsky-Korsakov - Levko;
"Sadko by Rimsky-Korsakov - Sadko;
"The Tale of Tsar Saltan" by Rimsky-Korsakov - Gvidon;
"The Sorceress by Tchaikovsky - Yuri;
"The Slippers" Tchaikovsky - Vakula;
"The Queen of Spades by P. Tchaikovsky - German;
"The Decembrists" by Yuri Shaporin - Peter Kakhovsky;
"Aida" by G. Verdi - Radames;
"Carmen by G. Bizet - José;
"Fidelio by L. van Beethoven - Florestan;
"Pebbles" by S. Moniuszko - Iontek;
"The Sold Bride by B. Smetana - Yenik;
"Nikita Vershinin by D. Kabalevsky - Nezelasov;
"Battleship Potemkin" by O. Chishko - Matyushenko.
He also performed Ukrainian folk songs, romances by Mykola Lysenko, and recorded arias from operas on gramophone records.
Honours.
Honoured Artist of the RSFSR (1939);
People's Artist of the RSFSR (1947);
People's Artist of the USSR (1951);
First Class Stalin Prize (1942) - for his performance of the role of Prince Yuri in the opera The Magician by Tchaikovsky;
Stalin Prize of the second degree (1949) - for his performance of the role of Yenik in the opera The Sold Bride by B. Smetana;
Stalin Prize of the first degree (1950) - for performing the title role in the opera Sadko by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov;
Two Orders of the Red Banner of Labour (1939, 1951);
Order of the Badge of Honour (1940);
Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945".
