Ukrainian and Russian singer (bass) of the Soviet era, winner of the USSR State Prize (1951), Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1956), People's Artist of the RSFSR (1959), People's Artist of the USSR (1965). He was awarded two Orders of Lenin (1971 and 1976), the Badge of Honor (1951), and the Red Banner of Labor (1980).
Biography.
Graduated from the Kharkiv College of Communications, worked as a communications dispatcher in the Far East. In 1944, after liberation from Nazi occupation, he restored telephone lines at railway stations in Ukraine and Moldova.
In 1949, he graduated from the Chisinau Conservatory, class of V.G. Dolev and B. Milyutin, and in the same year was accepted as a soloist at the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR, where he performed until 1981.
In 1951, he won the First Prize at the Third World Festival of Youth and Students in Berlin.
Theater work
Performed roles:
Theseus - "A Midsummer Night's Dream" by B. Britten,
Philip II - Don Carlos by G. Verdi,
Mephistopheles, "Faust" by Gounod,
Boris Godunov, Boris Godunov by Mussorgsky,
Dosifey, Mussorgsky's The Hiding Place - State Prize of the USSR, 1951,
Ivan the Terrible, The Pskovite by Rimsky-Korsakov,
Don Basilio, The Barber of Seville by Rossini,
The Varangian Guest, Sadko,
Prince Bolkonsky - War and Peace - by Tolstoy,
The Leader, The Optimistic Tragedy by Kholminov,
Gremin, Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky,
René - Tchaikovsky's Iolanta.
Chamber performances, gramophone records, tours, films
As for chamber music, he performed works by M. Glinka, A. Hrechaninov, E. Grieg, C. Cui, F. Liszt, J. Massenet, S. Rachmaninoff, A. Rubinstein, F. Schubert, and R. Strauss.
He also performed as a concert singer and toured abroad in the USSR: Afghanistan, Austria, Canada, France, India, Italy, Japan, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States, the Czechoslovakia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Czechoslovak Republic.
Records with his recordings were released:
1951 - The Old Gypsy, Rachmaninoff's Aleko, conducted by Nikolai Golovanov,
1958 - Nicholas I, "The Decembrists" by Yuri Shaporin, conducted by Alexander Melik-Pashayev,
1970 - Gremin, Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky, conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich,
1974 - Dosyfey, "Khovanshchina" by Mussorgsky, conducted by Boris Haikin,
1982 - General, The Player by Sergei Prokofiev, conducted by Alexander Lazarev.
He also acted in films:
1951 - student of the Moscow Conservatory, The Grand Concert, directed by V. P. Stroyev,
1952 - Fyodor Chaliapin - "Rimsky-Korsakov", directed by G. S. Kazansky and G. L. Roshal,
1953 - Songs of the native side,
1954 - Aleko, directed by S. Sidelov.
He taught at the Lunacharsky Moscow State Institute of Theater Art.
Buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
