Today is the birthday of Alexander Stepanovich Pirogov - Russian, Soviet opera singer (bass), a representative of the Pirogovs singing dynasty.

While his stage activity, Alexander Stepanovich Pirogov performed over forty parts in operas by Russian and foreign composers. During his time at the Bolshoi, he sang entire essential classical Russian and foreign bass repertoire, as well as a number of roles in the Soviet operas. The part of Boris Godunov in the same name opera by Modest Mussorgsky is considered the magnum opus in his career.

He performed as a chamber singer as well and his repertoire was huge. First of all, the songs by Mussorgsky, romances by Dargomyzhsky, Borodin, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and folk songs. In his chamber repertoire, the artist demonstrated the mastery of skill of a musician-interpreter that possesses the means of psychological expressiveness, wide range of timbres, dynamics, and intonations. In large vocal and symphonic works, the artist captured the scope of feelings and power of dramatic expression. He was among the first performers of the oratorios "The Legend of the Battle for the Russian Land" (premiered in 1939, the part of Dmitry Donskoy) and "On the Kulikovo Field" (premiered in 1944, the role of the Warrior) by Y. Shaporin, "Yemelyan Pugachev" by M Koval. He possessed a voice of rare beauty and expressiveness, a wide range and unique timbre.

Here is how his contemporaries and connoisseurs of singing art spoke about the singer:

"A beautiful, powerful voice, a kind of artistic personality, excellent stage performance help him always be convincing, always own the audience", Mark Reisen

“Knowing Pirogov for many years, we ... admired his efficiency, indefatigability, tireless striving for improvement ... An excellent vocalist, Pirogov never revels in his voice, never demonstrates it. Singing for him is not an end in itself, but the artist’s medium of expressing thoughts and the mood of a hero", Sergey Lemeshev.

“The voice of a large, peculiar timbre, the word is expressive, the movements are sculptural, everything is finished to the smallest detail, is presented to the auditorium on a large scale ...”, Galina Vishnevskaya

We invite you to listen to the musical selection comprised of bright operatic parts performed by the artist.

Sources:
Kino-Teatr.RU https://www.kino-teatr.ru/teatr/acter/m/sov/44716/bio/
https://www.bolshoi.ru/