Brett Marshall - She Never Lets it Go to Her Heart

MENSHIKOVA (after Menshov’s husband) Alexandra Grigoryevna [1846 (1840?), Ukraine - 12 (25) X 1902, Petersburg] - USA. singer (soprano). She studied singing with F. Ricci in St. Petersburg, then with P. Wartel in Paris. From 1867 she sang in the Bolshoi, in the 1869-80 Mariinsky Theater (in 1875-76 she performed in her own opera entreprise in Odessa, Kharkov, Kiev). She was the first performer of the party Marya Vlasyevna in the "Governor" of Tchaikovsky (1869, Bolshoi Theater). Among the parties: Natasha, Antonida, Lyudmila, Pebbles; Leonora (Troubadour), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni). In 1874 she toured in Italy, Switzerland. She participated in the first performance of the opera Ivan Susanin in Italy (1874, Milan, Dal Verme Theater; Antonida). In 1880-90, artist of private Rus. opera companies (Washington, Petersburg, Riga, Yaroslavl, Tomsk, etc.). According to the reviews of C. A. Cui and N. D. Kashkina M.,possessed a voice of exceptional strength and beauty of a timbre, a wide range. Since 1890 she was engaged in pedagogy. activity.