Savranskii, Leonid

Savranskii, Leonid Filippovich 

Born Apr. 16 (28), 1876, in the village of Togancha, in what is now Cherkassy Oblast; died Sept. 11, 1966, in Moscow. Soviet dramatic baritone and teacher. People’s Artist of the Republic (1934).

Savranskii studied under M. V. Zotova at the Kiev Music School. From 1903 to 1908 he was a soloist with opera companies in Irkutsk, Riga, and Odessa; from 1908 to 1912 he performed at the People’s House in St. Petersburg, and from 1912 to 1944, at the Bolshoi Theater. His best roles included Griaz-noi in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride (its first performance at the Bolshoi Theater, 1916), the title role in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, Amonasro in Verdi’s Aïda, Scarpia in Puccini’s Tosca, and Frederick of Telramund in Wagner’s Lohengrin. From 1948 to 1954, Savranskii taught at the Moscow Conservatory, becoming a professor in 1952; I. K. Arkhipova was one of his students.

Savranskii was awarded two orders.