Arnold Azrikan

He began first as a chorister at the Odessa Opera Theater in 1926, and in 1928 he made his debut there as Nathanael in Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann.

[2] In 1930, he was invited to the opera theater in Kharkov (the capital of Ukraine at that time) where he sang in the Ukrainian, Russian and Italian repertoires.

He was awarded the title of Honored Artist of Ukraine in 1940, and along with his friendly rival Yuri Kiporenko-Domansky, Azrikan was the leading tenor at the Kyiv Opera and Ballet Theatre until 1943.

[4] He toured the same year in Novosibirsk and soon he joined the Yekaterinburg (then called Sverdlovsk) Opera Theatre where he achieved his greatest recognition as a dramatic tenor in Otello.

He retired from stage in 1964 during his engagement with the Moldova Opera Theatre but returned to the same theater for his farewell performance in Otello in 1968.