Zoia Mikhailovna Gaidai

Born May 19 (June 1), 1902, in Tambov; died Apr. 21, 1965, in Kiev. Soviet Ukrainian soprano. People’s Artist of the USSR (1944).

Gaidai graduated in 1927 from the N. V. Lysenko Institute of Music and Drama (Kiev), where she studied singing under E. A. Murav’eva. From 1928 to 1955 she was a soloist with the Kiev Opera and Ballet Theater (from 1930 to 1934 at the Kharkov theater). Gaidai taught at the Kiev Conservatory from 1947 to 1965, and she was a professor there from 1963 to 1965. She created brilliant musical and dramatic images in the operas of many Ukrainian composers. Among her roles were Natalka (Lysenko’s Natalka-Poltavka), Oksana (The Zaporozhets Beyond the Danube by Gulak-Artemovskii), and Liuba Shevtsova (The Young Guards by Meitus). Gaidai’s many roles in the classical repertoire included Tat’iana (Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin), the Snow Maiden (Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden), Cio-Cio-San (Puccini’s Madame Butterfly), and Violetta (Verdi’s La Traviata). She also performed as a chamber singer. Gaidai toured many Soviet and foreign cities. She received the State Prize of the USSR in 1941 and was awarded two orders, as well as medals.