Notes

24 photocards of Bolshoi Ballet and Opera stars printed in 1976 to celebrate the bicentenary of the company’s founding. The photocards were published by Планета (Planet), a publishing house founded in 1969. Each photocard is numbered (my set is incomplete), and details the performers, the work and the photographer.

1.

Irina Konstantinova Arkhipova (1925-2010) as Carmen in Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen. Photographed by A. Nevezhina.

2.

Tamara Andreyevna Milashkina (b.1934) as Floria Tosca in Puccini’s opera Tosca. Photographed by A. Nevezhina.

3.

Bela Andreyevna Rudenko (1933-2021) as Lyudmila in Glinka’s opera Ruslan and Lyudmila. Photographed by A. Nevezhina.

4.

Two half-prints of Alexandr Pavlovich Ognivtsev (1920-1981) as Boris Godunov in Mussorgsky’s opera Boris Godunov (left) and as Dosifey in Mussorgsky’s opera Khovanshchina (right). Both photographed by A. Nevezhina.

5.

Yuri Alexandrovich Gulyayev (1930-1986) as Figaro in Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville. Photographed by A. Nevezhina.

6.

Two half-prints of Elena Vasiliyevna Obraztsova (1939-2015) as Amneris in Verdi’s opera Aida (left) and as Carmen in Bizet’s opera Carmen, with Zorab Lavrentievich Sotkilava (1937-2017 as Jose. Photographed by A. Nevezhina.

7.

Two half-prints of Vladimir Andreyevich Atlantov (b.1939) as Lensky in Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin (left) and as Herman in Tchaikovsky’s opera The Queen of Spades (right). Both photographed by A. Nevezhina.

8.

Yuri Antonovich Mazurok (1931-2006) as Prince Yeletsky in Tchaikovsky’s opera The Queen of Spades. Photographed by A. Nevezhina.

9.

Alexander Filippovich Vedernikov (1927-2018) as Ivan Susanin in Glinka’s opera Ivan Susanin (A Life for the Tsar, which was known as Ivan Susanin during the Soviet era). Photographed by A. Nevezhina.

10.

Artur Arturovich Eizen (1927-2008) as Prince Ivan Khovansky in Mussorgsky’s opera Khovanshchina. Photographed by A. Nevezhina.

11.

Yevgeny Yevgenievich Nestereko (1938-2021) as Philippe II in Verdi’s opera Don Carlos. Photographed by A. Nevezhina.

12.

A triple page print of Aleksei Dmitriyevich Maslenikov (1929-2016) as Alexei in Sergei Prokofiev’s opera The Gambler. Photographed by A. Nevezhina.

13.

Vladimir Antonovich Valaitis (1923-1987) as Andrei in Muradeli’s opera October. Photographed by A. Nevezhina.

14.

Makvala Filimonova Kasrashvili (b.1942) as Natasha Rostova in Prokofiev’s opera War and Peace. Photographed by A. Nevezhina.

15.

Vladislav Ivanovich Piavko (1941-2020) as Manrico in Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Il trovatore. Photographed by A. Nevezhina.

17.

Nina Vladimirovna Timofeeva (1935-2014) as Kitri in the ballet Don Quixote. Photographed by A. Makarova.

21.

Natalie Igorevna Bessmertnova (1941-2008) as Anastasia in the ballet Ivan the Terrible. Photographed by A. Makarova.

22.

Svetlana Dzantemirovna Adyrkhaeva (b.1938) as Odette in the ballet Swan Lake. Photographed by A. Makarova.

23.

Nina Sokorina (1942-2011) as Assel in the ballet Assel. Photographed by A. Makarova.

24.

Vladimir Alexandrovich Levashov (1923-2005) as Carabosse in the ballet Sleeping Beauty. Photographed by A. Makarova.

25.

Mikhail Lenodiovich Lavrosky (b.1941) as the Nutcracker Prince in the ballet The Nutcracker. Photographed by A. Makarova.

26.

Yuri Kuzmich Vladimirov (b.1942) as Ivan the Terrible in the ballet Ivan the Terrible. Photographed by A. Makarova.

28.

Vladimir Petrovich Tikhonov (1935-2000) as the Poet in the ballet Chopiniana (Les Sylphides). Photographed by A. Makarova.

29.

Nadezhda Vasilyevna Pavlova (b.1956) as Giselle and Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Gordeyev (b.1948) as Prince Albrecht in the ballet Giselle. Photographed by A. Makarova.