Antonina Vasilevna Neshdanova - Topic
Antonina Vasilyevna Nezhdanova was a Russian and Soviet lyric coloratura soprano. Nezhdanova was born in Krivaya Balka, near Odessa, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire. In 1899, she entered the Moscow Conservatory. Upon her graduation three years later she joined the Bolshoi Theatre, rapidly becoming its leading soprano. She often sang, too, at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg and also in Kiev and Odessa. Paris heard Nezhdanova in 1912, when she appeared opposite the tenor Enrico Caruso and the baritone Titta Ruffo. Nezhdanova was the dedicatee of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Vocalise, and she was the first performer of the arrangement for soprano and orchestra, with Serge Koussevitzky conducting. She created a number...
