Lemeshev, Sergei Yakovlevich

 (Russian: Сергей Яковлевич Лемешев) (1902 - 1977)

Russian tenor

Sergei Lemechev as Lenski in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, signed portrait (Motisi collection)

After graduating from the Moscow Conservatory in 1925, Lemeshev preferred to sing major roles in provincial theaters rather than minor ones in the capital. He made a name for himself at opera houses in Sverdlovsk, Harbin (China) and Tbilisi, before returning to Moscow in 1931. He made his Bolshoi debut as Berendeï in Rimsky-Korsakov's Snégourotchka. Lemeshev went on to become one of the Bolshoi's leading tenors, alongside Ivan Kozlovsky.

Lemeshev soon became the standard-setting Lenski, a role he performed 500 times at the Bolshoi until 1965, when he retired, and a 501st time on his seventieth birthday in 1972.

In addition to the Russian repertoire, he also excelled in the French and Italian Repertoires repertoires, and gave numerous recitals. He is the first to present a complete Tchaikovsky song cycle in five concerts.

From 1950, he taught at the Moscow Conservatory and tried his hand at directing (in 1951 with La Traviata at Leningrad's Malij Theater; in 1957, with Werther at the Bolshoi).

Lemeshev died on June 26, 1977 in Moscow. One year after his death, an asteroid (4561 Lemeshev) was named in his honor.

Discover the artist's world through various documents: each image opens the door to one of his interpretations, his portraits in civilian clothes, his autographs or press articles about him from the period