Mikhailov-Stoian, Konstantin Ivanovich

Born Mar. 25, 1853, in Bol’shoi Buialyk, in present-day Petrovka, in Kominternovskoe Raion, Odessa Oblast; died June 13, 1914, in Sofia. Bulgarian opera singer (lyric tenor) and theatrical figure.

Mikhailov-Stoian was trained in the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He sang at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow from 1888 to 1890 and at the Mariinskii Theater in St. Petersburg in 1893 and 1894. He also performed in theaters in Kiev, Odessa, Saratov, and other cities. In 1907 Mikhailov-Stoian settled in Bulgaria. In 1908 he became one of the organizers of the Bulgarian Opera Association, which fostered the development of a national theater of music. He subsequently worked for the association as its director, stage director, and singer. Mikhailov-Stoian’s roles included Manrico in Verdi’s II Trovatore, Baian in Glinka’s Ruslan and Liudmila, the Prince in Dargomyzhskii’s The Mermaid, and the title role in Gounod’s Faust. He wrote theoretical works on the art of singing.