Valentina Savitskaya
Valentina Savitskaya, born Valentina Taratunskaya, was a Moldavian Soviet opera singer, a soprano. She was born on August 10, 1927, in Bessarabia, and died on March 9, 2020, in Chisinau. She was named People's Artist of the Moldavian SSR in 1964. She was the sister of Tamara Cheban.
Savitskaya was born into a peasant family. Her father, Saveliy Pavlovich Taratunsky, was a resident of the Sirbinki hamlet in the Black Sea Governorate, and her mother was Alexandra Petrovna Taratunskaya, née Batyr.
From 1947 she performed as a singer on radio. In 1954 she graduated from the Chisinau Conservatory, where she studied with D. G. Gershfeld and L. O. Babich. From 1952 to 1956 she worked at the Moldavian Musical-Dramatic Theatre.
From 1956 she appeared as a soloist of the Moldavian Opera and Ballet Theatre, beginning with the theatre's very first premiere, David Gershfeld's opera Grozovan. The role of Florica in that opera was created by the composer especially for the young singer. Among Savitskaya's well-known roles were Marfa, Desdemona, Micaela, Violetta, and Margarita.
She also performed as a concert singer. Savitskaya won first prize at the International Festival of Youth and Students in Warsaw in 1955 and second prize in Moscow in 1957.