Galina Vishnevskaya (1926-2012) was a Russian soprano, one of the most important Soviet singers of the twentieth century. She was closely associated with the Bolshoi Theatre and later became an international cultural figure.

In the Pristine catalogue she appears in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin under Boris Khaikin and in Edinburgh Festival repertory under Igor Markevitch.

Vishnevskaya’s singing combined intensity, vocal character and dramatic truth, with a distinctive Slavic brightness and emotional directness. She could make a phrase feel lived rather than merely sung.

Her page is essential. Vishnevskaya brings the Bolshoi stage with her, curtain ropes, firelight and all.