Ivan Pleshakov

Ivan Pleshakov was a Russian bass who sang Pimen at the 1928 Leningrad premiere of the original 1869 Boris Godunov. Born in a Cossack settlement on the Don, he learned to sing in the Don capella at Novocherkassk under V. S. Slastnikov, then sang at Rostov, Poltava and Batumi before joining the Leningrad State Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet, where he stayed for close to thirty years. Boris himself was among his parts, with Mephistopheles and Ruslan. Decorated with the Order of the Red Star in 1945, he was a Conservatory professor from 1951 until 1973.