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Antonina Vasilyevna Nezhdanova (Russian:Антонина Васильевна Нежданова, 16 June [O.S. 4 June] 1873[1] – 26 June 1950) was a Russian and Sovietlyric coloratura soprano.
Nezhdanova was born inKrivaya Balka [uk], nearOdessa,Kherson Governorate,Russian Empire (present-dayOdesa,Ukraine). In 1899, she entered theMoscow Conservatory. Upon her graduation three years later she joined theBolshoi Theatre, rapidly becoming its leading soprano. She often sang, too, at theMariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg and also in Kiev and Odessa. Paris heard Nezhdanova in 1912 (her only performance abroad), when she appeared opposite the tenorEnrico Caruso and the baritoneTitta Ruffo.[2]
Nezhdanova was the dedicatee ofSergei Rachmaninoff'sVocalise, and she was the first performer of the arrangement for soprano and orchestra, withSerge Koussevitzky conducting.[3] She created a number of operatic roles. After theRussian Revolution she stayed on at the Bolshoi, unlike some of her fellow opera singers, who left their native country for the West. In 1936, she began to teach singing in Moscow and was appointed a professor at theMoscow Conservatory in 1943.
She was married to the conductorNikolai Golovanov and died in Moscow in 1950.
Nezhdanova made a number of recordings that display the beauty and flexibility of her voice and the excellence of her technique. She is considered by opera historians and critics to have been one of the finest sopranos of the 20th century.[citation needed] However, most of Nezhdanova's critical acclaim originates from Soviet-era sources, whose reliability is not always beyond question. Her sole appearance on the European stage—in Paris, 1912—was not particularly consequential in terms of either critical breakthrough or future professional engagement abroad. In his Soviet diary entry of February 6, 1927,Sergei Prokofiev observed: “Nezhdanova is already a middle-aged lady, very tall and very lovable. People say she is already losing her voice.”[4]
In 1950,Stalin's government ordered the renaming of theOdessa Conservatory in honor of Nezhdanova, despite her having no connection to the institution.[5][6]
