Larisa Avdeyeva

Larisa Ivanovna Avdeyeva was born on 21 June 1925[1] in Moscow to a family of opera singers. Though surrounded by music and performing in a children's glee club from age eleven, Avdeyeva initially wanted to study architecture. After World War II, she entered college to study construction, but a year later changed over to music.[2] She studied at the Stanislavsky Opera Studio from 1945 to 1946, and the following year began working as a soloist at the Stanislavsky Musical Theatre of Moscow.[1] Among the roles she performed were Olga in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Varvara[2] in the 1950 premier of Frol Skobeyev by Tikhon Khrennikov, Mistress of Copper Mountain the 1951 premier of Kamennïy tsvetok (based on the story The Stone Flower) by Kirill Molchanov[1] and Kosova in the 1952 production of V buryu (Into the Storm) by Khrennikov. She made her debut at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1952 reprising her earlier role of Olga.[2]

She was a mezzo-soprano and quickly became a lead singer for those roles, performing as Spring in The Snow Maiden by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Martha in Khovanshchina by Modest Mussorgsky. Avdeyeva excelled in the Rimsky-Korsakov roles of Ljubasha in The Tsar's Bride and Lel in The Snow Maiden and Carmen in the Georges Bizet opera of the same name.[2] Some of her later roles included Princess in Tchaikovsky’s Enchantress, Konchakovna in Borodin’s Prince Igor, Akhrosimova in Prokofiev's War and Peace[1] and the Commissar in Kholminov’s Optimisticheskaya tragediya. She also performed in Canada, Europe, Japan and the United States.[3] Making a 1975 trip to the US, Avdeyeva's portrayal of the Countess in War and Peace was described as "not only acted [but] sung superbly".[4]

In addition to her 30 years of live appearances with the Bolshoi, for four decades Avdeyeva recorded with the USSR State Symphony Orchestra, which was directed by her husband Yevgeny Svetlanov.[5] She recorded Scriabin's Symphony No. 1 In E Major, Op. 26; in 1969,[6] Edward Elgar's Sea Pictures & Symphony No. 2 in 1977;[7] Tchaikovsky's "Onegin" in 1979; and Prokofiev's "Voĭna i mir" in 1983, among many other titles.[6] Avdeyeva appeared in the 1951 film Большой концерт (Grand Concert)[8] and played the role of Marina in the 1954 film Boris Godunov, both directed by Vera Stroyeva.[9] In 1964, she was awarded the People’s Artist of the RSFSR.[3]

Adveyeva died on 10 March 2013 in Moscow.[10]

• Macy, Laura Williams (2008). The Grove Book of Opera Singers. New York, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-533765-5.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)