Aleksandr Bogdanovich was born on October 22nd, 1874 in the ancient Russian city of Smolensk. In 1894, he finished grammar school in Smolensk and then studied at the medical faculty at Moscow. He first worked as a doctor. In 1897, Bogdanovich was acquainted with Leonid Sobinov, and made friends with him. Aleksandr Bogdanovich took his first singing lessons from him. He further studied with Irina Onnore. He made his debut in 1903 at the St. Petersburg Russian-Italian opera as Sinodal. At the beginning, his weakness was his upper register (like with Leonid Sobinov). He went to Milan to correct it with Augusto Broggi and Fernando Valero. In 1904/05, Bogdanovich sang in Tiflis. Since 1905, he sang at the St. Petersburg National Opera, and during the season 1905/06, at the St. Petersburg Mariinskij Theatre. From 1906 to 1936, Aleksandr Bogdanovich sang at the Bolshoj. Aleksandr Bogdanovich had 45 roles in his repertory, among them were Lenskij, Levko, Almaviva, Duca, Alfred, Werther, Gérald, Nadir, and Lohengrin. The singer toured extensively, appearing in concerts with the outstanding conductors Bruno Walter, Oskar Fried, Otto Klemperer. The singer died on April 6th, 1950 in Moscow. Bogdanovich's records are very rare. He recorded from 1903 to 1908 for Columbia, G&T and Pathé.
I wish to thank Vladimir Efimenko for the picture, biographical notes and recording. |
