Arthur Eisen has died

Yesterday, at the age of 81, People's Artist of the USSR Arthur Eisen died. He worked at the Bolshoi Theater for more than forty years - from 1956 to 2002, and he can safely be called the support of the theater and the support of the Bolshoi style of this theater. A powerful bass, a successor to the Russian bass tradition that existed even before the revolution, he calmly and confidently existed in the Soviet theater in those years when the theater was closed from all kinds of outside influences. His works, from his debut Don Basilio in “The Barber of Seville” through Varlaam in “Boris Godunov” and to Tsar Dodon, sung already in 1988, were distinguished not only by purely musical quality, but also by the excellence of the role and a bright acting talent.

This is not surprising, because Eisen started out in the drama theater. In 1944, immediately after graduating from school, he entered the Shchukin Theater School and upon graduation was accepted into the Vakhtangov Theater. But at the same time he took private singing lessons, and sang more and more - so much so that one of the concerts of the visiting Vakhtangov team in Ukraine somehow turned into his solo concert. In the end, Eisen realized that music was his main calling, and entered the Gnessin Institute, and from the third year continued his studies at the Conservatory.

During his studies, he worked in the Song and Dance Ensemble of the Soviet Army, and it was then that his fame began in the country. And his first international triumph came in 1955 - he became the gold laureate of the vocal competition at the V World Festival of Youth and Students in Warsaw. A year later there was a debut at the Bolshoi and a long work there. Broadcast of all the music that was heard in the main theater of the country - from Prokofiev (“War and Peace” and “Semyon Kotko”) to Muradeli (the role of Lenin was also in the singer’s repertoire).

A civil funeral service will take place in the atrium of the Bolshoi Theater Auxiliary Building on Friday, February 29, at 11.00.

Culture Department