Nelepp, Georgii Mikhailovich

Born Apr. 7 (20), 1904, in the village of Bobruiki, present-day Chernigov Oblast, Ukrainian SSR; died June 18, 1957, in Moscow. Soviet Russian dramatic tenor. People’s Artist of the USSR (1951). Member of the CPSU from 1940.

In 1930, Nelepp graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory (I. S. Tomars’ class). From 1929 to 1944 he was a soloist at the Leningrad Theater of Opera and Ballet, and from 1944 to 1957 at the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR. One of the best Soviet opera singers, Nelepp was a highly skilled actor. He possessed a sonorous, soft voice capable of rich timbre. He was noted for the richness of his characterizations and for the austerity and nobility of his artistic form.

Nelepp’s roles included German in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, lurii in Tchaikovsky’s The Sorceress (State Prize of the USSR, 1942), Sadko in the opera of the same name by Rimsky-Korsakov (State Prize of the USSR, 1950), and Sobinin in Glinka’s Ivan Susanin. He also sang the roles of Radames in Verdi’s Aï da, Don José in Bizet’s Carmen, Florestan in Beethoven’s Fidelio, Jeník in Smetana’s The Bartered Bride (State Prize of the USSR, 1949), Matiushenko in Chishko’s The Battleship “Potemkin,” and Kakhovskii in Shaporin’s The Decembrists. He was awarded three orders.