Rudenko, Bella

Rudenko, Bella Andreevna 

Born Aug. 18, 1933, in Bokovo-Antratsit, now the city of Antratsit, Voroshilovgrad Oblast. Soviet Ukrainian lyric coloratura soprano. People’s Artist of the USSR (1960).

In 1956, Rudenko graduated from the Odessa Conservatory. She debuted at the Odessa Theater of Opera and Ballet in 1955. She became a soloist at the Ukrainian Theater of Opera and Ballet in Kiev in 1956 and a soloist with the Bolshoi Theater in 1973. Rudenko has a well trained voice and is dramatically gifted. Her roles have included Iolan in Maiboroda’s Milana, Natasha Rostova in Prokofiev’s War and Peace, Liudmila in Glinka’s Ruslan and Liudmila, Rosina in Rossini’s Barber of Seville, Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata, and Lucia in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. Rudenko also gives concerts and tours outside the USSR.

Rudenko received the State Prize of the USSR in 1971 and the Third Prize at the International Vocal Competition Festival in Toulouse in 1957. She has been awarded the Order of Lenin.

REFERENCE

Timofeev, V. Bela Andriivna Rudenko. Kiev, 1964.