Lydia Babich was a Romanian and Moldovan opera singer with a coloratura lyric soprano voice and a music educator. She was born in Bakhmut into a Jewish family that soon moved to Chisinau. Her father worked as a pharmacist and businessman, and her mother was active in charitable and civic work.
From 1910 to 1915, Babich studied piano at the music school and college of the Chisinau branch of the Russian Musical Society. She graduated in piano and voice from the Ludwig van Beethoven Music and Drama Institute in Odessa in 1918. During her studies, she began vocal training with baritone Yakov Gorsky. From 1918 to 1922, she performed with the Bessarabian Opera in Chisinau and studied with Lydia Lipkovskaya; from 1922 to 1925, she continued her training at the Milan Conservatory with Vittorio Vanzo.
Babich made her debut at the Bucharest Lyric Theatre, later the Bucharest Royal Opera, on December 27, 1925, as Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata. She also sang in the Romanian Song Society’s chorus until 1934. During the 1930s she was a leading soprano at the Bucharest Opera, with roles including Violetta and Gilda in Verdi’s La Traviata and Rigoletto, Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust, Manon Lescaut in Massenet’s Manon, Konstanze in Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio, and Lakmé in Delibes’s Lakmé. She gave recitals in cities across Europe with Romanian conductors including Alfred Alessandrescu, Egizio Massini, Ionel Perlea, Nona Otescu, and Isaac Bain. In 1931, she received the Order and Diploma of Cultural Merit for her contributions to opera.
Babich returned to Chisinau and performed as a soloist with the city Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra. In 1944, she joined the restored Chisinau Conservatory as a vocal instructor and became one of the leading voice teachers in the republic. Her students included Valentina Savitskaya, Tamara Cheban, Polina Botezat, Y. I. Levitskaya, Zh. Polupanova, and R. Babenko. From 1958, she also served as vocal consultant to the Doina Choir Chapel. She was married to conductor Egizio Massini, founder and director of the Romanian Royal Opera.
Babich died in Chisinau on August 7, 1970.