Lavrovskaia, Elizaveta Andreevna

(married name, Tserteleva). Born Oct. 1 (13), 1845, in Kashin, now in Kalinin Oblast; died Feb. 4, 1919, in Moscow. Russian singer (contralto).

Lavrovskaia studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. She sang at the Mariinskii Theater (1868–72 and 1879–80) and at the Bolshoi Theater (1890–91). Her best roles were Ratmir (Ruslan and Liudmila by Glinka), Rogneda (Rogneda by Serov), and Grunia (Enemy Host by Serov). Her later career was confined primarily to concert performances in Russia and abroad, which earned her world renown. P. I. Tchaikovsky dedicated six romances and the vocal quartet Night to Lavrovskaia. She gave him the idea for an opera based on Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin. In 1888 she became a professor at the Moscow Conservatory.