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Sergei Iakovlevich Lemeshev
(June 27, 1902 - June 26, 1977) Russia

Sergei Lemeshev

Opera singer

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The story of tenor Sergei Lemeshev is the story of a poor boy who's father had plans for to become a shoemaker. However, Sergei had artistic ambitions and at the age of 17 he left his village in order to sing. He first sang at a local workers' club, then later he moved to Moscow and was admitted to the Moscow Conservatory, and studied under Stanislavsky.

The Bolshoi Theatre wanted to engage him shortly after his graduation, but he turned the offer down. He was of the conviction that they would not offer lead parts to an unexperienced singer and he was not willing to take on comprimario roles. He sang in the province where he made a name for himself and when he finally returned to Moscow and the Bolshoi, he was a well known and reputed singer.

Sergei LemeshevHe sang at the Bolshoi Theatre for the very first time in 1931 and were to sing regularly at the house upto 1965. He became the most important tenor of his day. His gloss role was Lenskij in Tchaikvosky's opera Eugene Onegin (see picture), a part he performed for the first time in 1927 and repeated on 500 occasions.

He sang the part of the young Russian poet with such conviction that not only did the public come to identify him with it, but also Lemeshev himself felt absorbed by the character: A tragic, whimsical and naïve figure that resembled Lemeshev's own persona. He performed the role for the last time on his 70th birthday.

Lemeshev had an exceptional legato and breath control: He sang "sul soffio (leaning on the breath), avoided stressful abdominal respiration (only Caruso could do it) and directed the sound current to the mask, the method of singing which was so much Lauri-Volpi's gospel." The voice was warm and round and capable of stunning smorzature, an effect he displayed to much success as the Duca di Mantua in Rigoletto.

He never sang outside Russia, however he enjoyed a marvellous career inside the "Iron Curtain." He was extremly popular and hordes of women gathered around the Bolshoi daily where they waited for him to come out, some even entered the theatre, impeding the studies of the great Russian tenor.

Lemeshev was also a strikingly handsome man, who enjoyed great success not only on the Russian opera and concert stage, but in cinema as well. It got so bad that he had the management build a wall around the national theatre, and the women would drill holes in the wall in hope of catching a glimpse of the handsome tenor. Irony has it that Lemeshev was homosexual, a sexual orientation he could not proclaim in Stalin's Russia of fear of sanctions.

He died in Moscow, recognized as one of the greatest Russian tenors to appear in this century.

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