Sergejus Larinas
Encyclopedia
Sergej Larin or (March 9, 1956 – January 13, 2008) was one of a number of operatic tenor
s from the former Soviet Union
to achieve success in the West. His vocal talent was acknowledged by some of the world's leading conductors including Riccardo Muti
, Claudio Abbado
and Zubin Mehta
Larin was also a recital
ist, with several programs of songs preserved on disc.
Larin was born in Daugavpils
, Latvia
. After completing a degree in French philology in Gorky
and undergoing voice training in Lithuania
under the well-known Lithuanian tenor Virgilijus Noreika
, he made his debut at Lithuania's opera and ballet theatre in 1981, singing Alfredo in La Traviata
. Nearly a decade of performances at various Soviet venues passed before Larin made his debut in the West. Larin's international career started after he signed a contract with the Opera Theatre of Bratislava and moved to Slovakia, following which he made a sensational debut at the Vienna State Opera
. His Covent Garden
debut took place in 1991, where he sang Don José in Bizet's Carmen
, while Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca
served for his debuts at both Paris
and the Metropolitan Opera
.
Still, the prevailingly lyric impact of his strong tenor made him the choice for important Russian roles at several theatres. His experience with Boris Godunov
began with the Fool, took him next to the role of the wily Shuisky
, and finally to the False Dmitri. The Metropolitan Opera heard his first performances of the Pretender when the Kirov
visited in 1992. In 1994, Larin sang Dmitri with Abbado at the Salzburg Festival
, a production recorded and honored critically as an important achievement by all participants. Salzburg audiences heard Larin's Don Carlos
in 1998.
Another Italian role in which Larin received positive attention was Calaf, sung in a production of Puccini's Turandot
mounted in China
and recorded, video-taped, and distributed globally. Within the respectable cast, Larin received some complimentary notices and benefited (as did other cast members) from the extensive publicity surrounding the event.
In addition to Boris Godunov and Turandot, two other recordings feature noteworthy work by Larin in the company of other commendable singers. His Andrei in Neeme Järvi
's recording of Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa
placed him in the company of Sergei Leiferkus
, Galina Gorchakova
, Anatoly Kotcherga, and Larissa Diadkova
, the top Russian singers in the 1990s. Similarly, his Sergei in Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District
cast him with exemplary singers save for a somewhat over-parted protagonist.
Larin recorded several discs of Russian songs for the Chandos label, exploring Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky in discs entirely devoted to their works and offering another recital devoted to songs of "The Mighty Handful" (Rimsky-Korsakov, Cui
, Balakirev
, Borodin
, and Mussorgsky
) as well as two discs of miscellany, including Medtner, Gretchaninov
, Rubinstein
, and Kalinnikov. His accompanist in the project was Eleonora Bekova.
He died in Bratislava
, Slovakia
.
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
s from the former Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
to achieve success in the West. His vocal talent was acknowledged by some of the world's leading conductors including Riccardo Muti
Riccardo Muti
Riccardo Muti, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI is an Italian conductor and music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.-Childhood and education:...
, Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , is an Italian conductor. He has served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera,...
and Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta
Zubin Mehta is an Indian conductor of western classical music. He is the Music Director for Life of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.-Biography:...
Larin was also a recital
Recital
A recital is a musical performance. It can highlight a single performer, sometimes accompanied by piano, or a performance of the works of a single composer.The invention of the solo piano recital has been attributed to Franz Liszt....
ist, with several programs of songs preserved on disc.
Larin was born in Daugavpils
Daugavpils
Daugavpils is a city in southeastern Latvia, located on the banks of the Daugava River, from which the city gets its name. Daugavpils literally means "Daugava Castle". With a population of over 100,000, it is the second largest city in the country after the capital Riga, which is located some...
, Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
. After completing a degree in French philology in Gorky
Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...
and undergoing voice training in Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
under the well-known Lithuanian tenor Virgilijus Noreika
Virgilijus Noreika
Virgilijus Kęstutis Noreika is a Lithuanian tenor.-Career:Noreika graduated with honors from the Lithuanian State Conservatory in 1958. A year earlier, while still a student, he was engaged as a performer at the National Opera and Ballet Theater of Lithuania...
, he made his debut at Lithuania's opera and ballet theatre in 1981, singing Alfredo in La Traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
. Nearly a decade of performances at various Soviet venues passed before Larin made his debut in the West. Larin's international career started after he signed a contract with the Opera Theatre of Bratislava and moved to Slovakia, following which he made a sensational debut at the Vienna State Opera
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
. His Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
debut took place in 1991, where he sang Don José in Bizet's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
, while Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
served for his debuts at both Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
.
Still, the prevailingly lyric impact of his strong tenor made him the choice for important Russian roles at several theatres. His experience with Boris Godunov
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
began with the Fool, took him next to the role of the wily Shuisky
Shuisky
The Princes Shuisky were a Rurikid family of boyars descending from Grand Duke Dmitry Konstantinovich of Vladimir-Suzdal and Prince Andrey Yaroslavich, brother to Alexander Nevsky. Their name is derived from the town of Shuya, of which they gained ownership in 1403. The family briefly reached the...
