Labinsky, Andrei (Markovich)

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Labinsky, Andrei (Markovich)

Labinsky, Andrei (Markovich), Russian tenor; b. Kharkov, July 26, 1871; d. Moscow, Aug. 8, 1941. He went to St. Petersburg, where he joined the chorus of the Maryinsky Theater. Following studies with Gabel, he made his operatic debut at the Maryinsky Theater in 1897, where he sang regularly from 1899 to 1912. In 1907 he created the role of Vsevolod in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Kitezh there. From 1912 to 1924 he was a member of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. He taught at the Moscow Cons, from 1920. His finest roles included Don José, Lohengrin, Berendey in The Snow Maiden, Sinodal in The Demon, and Sobinin in A Life for the Czar.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire