Valeria Barsova |

Valeria Barsova

She studied singing with her sister M. V. Vladimirova. In 1919 she graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in the singing class of U. A. Mazetti. Stage activity began in 1917 (at the Zimin Opera House). In 1919 she sang at the Theater of the KhPSRO (Artistic and Educational Union of Workers’ Organizations), at the same time she performed with F. I. Chaliapin in the opera The Barber of Seville in the Hermitage Garden.

In 1920 she made her debut as Rosina at the Bolshoi Theatre, until 1948 she was a soloist at the Bolshoi Theatre. In 1920-24 she sang at the Opera Studio of the Bolshoi Theater under the direction of K. S. Stanislavsky and the Musical Studio of the Moscow Art Theater under the direction of V. I. Nemirovich-Danchenko (here she performed the role of Clerette in the operetta Madame Ango’s Daughter by Lecoq).

Her best roles were created on the stage of Barsova’s Bolshoi Theater: Antonida, Lyudmila, Shemakhanskaya Queen, Volkhova, Snegurochka, Swan Princess, Gilda, Violetta; Leonora (“Troubadour”), Margarita (“Huguenots”), Cio-Cio-san; Musetta (“La Boheme”), Lakme; Manon (“Manon” Massenet), etc.

Barsova is one of the largest Russian singers. She had a light and mobile voice of a silvery timbre, a brilliantly developed coloratura technique, and high vocal skills. She performed as a concert singer. In 1950-53 she taught at the Moscow Conservatory (professor since 1952). She has toured abroad since 1929 (Germany, Great Britain, Turkey, Poland, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, etc.). People’s Artist of the USSR (1937). Laureate of the Stalin Prize of the first degree (1941).