Pavel Lisitsian
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Pavel Gerasimovich Lisitsian (Russian: Павел Герасимович Лисициан, Armenian: Պավել (Պողոս) Գերասիմի Լիսիցյան) (November 6, 1911 – July 6, 2004), was a Soviet baritone opera singer who performed in the Bolshoi Opera, Moscow from 1940 until his retirement from stage in 1966. People's Artist of the USSR (1956).
Biography
Lisitsian was born into an Armenian family living in the Russian city of Vladikavkaz, where his father was a mineworker. Pavel first worked in diamond drilling, then as a welder apprentice hoping to follow his father's steps. He first began to sing in a church choir before moving to Leningrad to study cello (1930).
As a strong-voiced soloist[according to whom?] of a local amateur group he was commissioned to the Leningrad Conservatory.
He started his vocal career in the Maly Leningrad State Opera Theatre and then in the Yerevan Opera House, where he performed the leads for three years.
From 1940 to 1966, Pavel Lisitsian was the soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre and performed parts of Yeletsky, Onegin, Mazepa, and Robert (in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, Eugene Onegin, Mazeppa, and Iolanta respectively), Germont and Amonasro (in Verdi's Traviata and Aida), Escamilo (in Bizet’s Carmen), Tatul (Spendiarov’s Almast), Arsaces II (Arshak II) (Chuhadzhyan's Arshak II), Napoleon (in Prokofiev's War and Peace), and others.
During a concert tour of the US in 1960, he appeared at the Metropolitan Opera as Amonasro. He died in Moscow at age 92.
His daughters Karina and Ruzanna are successful opera singers who frequently perform together. His grand daughter pianist Elena Lisitsian lives in New York City and his grandson Paul Asoyan lives in Encinitas, California.
Sources
- (in English) Biography
- Horst Seeger, Opernlexikon, 4th ed. 1989, Henschelverlag Kunst und Gesellschaft Berlin, GDR, ISBN 3-362-00014-2 (in German)
- Oxford Music Online, Alan Blyth: "Lisitsyan, Pavel Gerasim" (subscription required)
- 1911 births
- 2004 deaths
- People from Terek Oblast
- People from Vladikavkaz
- Communist Party of the Soviet Union members
- Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan alumni
- Members of the Central Committee of the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
- People's Artists of the RSFSR
- People's Artists of the USSR
- Recipients of the Medal "For Courage" (Russia)
- Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples
- Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour
- Operatic baritones
- Russian people of Armenian descent
- Armenian male opera singers
- Russian male opera singers
- Russian music educators
- Soviet male opera singers
- Soviet music educators