Pavel Lisitsian was born 6 November 1911 in
Vladikavkaz,
Vladikavkazsky okrug,
Terek Oblast,
Caucasus Viceroyalty,
Russian Empire. He was born into an
Armenian family living in
Vladikavkaz, where his father was a mineworker. Pavel first worked in diamond drilling, then as a welder apprentice hoping to follow his father's steps. He first began to sing in a church choir before moving to
Leningrad to study
cello (1930). As a strong-voiced soloist of a local amateur group he was commissioned to the Leningrad Conservatory. He started his vocal career in the
Maly Leningrad State Opera Theatre and then in the
Yerevan Opera House, where he performed the leads for three years. 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. During a concert tour of the US in 1960, he appeared at the
Metropolitan Opera as
Amonasro. 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 tenor
Jussi Bjorling's final operatic performance before his death. Lisitsian sang his role, the soldier Valentin, in Russian while the others sang in French. He died in Moscow at age 92. His daughters Karina and Ruzanna are successful opera singers who frequently perform together. His grand daughter pianist Elena Lisitsian lives in New York City and his grandson Paul Asoyan lives in Encinitas, California. ==References==