Aleksandr Mikhajlovich Davydov was born in the Poltava area on March 25th, 1872.
His real name was Izrail Moiseevich Levenson.
During his childhood, he sang in choruses. 1890–92, he studied singing with C. Everardi.
Davydov made his debut at Ekaterinoslav (later Dnipropetrovsk, nowadays just Dnipro) as Faust and Alfred, but he was not successful.
Therefore he went on to singing operetta, while keeping to try in opera.
Success came in 1900, when he sang at the Mariinskij. His debut there was as German.
In that role, he was considered to be the best in Russia.
He went on extended tours: Moscow (1902, 1906, 1911), Kiev
(1903, 1905, 1909), Budapest (1903), Monte Carlo (1906), Vienna and Berlin
(1908), Paris (1909). He had about 85 operas and 30 operettas in his repertory.
He had to stop singing in the theatre in 1914 due to deafness.
However, he gave concerts until 1924.
From 1924 to 1935, he was in Paris. In 1934, at the request of Shaljapin, he directed Knjaz Igor
in Paris. In 1935, he returned to Russia. From 1936, he gave singing lessons.
Among his best roles were:
José, Sadko, Grigorij (Boris Godunov), Raoul, Canio, Loge, Mime, and Vasco.
He recorded more than 400 sides. Aleksandr Davydov died in Moscow on June 28th,
1944.