Vasily Petrov

Vasily Petrov was a Russian and Soviet bass singer, People's Artist of the RSFSR (1933). He was born on 12 March 1875 in the village of Alekseyevka in Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire, into the family of a rural tailor, and died on 4 May 1937 in Moscow, USSR.

He received his primary education at a two-class school and then studied at the Volchansk Teachers' Seminary. As a boy he began playing the violin and achieved notable success, but after accidentally injuring a finger he was forced to give up instrumental study. In search of work he joined a bishop's choir, first in Kharkov and later in Taganrog.

In 1895 he was invited to work with Sukhodolsky's touring Ukrainian opera troupe in Taganrog. Three years later he entered the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied singing in the class of A. I. Bartsal. He graduated in 1902 and in the same year made his debut at the Bolshoi Theatre.

From 1902 until 1937 Petrov was a soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre, performing all the principal bass roles. He appeared together with such singers as Fyodor Chaliapin and Antonina Nezhdanova. He was regarded as one of the major representatives of Russian vocal art.

Petrov possessed a flexible and expressive voice of wide range, combining softness and beauty of tone with power and a coloratura technique rare for a bass. His repertoire included more than 80 roles in operas by Russian composers. In addition to his stage work, he also appeared as a concert singer and toured abroad.

In 1924 he was awarded the title Honored Artist of the Republic. From 1925 to 1929 he served as vocal director of the Stanislavsky Opera Theatre, and from 1935 to 1937 of the Bolshoi Theatre Opera Studio. In the last years of his life he also carried out teaching work at the Glazunov Music Technicum. He was buried at Vvedenskoye Cemetery in Moscow.

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