NINA KOSHETZ (NÉE PORAY-KOSHETZ; KIEV, RUSSIAN EMPIRE (NOW KYIV, UKRAINE), DECEMBER 30, 1891 – SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES, MAY 14, 1965)
She was born into a family of intellectuals in Kiev, later moving to Moscow, where she became an opera singer. From 1908 to 1913, she studied at the Moscow State Conservatory, where her professors included U. Mazetti for solo singing and N. Shishkin, K. Igumnov, and S. Taneev for piano. She also received voice lessons in France from the retired dramatic soprano Felia Litvinne.
Renowned for her leading roles in opera, she performed in principal opera houses across Russia and Europe. In the late 1910s, she appeared at the Petrograd Conservatory, where she was accompanied by a then-unknown Vladimir Horowitz. Initially hesitant to collaborate with the student pianist, she later insisted that only he accompany her and even programmed some of his compositions.
In 1920, she emigrated to America and joined the Chicago Opera Association, where she participated in the premiere of Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges (1921). She later performed with the Russian Opera Company in New York and toured South America. By the late 1920s, she was active in France, appearing in the French premiere of Sadko.
Known for her extravagant lifestyle, her vocal powers declined in the 1930s. In 1940, she retired to Hollywood, where she worked as a voice teacher and ran a restaurant, though this venture ended in bankruptcy in 1942. She also appeared in bit parts in several Hollywood movies.
Chronology of some appearances
1913-1917 Moscow S. Zimin’s Opera House
1913 St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theatre
TRACKLIST
Artistopia, 1916
Demon (Rubinstein): In the Quiet of the Night 221
Sadko (Rimsky-Korsakov): Berceuse 222
Brunswick, 1922/1923
The Fair at Sorochyntsi (Mussorgsky): Parassia’s Reverie 50036 X. 8956-6
The Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky): It is Midnight 50036 X. 8959-2
Victor, 1928/1930
Prince Igor (Borodin): Yaroslavna’s aria 9233A CVE43726-2
Sadko (Rimsky-Korsakov): Berceuse 9233B CVE43727-3
Dobrynia Nikitich (Grechaninov): The Flowers Were Growing in the Fields 7111B CVE 51104-2
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