Oleg Loza to perform "Music of Love" recital at Chaliapin Estate

Russian barihunk Oleg Loza will perform a "Music of Love" recital at the Feodor Chaliapin Estate in Moscow on September 22nd, named after the great Russian bass. He will be joined by Natalia Peshekhonova at the piano.

The concert is in the Novinsky Boulevard home that Chaliapin bought in 1937, while he was at the height of his powers, and includes his Bechstein grand piano, theatrical costumes, playbills, and posters. Chaliapin and his wife, the Italian ballet dancer Iola Tornagi, hosted some of the greatest figures of the time at their home, including Sergei Rachmaninov, Leonid Sobinov, Maxim Gorky, Ivan Bunin, Konstantin Korovin and Konstantin Stanislavsky.

Feodor Chaliapin sings Glinka's "Doubt":

The recital will include music by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Glinka, Dargomyzhsky and Schubert. Tickets are available online.

Loza is a former member of the International Opernstudio at Opernhaus Zurich who made his professional debut at the Moscow Conservatoire Opera Theatre.

Reader Submission: Model turned Barihunk Oleg Loza

Oleg Loza

Our latest Reader Submission is the Moscow bass-barihunk Oleg Loza. We hear numerous barihunks described as having "model looks," but Loza actually was a model at the Slava Zaitsev Model Agency. He modeled while completing his Master's Degree in Voice at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow.

Loza reminds many of his fellow compatriot Dmitri Hvorostovsky, who shares his flowing long hair that gives them both a pop star vibe. Like Hvorostovsky, he is a serious classical singer, who originally studied voice and choral conducting before pursuing a career as a singer. In 2009, he won the prestigious Feodor Chaliapin Singing Competition in Yalta.

Oleg Loza sings Valentin's aria from Gounod's Faust:

After graduating from the Conservatory in 2012, he made his professional debut as Norton in Rossini's La cambiale di matrimonio at the Wiener Kammeroper in Austria. He followed that up with a run as Schaunard in Puccini's La boheme at both the Wiener Kammeroper and Amsterdam's Het Companientheater.

Since that time, he's been a young artist with the Zürich Opera, where he has performed Usciere in Verdi's Rigoletto and Deputato in Verdi's Don Carlo. He is currently singing Happy in Puccini's La fanciulla del West, which runs through July 13th and will run again September 24-October 10.

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