Frinberg, Artur Fritsevich

(also A. Frīnbergs). Born Feb. 25, 1916, in Melluzi, now part of Jurmala, Latvian SSR. Soviet dramatic tenor. People’s Artist of the USSR (1962). Member of the CPSU since 1953.

After singing for a period in amateur productions, Frinberg studied with R. Bērziņš. He was a soloist with the Latvian Theater of Opera and Ballet in Riga from 1946 to 1974. In 1975 the opera class at the Latvian Conservatory was put under his direction.

Frinberg’s repertoire includes more than 40 roles. Among them are Grishka Kuter’ma in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh, the pretender in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, Radames in Verdi’s Aïda, Canio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, Pedro in Albert’s The Valley, Otello in Verdi’s Otello, Tannhäuser in Wagner’s Tannhäuser, Herod in R. Strauss’ Salome, and German in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades. His roles also include Vižuts in Kalniņš Baņuta, Aivars in Zariņš To the New Shore, Pierre in Prokofiev’s War and Peace, and Sergei in Shostakovich’s Katerina Izmailova. Frinberg also makes concert appearances. He has performed in Finland, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Poland.

Frinberg received the State Prize of the USSR in 1950 and has been awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor and various medals.