, and finally to the False Dmitri. The Metropolitan Opera heard his first performances of the Pretender when the Kirov
Mariinsky Theatre
The Mariinsky Theatre is a historic theatre of opera and ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music theatre of late 19th century Russia, where many of the stage masterpieces of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov received their premieres. The...
visited in 1992. In 1994, Larin sang Dmitri with Abbado at the Salzburg Festival
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
, a production recorded and honored critically as an important achievement by all participants. Salzburg audiences heard Larin's Don Carlos
Don Carlos
Don Carlos is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French language libretto by Camille du Locle and Joseph Méry, based on the dramatic play Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien by Friedrich Schiller...
in 1998.
Another Italian role in which Larin received positive attention was Calaf, sung in a production of Puccini's Turandot
Turandot
Turandot is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, set to a libretto in Italian by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni.Though Puccini's first interest in the subject was based on his reading of Friedrich Schiller's adaptation of the play, his work is most nearly based on the earlier text Turandot...
mounted in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and recorded, video-taped, and distributed globally. Within the respectable cast, Larin received some complimentary notices and benefited (as did other cast members) from the extensive publicity surrounding the event.
In addition to Boris Godunov and Turandot, two other recordings feature noteworthy work by Larin in the company of other commendable singers. His Andrei in Neeme Järvi
Neeme Järvi
Neeme Järvi is an Estonian-born conductor.-Early life:Järvi studied music first in Tallinn, and later in Leningrad at the Leningrad Conservatory under Yevgeny Mravinsky, and Nikolai Rabinovich, among others...
's recording of Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa
Mazeppa (opera)
Mazeppa, properly Mazepa , is an opera in 3 acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by Victor Burenin and is based on Pushkin's poem Poltava....
placed him in the company of Sergei Leiferkus
Sergei Leiferkus
Sergei Leiferkus is an operatic baritone from Russia, known for his dramatic technique and powerful voice particularly in Russian and Italian language repertoire. He is most notable for his roles as Scarpia in Tosca, Iago in Otello, Grand-prétre de Dagon in Samson et Dalila and Simon Boccanegra...
, Galina Gorchakova
Galina Gorchakova
-Beginnings:Gorchakova was born in Novokuznetsk to a musical family. She moved to Novosibirsk in Siberia with her parents who were singers at the opera house there. It was in that city that she attended music school, college and the Conservatoire from which she graduated in 1988...
, Anatoly Kotcherga, and Larissa Diadkova
Larissa Diadkova
-Career:For her musical education, she studied at Kazan Conservatory before moving on to the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. In 1978, she became a member of the Kirov Opera where she initially sang small roles. As a member of the Kirov Opera, Diadkova toured internationally under company director...
, the top Russian singers in the 1990s. Similarly, his Sergei in Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District
Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (opera)
Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District is an opera in four acts by Dmitri Shostakovich, his Op.29. The libretto was written by Alexander Preis and the composer, and is based on the story Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District by Nikolai Leskov. The opera is sometimes referred to informally as Lady Macbeth...
cast him with exemplary singers save for a somewhat over-parted protagonist.
Larin recorded several discs of Russian songs for the Chandos label, exploring Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky in discs entirely devoted to their works and offering another recital devoted to songs of "The Mighty Handful" (Rimsky-Korsakov, Cui
César Cui
César Antonovich Cui was a Russian of French and Lithuanian descent. His profession was as an army officer and a teacher of fortifications; his avocational life has particular significance in the history of music, in that he was a composer and music critic; in this sideline he is known as a...
, Balakirev
Balakirev
Balakirev may refer to:* Mily Balakirev, a Russian pianist, conductor and composer* Balakirev the Buffoon, a 2002 Russian television adaptation of Lenkom play...
, Borodin
Borodin
Borodin , or Borodina is a Russian last name and may refer to:*Alexander Borodin , Russian composer and chemist*Alexander Parfeniyevich Borodin, Russian scientist in the field of rail transport...
, and Mussorgsky
Mussorgsky
Mussorgsky can refer to:*The Mussorgsky family of Russian nobility;*Modest Mussorgsky, a Russian composer belonging to that family.*Mussorgsky , a 1950 Soviet film about the composer...
) as well as two discs of miscellany, including Medtner, Gretchaninov
Alexander Gretchaninov
Alexander Tikhonovich Gretchaninov was a Russian Romantic composer.-His life:Gretchaninov started his musical studies rather late because his father, a businessman, had expected the boy to take over the family firm...
, Rubinstein
Rubinstein
Famous people named Rubinstein include:* Anton Rubinstein , a Russian pianist, composer and conductor, brother of Nikolai Rubinstein* Arthur Rubinstein , a famous Polish-American pianist, not related to Anton....
, and Kalinnikov. His accompanist in the project was Eleonora Bekova.
He died in Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
, Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
.