Valeria Barsova

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Valeria Barsova

| native_name_lang = ru

| native_name = {{nobold|Валерия Барсова}}

| image = 200px

| alt =

| caption = Barsova in 1938

| birth_name = Kaleria Vladimirova

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1892|6|13}}

| birth_place = Astrakhan, Russian Empire

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1967|12|13|1892|6|13}}

| death_place = Sochi, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union

| nationality =

| other_names =

| instrument = Singing

| occupation = Singer

}}

Valeria Vladimirovna Barsova{{efn|{{langx|ru|Валерия Владимировна Барсова|{{transliteration|ru|Valeriya Vladimirovna Barsova}}}}}} (13 June 1892{{spaced ndash}}13 December 1967, born Kaleria Vladimirova),{{efn|{{langx|ru|Калерия Владимирова|{{transliteration|ru|Kaleriya Vladimirova}}}}}}{{cite web |title=Барсова Валерия Владимировна |url=https://theatre-museum.ru/srv/object/209023 |website=Theatre Museums and Archives of Russia and the Russian Abroad |access-date=2 October 2024}} PAU, was a Russian operatic soprano, one of the leading lyric-coloratura sopranos of the first half of the 20th century in Russia.

Life and career

Valeria Barsova was born in Astrakhan and first studied the piano with Estonian composer Artur Kapp. She then studied singing at the Moscow Conservatory with Mazetti. In 1915, she was singing in a Moscow cabaret when she was noticed by Sergei Zimin, director of the Zimin Opera, where she made her operatic debut in 1917, as Gilda in Rigoletto. Other roles at this theatre included; Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Constance in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, the four heroines of Les contes d'Hoffmann, Nedda in Pagliacci.

In 1919, she sang Rosina as a last minute replacement for prima-donna Antonina Nezhdanova, at the Hermitage Theatre in Saint Petersburg, opposite Feodor Chaliapin. She then appeared at the Stanislavski Theatre and the Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre, notably as Clairette in La fille de Madame Angot.

She finally made her debut at the Bolshoi Theatre in 1920 where she was to sing every seasons until 1948. Besides Italian and French roles such as Gilda, Violetta, Mimì, Butterfly, Juliette, Manon, she also excelled in Russian operas, notably the leading female roles in works such as Ruslan and Lyudmila, The Snow Maiden, A Life for the Tsar, Sadko, The Queen of Spades, The Golden Cockerel.

In 1929, she sang in concert in Berlin and made a tour of Poland.

After retiring from the stage, she taught at the Moscow Conservatory from 1950 until 1953. She retired in Sochi on the Black Sea, where she died in Sochi at 75.

Notes

References

[http://hosting.operissimo.com/triboni/exec?method=com.operissimo.artist.webDisplay&id=ffcyoieagxaaaaaaxwdt&xsl=webDisplay&searchStr=Valeria%20barsova "Barsowa Valeria"], Operissimo.com

Category:1892 births

Category:1967 deaths

Category:People from Astrakhan

category:People from Astrakhan Governorate

Category:Communist Party of the Soviet Union members

Category:Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1938–1947

Category:Soviet women opera singers

Category:Actresses from the Russian Empire

Category:Russian film actresses

Category:Russian operatic sopranos

Category:Soviet film actresses

Category:20th-century Russian actresses