Валерия Владимировна Барсова

Russian opera singer (lyric-coloratura soprano) (born June 1 (13), 1892 in Astrakhan – died December 13, 1967 in Sochi) Valeria Barsova studied piano and singing first at the Astrakhan College of Music, then at the Moscow Conservatory from which she graduated in 1919. Even before her graduation, she had her operatic debut at Moscow's Zimin Opera in 1917. Between 1920 and 1947, Barsova was a solo singer at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, making her Bolshoi debut as Rosina in Rossini's "The Barbier of Sevilla." Apart from opera, Barsova also performed chamber music. She had a repertoire of over 600 pieces that included arias from Russian and Western European operas, Russian lyric songs, and Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, English, Scottish, Irish, Norwegian, Spanish, and Greek folk songs. Starting in 1929, Barsova went on several tours abroad, traveling to Turkey, Poland, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Germany, and the United Kingdom.