Vano Saradzhishvili

Saradzhishvili, Vano 

(also Ivan Petrovich Saradzhish-vili). Born May 1 (13), 1879, in the city of Signakhi; died Nov. 11, 1924, in Tbilisi. Soviet opera singer (tenor). People’s Artist of the Georgian SSR (1923).

Saradzhishvili began studying cello at a Tbilisi music school in 1898. He first studied voice in 1903 in St. Petersburg with I. P. Prianishnikov; he later took voice lessons from A. V. Panaeva-Kartseva. He received further training in Italy from 1906 to 1908. Saradzhishvili debuted in 1906 in St. Petersburg. Beginning in the following year he performed at theaters in Tbilisi, St. Petersburg, Saratov, Baku, and other cities.

Saradzhishvili was endowed with great vocal and dramatic talent. His roles included Shota in Arakishvili’s The Legend of Shota Rustaveli, Malkhaz in Paliashvili’s Daisi (Twilight),. Len-skii and German in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades, the Duke and Alfredo in Verdi’s Rigoletto and La Traviata, and Don José in Bizet’s Carmen. The Tbilisi Conservatory was named in honor of Saradzhisvili in 1947.