Dear Friends,
So, who was this Ivan Kozlovsky character, anyway, you ask? Here are two videos of him which I hope you will enjoy. He has a light voice, not at all Italianate, but supremely expressive and inward. The first video he is singing together with Sergey Lemeshev, another Russian tenor with whom Kozlovsky was often compared. They sing altered lyrics to the “Ya lyublyu vas Olga” aria from Tchaikovsky’s Onyegin during a celebration for Anton Chekov’s wife, coincidentally also named Olga.
The second video contains three items: Kozlovsky singing a song to his daughter; rehearsing for Lensky’s aria on his out-of-tune piano at home; and then singing the full aria at the Bolshoi Theater with Melik-Pashayev conducting. Note how inward the expression is, and yet through this approach how much he is able to project. It is quite tragic and moving.
Here is the link:
mediafire.com/?94gt1s4pywt
Best,
Zsolt