Forgotten Opera Singers

Forgotten Opera Singers

Dec 3, 2018

Dmitri Tarkhov (Tenor) (Penza, Russia March 30, 1890 – Moscow, Russia October 5, 1966)




He was born in the family of a railway engineer. In 1908, after graduating from high school, he entered the law faculty of Moscow University. From 1915 to 1918 he studied at the Moscow Conservatory with V.M. Zarudnaya. In addition he perfected his vocal under N. P. Davydova. These classes lasted only three months, but they gave a lot to the young singer. He made his debut in Saratov (1918). In the 1920s-1930s he performed on the operatic stages of Sverdlovsk, Perm, Saratov, Astrakhan, Tsaritsyn (now Volgograd), Baku and other cities, performing the leading tenor parts (Lensky, Berendey, Prince, Synodal, Igorevich, Faust, Herman, Golitsyn, Canio, Radames, Jose, Alfred, Duke). He also sang in the theaters of Moscow (“People’s House”, “Free Opera”, the musical theater named after Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko). From 1936 to 1958 he worked at the All-Union Radio. He was one of the main singers of the opera group formed on the radio. This period includes a number of the best performing achievements of the singer. He sang the parts of Don Juan (“The Stone Guest” by A. S. Dargomyzhsky), Des Grieux and Cavaradossi (“Manon Lescaut” and “Tosca” by G. Puccini), Riccardo (“Ballo in maschera” by G. Verdi), Kiribeyevich (“The merchant Kalashnikov ”by A. G. Rubinshtein) etc. From 1948 to 1966 he taught in the class of singing at the Gnessin State Musical College. When he was a student at the Moscow Conservatory, he worked with M. M. Ippolitov-Ivanov in composition. He wrote a series of romances (not published). A lot of energy was spent by him in the sphere of literary activity, working as translator. On the radio, using his literary texts, the operas Fra-Diavolo by Aubert and Gioconda by A. Ponchielli were produced and recorded. He translated in Russian songs of Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn and others.

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