Nechaev was a lyrical tenor at the Mariinskij for about 30 years.
He was very popular in Leningrad. Unfortunately, he did not gain the
popularity of Lemeshev and Kozlovskyj. In top of that, he was often
confused with his namesake, the tenor Vladimir Nechaev, who sang as a variety singer
and soloist of the radio in Moscow.
Ivan Nechaev was born on January 5 (18), 1900 in Bor near Nizhnij Novgorod.
1922–28, he studied singing at the 2nd Leningrad Technical School with A. Porubinovskij.
1927–28, he sang in the Capella chorus in Leningrad.
From 1928 to 1954, he sang at the Kirov/Mariinskij and Malij Theaters in Leningrad.
1953–63, Nechaev taught singing at the Leningrad conservatory.
During the 1941–45 blockade of Leningrad, Nechaev was the organizer of a music theater,
and head of the opera company (cf: At his post. About the Leningrad music life during the blockade. Souvenirs of a singer,
Neva, 1968/no. 2, pages 209–212.)
His repertory
included: Bajan, Simpleton, Sinodal, Vladimir (Knjaz Igor), Lykov, King (Orleanskaja deva), Vladimir Dubrovskij,
Levko, Berendej, Lenskij, Duca, Alfredo, Almaviva, Faust, Nos (Nos/The nose by Shostakovich), Andrej (Imeniny
by Zhelobinskij),
Rostovtsev (Dekabristy by Shaporin), Nazar (Semja Tarasa/The Taras family by Kabalevskij), José Werther, Ernesto, ...
Nechaev died in Leningrad on February 22nd, 1963.
He recorded very little. La donna è mobile was recorded in 1940. The larger part of his recordings was made for the
radio at the end of the 1940s, including a 1946 complete Khovanshchina with Ivan Shashkov, Sofya Preobrazhenskaja,
Mark Rejzen, Boris Frejdkov, Ja. Mishchenko, V. Volokitina, V. Uljanov, I. Jashugin conducted by Boris Khajkin.
Reference