Ivan Patorzhinskii

Born Feb. 20 (Mar. 3), 1896, in the village of Petrovo-Svistunovo, now in Veseloe Raion, Zaporozh’e Oblast; died Feb. 22, 1960, in Kiev. Soviet Ukrainian singer (bass) and educator. People’s Artist of the USSR (1944). Member of the CPSU since 1946.

Patorzhinskii graduated from the conservatory in Ekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk) in 1922. Between 1925 and 1935 he was a soloist in the Kharkov opera house, and after 1935 a soloist in the Ukrainian Theater of Opera and Ballet in Kiev. Patorzhinskii was an outstanding Ukrainian singer, with a powerful, velvety voice. His roles included the title roles in Glinka’s Ivan Susanin and Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, the Miller in Dargomyzhskii’s The Mermaid, Mephistopheles in Gounod’s Faust, Don Basilio in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, Karas’ in Gulak-Artemovskii’s The Zaporozhian Cossack Beyond the Danube, the title role in Lysenko’s Taras Bulba (for this role Patorzhinskii received the State Prize of the USSR, 1942), and Val’ko in Meitus’ The Young Guard.

Patorzhinskii was also known as a singer of art songs. In 1946 he became a professor at the Kiev Conservatory. He was a deputy to the first through third convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, three other orders, and several medals.