Kuznetsova, Maria (Nikolaievna)

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Kuznetsova, Maria (Nikolaievna)

Kuznetsova, Maria (Nikolaievna), prominent Russian soprano; b. Odessa, 1880; d. Paris, April 25, 1966. She studied in St. Petersburg with Tartakov. She made her debut in an operatic production at the Cons, there (1904), then was a member of the Maryinsky Theater (1905–13), where she distinguished herself in Russian roles and as Juliette, Elsa, Carmen, and Madama Butterfly. She made guest appearances in Berlin (1908), at the Opéra (1908, 1910, 1912, 1914) and Opéra-Comique (1910) in Paris, and at Covent Garden in London (debut as Marguerite in Faust, 1909; returned in 1910, 1920). In 1915-16 she sang in Petrograd and in 1916 in Chicago. After the Russian Revolution (1918), she fled to Sweden; made appearances in Stockholm and Copenhagen (1920), and then toured with her own opera company; later was artistic adviser of Barcelona’s Teatro Liceo.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire