Srebnitskij was born in the Ural, a region that the Soviet authorities used as a place of exile for the politically
suspect – such as his mother, who came from a family with clerical affiliations, and his father, a chekist fallen from grace.
The two met there, but the father was shot shortly after Ehduard's birth. Ehduard grew up in Magnitogorsk, and developed a very early
love for opera.
He went to a technical school in Cheljabinsk, and worked in a technical design office. But what he was really dreaming of was
opera, and so he studied voice besides his work, at the conservatory in Sverdlovsk (Ekaterinburg).
He got his first contract as a comprimario tenor at the newly founded theater in Dnipro (then called Dnipropetrovsk) – and not
only would he spend his entire career at that theater, but an unusually long career to boot. He made his debut on April 5th, 1974,
and sang small parts for the next ten years. In 1984, on request by conductor Boris Afanasyev, he made his debut in a leading
role: as Alfredo, followed by José; he
caused a sensation, and remained Dnipro's leading tenor for an incredibly long period – at 80 years old, he was still singing
roles like Canio, Cavaradossi, Manrico or Radames, and dreamt of debuting the role of Hoffmann! In total, he had a repertory of
almost 150 roles, and had been José almost 170 times. His favorite role was German.
As a guest, he sang in Estonia, France, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, the UK, the Netherlands, Thailand and Lebanon.
His son Aleksej Srebnitskij became a tenor, as well, singing together with his father in Dnipro before getting a contract as first
tenor in Kharkiv.
Reference 1 and picture source
Reference 2.
Reference 3
