Grishko, Mikhail Stepanovich

Grishko, Mikhail Stepanovich 

Born Feb. 14 (27), 1901, in Mariupol’, present-day Zhdanov; died June 3, 1973. Soviet Ukrainian singer (baritone); People’s Artist of the USSR (1950). Born into the family of a worker.

Grishko graduated from the Odessa Musical College in 1926. He was a soloist in the opera and ballet theaters of Odessa (1924–27), Kharkov (1927–36), and Kiev (1936–64). One of the leading masters of the Soviet Ukrainian operatic school, he was gifted with a voice of rare beauty and power and with great acting abilities.

Grishkov’s main roles included Bogdan in Bogdan Khmel’nitskii by Dan’kevich, Ostap in Taras Bul’ba by Lysenko, Kiazo in Daisi by Paliashvili, Griaznoi in The Tsar’s Bride by Rimsky-Korsakov, Igor in Prince Igor by Borodin, and Rigoletto in Rigoletto by Verdi. His concert repertory included art songs and Ukrainian and Russian folk songs. He appeared in the motion picture Dzhurgai’s Shield (1944; State Prize of the USSR, 1950). He was awarded the Order of Lenin and four other orders, as well as medals.

REFERENCE

Stebun, I. Mikhail Stepanovich Grishko. Kiev, 1960.