Nicola Ivanoff

Nicola Ivanoff, also known as Nikolay Kuz'mich Ivanov, was a Russian tenor born in Poltava in 1810 and who died in Bologna in 1880. His career unfolded almost entirely on Italian stages, which makes him an example of a Slavic singer trained and celebrated outside his country of origin during the height of nineteenth-century Italian opera.

He began as a singer in the Imperial Chapel of St Petersburg and, having obtained permission to accompany Glinka to Italy in 1830, never returned to Russia. He studied with Eliodoro Bianchi, Andrea Nozzari and Panofka, and made his debut at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples on 6 July 1832 as Percy in Anna Bolena. Two years later he appeared in Paris at the Théâtre Italien and, in April 1834, sang the same role at the King's Theatre in London.

The remainder of his career was spent chiefly in Italy. In 1841 he took part in Bologna in a performance of Rossini's Stabat mater conducted by Donizetti, and in 1843 he premiered the role of Riccardo in Pacini's Maria, regina d'Inghilterra in Palermo, before making his debut at La Scala in the same work. In 1844 he sang operas by Donizetti at the Kärntnertortheater in Vienna, and in Parma he performed the title role in Ernani, with an additional aria commissioned from Verdi and paid for by Rossini, who had taken him under his protection. In 1846 he sang Foresto in Attila in Trieste, again with an aria added by Verdi.

Towards the end of the 1840s his voice began to weaken. In 1852, in Palermo, he had to be replaced after two performances. According to Chorley, in his early days he possessed a sweet tenor voice, very delicate in tone, although his stage presence was not particularly expressive. When he attempted heavier roles he lost vocal brilliance, but gained stage experience and dramatic conviction.

His importance lies above all in his role as an interpreter of Romantic Italian opera in his time, and in the bond he maintained with Rossini and Verdi, whose works he helped to disseminate in several European cities.