Mark Reizen

Reizen was born into a Jewish family of mine workers in 1895 at Zaitsevo village in Yekaterinoslav Governorate.

He debuted at the Kharkiv Opera in 1921 as Pimen in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, and in 1925 moved to the Mariinsky Theatre in Leningrad.

A tall man commanding a strong stage presence, he joined the Bolshoi Theatre in 1930, remaining there as a principal bass until his retirement in 1954.

Among his roles were: Ivan Susanin and Ruslan in the two Glinka operas, Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville by Rossini, Mephistopheles in Faust by Gounod, Prince Gremin in Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky, Salieri in Mozart and Salieri and the Viking guest in Sadko by Rimsky-Korsakov, the old gypsy in Aleko by Rachmaninoff, Wotan in Wagner's Ring of the Nibelungs, Konchak in Prince Igor by Borodin, Philip II and Procida in Verdi's two French grand operas, and so on.

He gave an important recital for his 80th birthday, and for his 90th sang Prince Gremin (in Eugene Onegin) at the Bolshoi in Moscow in July 1985.