Lidiya Lipkovskaya

Lydia Yakolevna Lipkowska (; ; ; 10 May 1882 – 22 March 1958) was a Russian operatic soprano who had an active international career during the first half of the 20th century. A gifted lyric coloratura soprano, she performed leading roles at the Mariinsky Theatre, the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House, La Scala, and the Opéra-Comique among other theaters.

Biography

She was born on 10 May 1882 to the family of a rural teacher in Babino,

After Kamianets-Podiskyi, Lipkowska was trained at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. She studied with Natalia Iretskaya, a pupil of celebrated voice teacher Pauline Viardot. She was committed to the Mariinsky Theatre from 1906 to 1908 and again from 1911 to 1913.

Lipkowska was a member of the Metropolitan Opera (the "Met") in New York City from 1909 until 1911. She made her debut at the Met as Violetta in La Traviata on November 18, 1909, with Caruso as Alfredo. She concurrently was a member of the Boston Opera Company for the 1909/1910 and 1910/1911 seasons; making her debut in Boston in November 1909. Her Boston roles included Gilda, Lakmé, Rosina in The Barber of Seville, Violetta, and the title roles in Manon and Lucia di Lammermoor.

In 1910, Lipkowska returned to the Opéra-Comique as Verdi's Violetta. That same year she returned to Henry Russell's Boston Opera Company for the 1912/1913 season.

Lipowska married Russian baritone Georges Baklanoff a few years prior to the outbreak of World War I; but the marriage ended in divorce. In that city, she continued her vocal training with Vittorio Vanza. In September 1920, she sang Gilda in Rigoletto with the San Carlo Opera Company in Manhattan. She spent the 1920s performing at a variety of theatres in the United States and Europe, and ended her performance career touring the Soviet Union in 1928–1929. That same year she performed a concert of Russian and French opera arias at Carnegie Hall.

After retiring from the stage, Lipkowska lived in Romania where she was active as a voice teacher. One of her students was the soprano Virginia Zeani. She came out of retirement for one last performance at the Odessa Opera in 1941, to perform the role of Violetta one last time. In 1945 she relocated to Paris, and later moved to Milan before finally settling in Lebanon where she lived her final years. She died in Beirut at the age of 75.