Kazarnovskaya, Ljuba

Kazarnovskaya, Ljuba , admired Russian soprano; b. Moscow, July 18, 1960. She was 16 when she began vocal training with Nadezhda Malysheva in Moscow, and at 19 she enrolled at the Moscow Cons., where she continued her studies with Elena Shumilova. In 1982 she made her formal operatic debut as Tatiana at the Stanislavsky Theater in Moscow. She first sang at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow in 1983. In 1986 she scored a fine success as Leonora in La forza del destino at the Kirov Theater in Leningrad, where she remained as a principal artist until 1989. She also toured with the company abroad, notably as Tatiana at the Paris Opéra and at London’s Covent Garden in 1987. In 1989 she was engaged as a soloist in the Verdi Requiem at the Salzburg Festival, and subsequently she pursued a successful operatic and concert career in the West. In 1992 she made her North American debut as soloist in the Shostakovich 14^th Sym. with the Boston Sym. Orch. Her Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. followed later that year, as Tatiana, to critical acclaim. After singing Des-demona there in 1993, she returned there to outstanding acclaim in 1994. In 1995 she sang Rimsky-Korsakov’s Fevronia during the Kirov company’s visit to the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Her engagements also took to her Milan’s La Scala, the Vienna State Opera, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Hamburg State Opera, the Teatro Cólon in Buenos Aires, and Chicago’s Lyric Opera. As a concert artist, she appeared with leading orchs. and at principal festivals. In addition to her esteemed Russian repertoire, she has won notable success as Donna Anna, Vitellia, Marguerite, Amelia, Violetta, Mimi, and Salome.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire