A Muscovite, Smirnoff was a pupil of Emiliya Pavlovskaya and Alexander Dodonov. He made his St Petersburg debut in ...

A Muscovite, Smirnoff was a pupil of Emiliya Pavlovskaya and Alexander Dodonov. He made his St Petersburg debut in 1903 as Gigi in Eugenio Domenico Esposito's La Camorra. The venue was the Hermitage Theatre. In 1904, Smirnoff became a member of the Bolshoi company in Moscow, singing there until 1910. He then sang at the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg, from 1911 to 1917. Smirnoff made his French debut at the Paris Opera in 1907. His successful Parisian performances led to an invitation for him to appear at the Metropolitan Opera, where he sang in 1911-12. Competition from internationally renowned tenors Enrico Caruso and John McCormack, who were also singing at the Met at the time, led Smirnoff to limited success with New York audiences. In 1914, he performed in the 'Russian Seasons' at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, London. He never sang in the United States again, except for two performances of Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades with the Washington National Opera - a semi-professional company not associated with his current name - in 1926. The tenor left his homeland after the Russian revolution of 1917, preferring to continue his career in the West. Among the cities he visited were Berlin, Monte Carlo, Milan, Rome, Madrid and Buenos Aires. In 1929, he returned to the Soviet Union for a concert tour. Smirnoff became a citizen of the Estonian Republic on 4 February 1932, and took an active part as a soloist in the opera house 'Estonia'. He taught singing in London and Athens and later retired to Riga, where he died in 1944, aged 61. Smirnoff was equally at home performing opera roles in Russian, French or Italian opera. His voice had a plaintive tone with easy high notes, great breath control and a characteristic vibrato. Smirnoff's main tenor rivals in Moscow and St Petersburg before the 1917 revolution had been Leonid Sobinov (1871-1934) and Ivan Yershov (1867-1943). Yershov undertook heroic parts such as Siegfried and Othello that Smirnov never attempted, but Sobinov's repertoire was similar to Smirnoff's. Postcard autographed by the famous tenor Excellent condition Photo postcard
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This lot is under temporary import in the UK.
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