The 20th-Century Baritone: Pavel Lisitsian (1911-2004)

 The voices of Lawrence Tibbett Leonard Warren, Robert Merrill, Ettore Bastianini, and Tito Gobbi have been preserved in complete recordings of the great Verdi roles. An earlier cohort of Italians, Antonio Scotti, Pasquale Amato, and Giuseppe De Luca, left a rich legacy of recorded excerpts. And my apologies to those excellent singers whose names I have omitted. But no list of Verdians should be without Pavel Lisitsian, a Soviet artist of Armenian descent who was the principal baritone of the Bolshoi from 1940 until the mid-1960s.

Lisitsian rarely sang outside of the Soviet Union. He did make a rapturously reviewed recital tour of the United States in 1960 and sang twice in opera, once in New York (March 3), once in San Francisco (as Valentin in Faust) a month later. In a chilling coincidence, his sole Met appearance was as Amonasro on the night before Leonard Warren, the Met’s leading baritone, died onstage while singing in a performance of La Forza del destino.

Along with the standard Russian repertoire, Lisitsian sang the major Verdi roles, all in the vernacular, as was the custom even in the major European opera houses through the 1950s.

Lisitsian’s instrument is utterly even from top to bottom, resting on an endless supply of breath that gives him access to a wide dynamic span. His pristine timbre sustains a clarity of diction and an expressive range of interpretive choices. His recording of Renato’s aria from Un Ballo in mashcera, “Eri tu,” encompasses the character’s fortissimo rage over what he thinks is his wife’s betrayal and his pianissimo regret at the loss of her affection.

 

 

Prince Yeletsky’s aria in Act II of The Queen of Spades, a heartfelt declaration of love, demonstrates Lisitsian’s exceptional legato, the precision of his intonation and attacks, and ease throughout his range. This recording is the gold standard for one of Tchaikovsky’s most haunting melodies.

Lisitsian concertized extensively. His recitals included Russian art songs, but also German lieder, in Russian. (During his North American tour, he sang in German and Italian.) Here is Schubert’s “An die Musik” in an odd arrangement with orchestra, taken much more slowly than by most artists, but overflowing with passion and gorgeous tone.

 

 

P. S. YouTube has a good number of items performed by Lisitsian, all of them worth hearing. Here is the Act III Aïda-Amonasro duet, apparently from a live performance at Moscow’s Bolshoi, with the thrilling Galina Vishnevskaya (her 1961 Met Aïda was memorable).