Ukrainian singer (bass). Honored Artist of Ukraine.
Biography.
He was born on October 25, 1925 in the village of Tarasivka (Cherkasy region).
During the war, he was captured and miraculously survived. After the war, he served in the Dnipro Flotilla, where his voice was noticed. Since then, he began singing in military amateur performances. After his military service, he successfully passed the exams and entered the Kharkiv Institute of Trade, Faculty of Economics. Next to the institute was the Kharkiv Conservatory, where Vasyl Pazych went for an audition and was enrolled almost without exams. At the Kharkiv Conservatory, Vasyl Pazych studied under the outstanding teacher Professor Pavlo Holubev, who had previously trained the outstanding Ukrainian bass singer Borys Hmyrya. After graduating with honors from the Kharkiv Conservatory in 1955, Vasyl Pazych became a soloist at the Taras Shevchenko Kyiv Opera and Ballet Theater (now the National Opera of Ukraine).
In 1961, at the Dovzhenko Kyiv Film Studio, Vasyl Pazych played a cameo role in the film "Prostitute" directed by I. Kavaleridze based on the same name by Panas Myrnyi.
The late 1950s and 1960s were the most fruitful years for Vasyl Pazych at the Kyiv Opera House, where he performed more than 50 opera roles. However, the management of the Kyiv Opera House cast the singer in various roles that did not always suit his tessitura. The role of Borys Godunov was fatal for Vasyl Pazych. At the age of 45, the singer had to undergo a ligament operation, after which he was forced to stop his opera career and switch to concert activities. In 1973-76, he worked in the Central Ensemble of the Soviet Army Group in Germany, and from 1976 to 1982 he worked as a soloist with the Kyiv Philharmonic. Later, from 1982 to 1996, Vasyl Pazych worked as a teacher of singing theory at the Drahomanov Pedagogical Institute in Kyiv.
He passed away on July 26, 1997.
Memories of colleagues
"He was a versatile singer with a very good technique" (Lev Venediktov, chief choirmaster and conductor of the Kyiv Opera House, People's Artist of the USSR, professor)
"He had a brilliant school. It was comfortable to sing with him. He had an extremely interesting, special sound presentation for the bass" (Yevdokiya Kolesnyk, leading soloist of the Kyiv Opera House, People's Artist of Ukraine, professor)
Opera roles
Taras (Taras Bulba, Mykola Lysenko)
Karas ("Cossack beyond the Danube", Semen Hulak-Artemovsky)
Elected official (Natalka Poltavka, Mykola Lysenko)
Father ("Catherine", Mykola Arkas)
Kochubey (Mazepa, Petro Tchaikovsky)
Gremin (Eugene Onegin, Pyotr Tchaikovsky)
Ruslan (Ruslan and Lyudmila, Mikhail Glinka)
Farlaf (Ruslan and Lyudmila, Mikhail Glinka)
Malyuta (The Tsar's Bride, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov)
Dosifei (The Hiding Place, Modest Mussorgsky)
Varlaam (Boris Godunov, Modest Mussorgsky)
Unknown (Askold's Grave, Alexei Verstovsky)
The Miller (The Mermaid, Alexander Dargomyzhsky)
Don Basilio (The Barber of Seville, Gioachino Rossini)
Mephistopheles (Faust, Charles Gounod)
Ribbing ("Masquerade Ball", Giuseppe Verdi)
Ferrando (Il Trovatore, Giuseppe Verdi)
The King (Lohengrin, Richard Wagner)
Konchak (Prince Igor, Alexander Borodin)
Prince Galician (Prince Igor, Alexander Borodin)
Boris Timofeevich (Katerina Izmailova, Dmitry Shostakovich)
Hortensio (The Conquest of the Disobedient, Vissarion Shebalin)
Gudal (The Demon, Anton Rubinstein)
