Alexander Vesselovsky

Alexander Vesselovsky (Aleksandr Veselovskij) was born in 1885 in Moscow. During his childhood, he sang in a church choir and in the Moscow Synodal Choir. From 1917 to 1921, Alexander Vesselovsky was a soloist at the Bolshoj. In 1921, Alexander Vesselovsky undertook a long tour west to Ukraine, from where he fled to Poland, and further to France. He stayed outside Russia for good. Vesselovsky sang at the Opéra Russe in Paris, went on tour to Barcelona (1922), Buenos Aires (1924), and again Paris (Opéra, 1926,1938). From 1926, Toscanini engaged him to sing the Russian repertory at La Scala. In Italy, he had his name alternatively transcribed as Alessandro Wesselowsky or Vesselovski at times. His best roles were in Manon, La traviata, Lohengrin, and Fedora. He was also busy singing concerts. The singer died at Luino on February 4th, 1964. His few records were made for Pathé and Columbia.

I wish to thank Vladimir Efimenko for the biographical notes and recording (Werther).

I wish to thank Richard J. Venezia for the recording (Bohème).

I would like to thank Thomas Silverbörg for the recording (Tosca).