Vladimir Sobolev

Vladimir Sobolev was a Russian baritone and, for thirty-one years, the Mariinsky Theatre's utility singer, which put him on stage at a great many premieres. He sang secondary parts there from 1863 to 1894, among them the Huntsman in Rogneda, the Monk and the Commander's statue in The Stone Guest, the Muezzin in Ammalat-Bek and Gryaznoy in The Merchant Kalashnikov, and covered three parts in the first Boris Godunov of 1874. He sang solo parts in the concert hall too, in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Haydn's Die Schöpfung and Berlioz's La damnation de Faust.