Bronislav Chorovič

Bronislav Chorovič was born on November 27th, 1888 in Tsaritsyn (later Stalingrad and present Volgograd). He studied singing with the well-known professor Medvedev at the conservatory of Saratov, where he also made his debut in 1912, as Gounod's Faust.

As a Russian soldier in WWI, he was wounded and imprisoned by the Hapsburg army right in 1914. He never went back to Russia. The end of the war found him in Slovakia, where he got employed in the choir of the Slovak National Opera in Bratislava in 1920; a year later, he was a soloist at the same theater.

He soon spoke and sang Czech perfectly (hence the Czech transcription of his name, which would be Khorovich in standard transliteration). Chorovič stayed in Bratislava until 1928. He sang everything from Almaviva to Alvaro, specialized in high roles like Manrico, Chapelou (Postillon de Lonjumeau) or Léopold (La Juive), and had particular success in Smetana's operas.

From 1928 to 1941, he sang at the Prague national opera, again in an amazing variety of roles from Lindoro (Italiana in Algeri) to Don Carlo, but also in lots of – not least contemporary – Czech operas. He continued to appear on stage till 1958.

From 1952 on, Chorovič taught singing at the Prague conservatory. The singer died in Prague on August 17th, 1980. Rodolfo, Manrico, Alfredo and Lenskij were considered his best roles.

Look here for a very detailed biography with many excellent pictures.

I wish to thank Vladimir Efimenko for the pictures and recording.