Mykola (Nikolaj) Momot was born on November 11, 1932 in Hrodivka in the Donetsk region.
Momot had a difficult path to fame. From the age of ten, he earned
his food at a nearby farm.
After the railway school in Avdiivka (1947–1950), Momot worked as a mechanic in the depot and
station of the
Donetsk railway. He was also a driver in his native village and a miner at the G. Dimitrov no. 5-6 mine.
But Momot had a secret dream – to sing professionally on a stage.
He had a good voice, his singing enamored his colleagues, acquaintances and friends.
Yet at the time, the railroad won: Momot continued his studies at the Simferopol railway college, where he
successfully graduated in 1959. A year before graduation, he had the honor to attend the VI International Festival of Youth and
Students held in Moscow.
After college, he was referred as a young specialist to the small depot at Jasynuvata, where he worked for four years.
Still, the thought of the stage did not leave him. And in one summer,
Momot went to Leningrad to join the conservatory.
But the managers of the railroad did not want to give permission for him to study at the conservatory –
they urgently needed an equipment
specialist for the railway depot. And only thanks to the chief of the Donetsk railway, Jakob Nikolaevich
Krivenko, Momot went to study in Leningrad with N. G. Rishanov
and A. K. Aleksandrovich. so as to become an opera singer
After finishing the Leningrad conservatory in 1965, he became a
soloist of the Song and Dance Ensemble of the Soviet troops in East Germany for four years.
In 1969, Momot became soloist of the
Donetsk Opera and Ballet Theater for
three and a half decades.
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| Donetsk Opera |
Among his roles were: German, Don Carlo, Manrico, Andrea Chénier, Edgardo,
Cavaradossi, Johnson, Rodolfo, Pinkerton, Ismaele, Otello (his most important achievement), José ...
He was a member of the Communist Party since 1962. In 1975, he started to teach singing at the Donetsk Musical Pedagogical
Institute.
Reference 1
Reference 2
Reference 3: interview with Mykola Momot in "Holos Ukrainy" (Voice of Ukraine)