Mikhail Alexandrovich Buchbinder |

Mikhail Buchbinder

Soviet opera conductor, People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1961).

Buchbinder’s first conducting classes were held at the Tbilisi Conservatory under the guidance of M. Bagrinovsky and E. Mikeladze, and later he studied at the Leningrad Conservatory (1932-1937) in the class of I. Musin. At that time, he happened to work in the opera studio of the Leningrad Conservatory, collaborate with the outstanding master of the stage, singer I. Ershov and experienced director E. Kaplan. This allowed him to gain considerable practical experience during his student years. In 1937, the young conductor began working at the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre, and also led the Georgian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

In the post-war years, Buchbinder was the chief conductor of the Opera and Ballet Theater in Ulan-Ude (1946-1950). Here, under his direction, operas by L. Knipper and S. Ryauzov were staged for the first time.

In 1950-1967, Buchbinder headed one of the best teams in the country – the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater. Among his major works are Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina by Mussorgsky, Sadko by Rimsky-Korsakov, Bank-Ban by Erkel (for the first time in the USSR), stage version of G. Sviridov’s Pathetic Oratorio. Together with the theater, the conductor toured Moscow (1955, 1960, 1963). Since 1957, he also taught the opera class of the Novosibirsk Conservatory, and since 1967 – at the Tbilisi Conservatory.

L. Grigoriev, J. Platek