Mariia Litvinenko-Volgemut

(married name, Vol’gemut). Born, according to recent data, Feb. 1 (13), 1892, in Kiev; died Apr. 3, 1966, in Kiev. Soviet Ukrainian singer (lyric and dramatic soprano). Pedagogue. People’s Artist of the USSR (1936). Member of the CPSU from 1944.

Litvinenko-Vol’gemut graduated in 1912 from the Kiev School of Music, where she studied singing, and made her debut in N. K. Sadovskii’s Ukrainian company. She performed in opera theaters of St. Petersburg (1914–16), Vinnitsa (1919–22), Kharkov (1923–35), and Kiev (1935–53). Litvinenko-Vol’gemut possessed a strong, pure voice and a highly developed vocal technique. She created vivid characterizations in roles with national color, including Varvara (Bogdan Khmel’nitskii by Dan’-kevich), Nastia and Terpelikha (Taras Bul’ba and Natalka From Poltava by Lysenko), and Odarka (The Zaporozhy’e Cossack Beyond the Danube by Gulak-Artemovskii). She also performed parts from the classical repertoire.

Litvinenko-Vol’gemut became a professor at the Kiev Conservatory in 1944. She received the State Prize of the USSR in 1946 and was awarded the Order of Lenin and three other orders.