Galina Vishnevskaya was an outstanding opera singer and a world-class prima donna, as well as a stage director, actress, and public figure.
Galina Vishnevskaya passing in December 2012 was an irreplaceable loss, both professionally and personally. In the memories of her family, friends, audience and devoted fans, Galina Pavlovna will forever remain a benchmark of performing artistry, a brilliant artist with phenomenal vocal talent and inexhaustible creative energy. Her recordings and performances will remain forever, as will In the memories of her family, friends, audience members and devoted fans, Galina Pavlovna will forever remain a benchmark of performing artistry, a brilliant artist with phenomenal vocal talent and inexhaustible creative energy. Her recordings and performances will remain forever, as will the Centre for Opera Singing she created, to which she devoted the last years of her life.

Until her final days, Vishnevskaya worked with students at her Opera Singing Centre, passing on to them the joy of serving the art of opera.

Galina Vishnevskaya was born On October 25, 1926. People's Artist of the USSR, world-famous operatic star (lyric coloratura soprano), whose life was marked by poverty and splendour, ups and downs, forced departure and triumphant return to her homeland, Galina Vishnevskaya forever inscribed her name in the annals of world opera history as an unsurpassed singer whose unique voice, powerful and rich in timbre, combined with an iron will and brilliant charisma, allowed her to conquer the world's leading stages, from the Bolshoi Theatre to La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera.
Galina Pavlovna was born in Leningrad and survived the siege. She has been passionate about singing since childhood. In 1943-1944, she studied solo singing at the Rimsky-Korsakov Music School for Adults in Leningrad, then took private singing lessons. In 1966, she graduated as an external student from the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory.

From 1944 to 1947, she sang at the Leningrad Regional Operetta Theatre, first in the choir and then as a soloist. From 1947, she worked at the Leningrad Regional Philharmonic. In 1952, the 25-year-old singer almost accidentally auditioned for the Bolshoi Theatre trainee group; and the same year, she debuted in the roles of Leonora in the opera “Fidelio” by Ludwig van Beethoven and Tatyana in the opera Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Stage director Boris Pokrovsky called her ‘the trump card in the Bolshoi Theatre's deck,’ and very soon Galina Pavlovna became his brilliant prima donna.
During her 22 years at the Bolshoi Theatre, the singer performed solo roles in the “The Queen of Spades” by P. Tchaikovsky, in “Aida” and “La Traviata” by Giuseppe Verdi, in “The Tsar's Bride” by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, “Madama Butterfly” by Giacomo Puccini, and other operas. She participated in the first Russian stage productions of Sergei Prokofiev in “The Gambler” and Francis Poulenc's monodrama “The Human Voice” by Francis Poulenc. Many beholders remember Galina Vishnevskaya for her title role in the film opera Katerina Izmailova (1966) to music by Dmitri Shostakovich.

In 1955, at a reception at ‘The Metropol’ restaurant, 29-year-old Bolshoi Theatre prima Galina Vishnevskaya met 28-year-old cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. A brilliant career, a close-knit family, affecting love that never faded over the years – this couple had everything one could dream of. In 1956, their daughter Olga was born, followed two years later by Elena. The girls grew up believing that their mother was perfect, and even argued about who looked more like her. Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich became one of the most brilliant and talented creative couples in the world, complementing each other perfectly.

Challenging times came at the end of the 1960s. The couple publicly supported their friend, the disgraced Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Although they continued to perform as before, their names disappeared from the pages of newspapers, and then the family was banned from travelling abroad.
Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich each had their own careers, but they shared a single destiny that lasted half a century. In 1974, Galina Pavlovna and Mstislav Leopoldovich were expelled from the USSR (formally sent on a business trip) and lived in France, the United States and the United Kingdom. From a career perspective, their exile was not a disaster. The brilliant opera singer, cello genius and outstanding conductor were welcomed on the world's finest stages. In March 1978, the couple were stripped of their Soviet citizenship. As the newspaper ‘Izvestia’ wrote in an article entitled ‘ideological backsliders,’ the couple ‘engaged in anti-patriotic activities and discredited the Soviet social system.’

Galina Vishnevskaya performed at the Paris Opera, Covent Garden Theatre (London, UK), Metropolitan Opera (New York, USA) and La Scala (Milan, Italy). In 1982, after her triumphant performance as Tatyana in “Eugene Onegin” at the Paris Opera, Galina Vishnevskaya retired from the professional stage but continued to give concerts periodically.

G.P. Vishnevskaya wrote the book "Galina: A Life Story". The book was first published abroad in 1984–1985, in English and Russian, and in the USSR in 1991. It has been translated into dozens of languages, with a total circulation of 12 million copies. Based on the book, composer Marcel Landowski created the opera “Galina”, which was staged in France in 1996.

On November 10, 1989, Mikhail Gorbachev, Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, signed a decree restoring Soviet citizenship to G. Vishnevskaya and M. Rostropovich. However, they refused to accept a Soviet passport, and later a Russian one. Nevertheless, the couple got the possibility to visit Russia again. In 1991, the singer and her husband established the Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya Charitable Foundation. As a world-renowned singer with numerous merits and achievements in the field of musical art, Galina Pavlovna helped to secure a healthy future for about 20 million people as a co-founder of the Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya Charitable Foundation.

In 1993, Galina Pavlovna debuted as a dramatic actress on the stage of the Moscow Art Theatre named after A.P. Chekhov, playing the role of Empress Catherine II.
In September 2002, the Galina Vishnevskaya Opera Singing Centre opened in Moscow. In 2007, drama “Alexandra” by Alexander Sokurov was released. The main role was played by Galina Vishnevskaya.

The great singer passed away on December 11, 2012 in Zhukovka at the age of 87. She was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.