Pavel Lisitsian

Pavel Gerasimovich Lisitsian (Russian: Павел Герасимович Лисициан, Armenian: Պավել (Պողոս) Գերասիմի Լիսիցյան; November 6, 1911 – July 6, 2004), was a Soviet baritone opera singer who performed in the Bolshoi Opera, Moscow from 1940 until his retirement from stage in 1966.

Pavel Lisitsian was born 6 November 1911 in Vladikavkaz, Vladikavkazsky okrug, Terek Oblast, Caucasus Viceroyalty, Russian Empire.

Pavel first worked in diamond drilling, then as a welder apprentice hoping to follow his father's steps.

From 1940 to 1966, Pavel Lisitsian was the soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre and performed parts of Yeletsky, Onegin, Mazepa, and Robert (in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, Eugene Onegin, Mazeppa, and Iolanta respectively), Germont and Amonasro (in Verdi's Traviata and Aida), Escamilo (in Bizet’s Carmen), Tatul (Spendiarov’s Almast), Arsaces II (Arshak II) (Chuhadzhyan's Arshak II), Napoleon (in Prokofiev's War and Peace), and others.

And in San Francisco, at the Cosmopolitan Opera on April 1 1960, he sang in the cast of Faust (along with Dorothy Warenskjold and Norman Treigle), in tenorJussi Bjorling's final operatic performance before his death.