Elena Shumilova

Elena Shumilova

b. 1913 (Yuzha) · d. 1994 (Moscow)

Elena Shumilova (full name Elena Ivanovna Shumilova; 15 September 1913 – 4 January 1994) was a Soviet operatic soprano and music teacher. She was born in the village of Yuzha, Vyazniki District, Vladimir Governorate, Russian Empire, now the city of Yuzha in Ivanovo Oblast.

In 1941, Shumilova graduated from the Moscow Conservatory named after Pyotr Tchaikovsky, where she studied in the class of Kseniya Dorliak. From 1941 to 1959 she was a soloist at the Bolshoi Theatre.

Her operatic repertoire included Tatiana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Jemmy in Rossini's William Tell, Margarita in Gounod's Faust, Mařenka in Smetana's The Bartered Bride, Tamara in Rubinstein's The Demon, Mercedes in Bizet's Carmen, and Kupava in Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden. She also performed roles in operas by Rimsky-Korsakov, Serov, Moniuszko, Verdi, Mussorgsky, and Dargomyzhsky.

From 1967 to 1977, Shumilova taught at the Gnesins Music College, and from 1977 until 1994 she taught at the Moscow Conservatory, where she was an associate professor. Her students included Lyubov Kazarnovskaya, Maria Meshcheryakova, and Tamara Koval.

She received the Stalin Prize, second class, in 1949 for her performance as Mařenka in the Bolshoi Theatre branch production of The Bartered Bride. She was named an Honored Artist of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1958 and received the Order of the Badge of Honor in 1951. Shumilova died in Moscow in 1994 and was buried at Donskoye Cemetery.

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