Раиса Михайловна Раисова

Raisa Raisova, née Rokhl Moishe Magaziner (1869, Kharkiv?, Russian Empire — 1921, USSR) was a Russian-Jewish mezzo-soprano, opera/operetta and chamber singer who had a prolific career in pre-revolutionary Russia. She was renowned as the performer of "Gypsy romances," praised equally or even above many ethnic Romani singers. Raisova extensively collaborated with songwriter and composer Mikhail Steinberg, who dedicated two songs to Raisa, Op.98 "I Was Waiting For You" and Op.115 "I Will Not Tell You Anything;" she regularly performed his repertoire, often with Steinberg accompanying on piano. Raisa Raisova recorded for multiple early gramophone labels, including Zonophone Record, Russian Stockholders Gramophones Co., E. Berliner's Gramophone, Pathé, Gramophone Concert Record, Neographone, and Gnome Concert Record. Her early life is not well researched; Rokhl "Raisa" Magaziner came from a Jewish family and most likely was born in Kharkiv (modern Eastern Ukraine). In 1884, fifteen-year-old Raisa joined a choir at a combination company led by Mikhail Medvedev (1852—1925). Two years later, she got her first minor role as "Odalisque" in Alexander Serov's Judith opera, where she first appeared as "Raisa Raisova." (With strong antisemitic sentiment in the Russian Empire, most artists with explicitly Jewish names typically adopted "Slavonic" pseudonyms — including the troupe's founder Medvedev, né Meir Bernstein. According to the memoirs of her close friend, chansonnier and comic Mikhail Savoyarov (1876—1941), it was one of the theater administrators who penned "Raisova," as he couldn't reach Raisa to discuss her stage name in time to print Judith programs; he took the liberty and came up with the least creative option, which the singer subsequently adopted.) In 1887, Raisova relocated to Kyiv, where she soon reached acclaim as a prolific opera soloist. She sang "Siebel" in Charles Gounod's Faust, "Olga" in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, and the leading role in Carmen by Georges Bizet. After working in Kyiv and Odesa for several years, Raisa Raisova gradually shifted her focus to operettas. In 1890, she relocated to Moscow, performing for two seasons at "Hermitage" Garden in the troupe directed by Mikhail Lentovsky (1848—1906), at "Paradise" Theatre (1892), and later at Charles Aumont's theater at the "Aquarium" Garden. She moved to Saint Petersburg in 1895, debuting at "Olympia" and soon the prestigious "Buffo" Theatre. Around the same time, Raisova began to learn Gypsy romances, becoming one of the first operetta singers to embrace the genre. By the 1910s, she championed over 100 romances and Russian folk songs in her repertoire; renowned poet Alexander Blok was among Raisova's admirers. Raisa Raisova returned to Kyiv and Odesa in 1913, working at the city's leading theaters and often performing with other Romani singers, like Nastia Polyakova. Her trace largely disappeared after the 1917 revolutions, with only sporadic mentions of Raisova relocating to Rostov-on-Don, where she sang in a monastery choir at the Armenian Apostolic Church; she died of pneumonia at 52.