Pavel Andreev

Born Feb. 25 (Mar. 9), 1874, in the village of Os’mino, St. Petersburg Province; died Sept. 14,1950, in Leningrad. Soviet Russian opera singer (bass-baritone). People’s Artist of the USSR (1939).

In 1903, Andreev graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he had studied in the singing class of S. Gabel’. In this same year he made his debut on the opera stage. Beginning in 1909 (for approximately 40 years) Andreev was a performer at the Mariinskii Theater (since 1920 known as the Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet). His roles included Ruslan (Glinka’s Ruslan and Liudmila), Prince Igor (Borodin’s Prince Igor), Boris Godunov (Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov), the Demon (Rubinstein’s The Demon), Holofernes (Serov’s Judith), Petr (Serov’s Enemy Force), Mizgir’ (Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden), Tomskii (Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades), Escamillo (Bizet’s Carmen), and Peter 1 (Lortzing’s The Tsar and the Carpenter). Andreev also appeared in concert recitals, performing operatic arias, art songs, and Russian folk songs. Andreev’s voice was resonant, with a beautiful timbre, and distinguished by a wide range; the singer performed baritone roles as well as bass parts. His most successful roles were those of the Russian repertoire, especially the epic ones. From 1919 he engaged in teaching, and, beginning in 1926, was a professor at the Leningrad Conservatory. Andreev was awarded the Order of Lenin.