Georgy Baklanov

as Escamillo 'Carmen" by Bizet

Georgy Baklanov
(Alfons-Georg Bakkis)
1881-1938
Russian Baritone
Studied at the Kiev Conservatory with tenor Pryanishnikov and in Milan with Vanza.Debut 1903 at Kiev opera as the Demon in “The Demon” by Rubenstein He joined Zimins Opera until 1903 and in 1905 he became a member of the Bolshoi where he created in 1906 Malatesta in “Francesca da Rimini and, Baron in “The Miserly Knight” both by Rachmaninoff ,1907-09 he was at the Mariinsky and sang in the Moscow premiere Fyodor in “ The legend of the Invisable City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya ‘ by Rimsky-Korsakov in 1907.and sang in 1914 he sang in the world premiere of Ponchielli's “I Mori di Valenza “ at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo n While mainly working in the United States from 1917–1929,hef continued to appear as a guest artist with major opera houses in Europe during those years and into the 1930s. Some of the theatres with whom he performed were the Bavarian State Opera, the Belgrade National Theatre, the Brno National Theatre, the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, the Finnish National Opera, the Hungarian State Opera House, the Opéra-Comique, the Royal Danish Theatre, the Royal Swedish Opera, the Vienna Volksoper, and the Zurich Opera. In 1932 he moved to Basel, Switzerland. Among the roles he sang were Amonasro in Verdi's Aida, Athanaël in Jules Massenet's Thaïs, Escamillo in Georges Bizet'sCarmen, the Father in Gustave Charpentier's Louise, King Raimondo in Pietro Mascagni's Isabeau, Méphistophélès in Charles Gounod's Faust, Nilakantha in Léo Delibes' Lakmé, Renato in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, Rigoletto, Telramund inRichard Wagner's Lohengrin, and Wotan in Wagner's Die Walküre