Petrova-Zvantseva, Vera

(née V. N. Petrova). Born Aug. 31 (Sept. 12), 1876, in Saratov; died Feb. 11, 1944, in Moscow. Soviet Russian mezzo-soprano and teacher. Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR (1931).

In 1897, Petrova-Zvantseva graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, where she had studied with V. M. Zarudnaia. Beginning in that same year, she sang at provincial theaters. Between 1900 and 1904 she performed at the Private Russian Opera in Moscow, and between 1905 and 1918 she appeared intermittently at the Zimin Opera Theater.

Outstanding among Petrova-Zvantseva’s varied repertoire were roles from the operas of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov: she played Kashcheevna in Kashchey The Immortal, Liubava in Sadko, and Liubasha in The Tsar’s Bride. Her other notable roles were Liubov’ and Ioanna in Tchaikovsky’s Mazepa and The Maid of Orleans, Carmen in Bizet’s opera of the same name, Amneris in Verdi’s Aida, and Dalila in Saint-Saëns’s Samson and Dalila.

From 1916 to 1931, Petrova-Zvantseva was a professor at the Moscow Conservatory.