Mikisha, Mikhail Venediktovich

Born May 25 (June 6), 1885, in Mirgorod, in present-day Poltava Oblast; died Nov. 20, 1971, in Kiev. Soviet Ukrainian singer (dramatic tenor) and teacher.

Mikisha studied voice at the N. V. Lysenko Kiev Musical Drama School from 1905 to 1909. He was a pupil of A. F. Myshuga. Beginning in 1914 he was a soloist at opera houses in Kiev, Moscow (Bolshoi Theater, 1922–30) and Kharkov. Until 1919 he sang both dramatic and lyric tenor parts. Mikisha’s principal roles were the Pretender in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, Herman in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, Canio in Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci, Radames in Verdi’s Aïda, and Herod in R. Strauss’ Salomé. He retired from the stage in 1944. Mikisha taught at the Kharkov Conservatory (from 1937) and the Kiev Conservatory (from 1944; professor, from 1946).