David Andguladze was a Georgian, Soviet opera singer, dramatic tenor, chamber singer, and music teacher. He was born on October 15, 1895, in Bakhvi, Georgia.
From 1925, he performed with the Tbilisi Opera Studio under K. A. Marjanishvili. He made his stage debut in 1926 as Richard in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera at the Georgian Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Tbilisi. He graduated from the Tbilisi Conservatory in 1927, where he studied with Professor E. A. Vronsky. From 1927 to 1929, he was a soloist at the Moscow Opera Theatre named for K. S. Stanislavsky; from 1933 to 1935, he sang at the Bolshoi Theatre.
Andguladze was a soloist at the Z. P. Paliashvili Georgian Theatre of Opera and Ballet from 1929 to 1933 and again from 1935 to 1955, serving as its artistic director from 1945 to 1949. His roles included Tariel in Sh. Mshvelidze’s The Tale of Tariel, Abesalom in Paliashvili’s Abesalom and Eteri, Hermann in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, Radamès in Verdi’s Aida, Otello in Verdi’s Otello, and Canio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. He also performed in concerts as a chamber singer and toured cities across the Soviet Union.
From 1946, Andguladze taught at the V. Sarajishvili Tbilisi Conservatory and became a professor in 1958. His students included Zurab Anjaparidze, Nodar Andguladze, and Zurab Sotkilava. He received the title People's Artist of the Georgian SSR in 1941 and People's Artist of the USSR in 1950. In 1947, he received the Stalin Prize for his performance as Tariel. He died in Tbilisi on November 29, 1973, and was buried at the Didube Pantheon.