Opera Scotland

Oda Slobodskaya Suggest updates

Born Vilno, 28 November 1888.

Died London, 30 July 1970.

Russian soprano.

Oda Slobodskaya was an important performer of Russian music in the west during the decades after the Revolution.  She gave premieres of works by other emigrant musicians, including Stravinsky..  She became a hugely popular artist in Britain.

She trained in St Petersburg under Iretskaya.  Her debut came in St Petersburg September 1917 (Lisa Queen of Spades). In 1922 she was able to move to Paris, and created Parasha in Mavra (Stravinsky).

In Britain she became well-known for her performances of Khivrya in a completion of Musorgsky's Sorochintsy Fair. This was seen in London, at the Lyceum (1931) and Covent Garden (1932, 1934) and on extensive national tours.  Other performances in London included the stage premieres of Koanga (Delius) and Rusalka (Dargomizhsky).

Slobodskaya also appeared at La Scala ant the Colón (Buenos Aires).

She made frequent radio broadcasts in the UK.