Konstantin Kaidanov

Konstantin Kaidanov (1879, Russian Empire — January 1952, Paris, France) was a Russian opera and operetta lyric bass-baritone (basso cantante). He performed in duos with Nikolai Bolshakov, Feodor Chaliapin, Georgi Pozemkovsky, Anton Bonachich, Maria Kuznetsova-Benoit, H. A. Sadoven, Maria Davydova, Eugenia Zbruyeva, and Zinaida Ershova, appearing under the baton of Albert Coates, Serge Koussevitzky, Emil Cooper, Nikolai Tcherepnin, M. Shteyman, and other notable conductors. Name variations: Константин Евгеньевич Кайданов, Constantine Evgenievitch Kaidanoff, Konstantin E. Kaidanoff, Constantin Kajdanov, Kaïdanoff. His early biography is unknown; Kaidanov began his career at various provincial theaters. In 1908, he toured in Berlin with an opera troupe established by Georgian Prince Alexey Tsereteli (1864—1942), Akaki Tsereteli's son. Between 1915 and 1919, Konstantin Kaidanov performed at St. Petersburg's Musical Drama Theater. After immigrating to France in 1920, he reconnected with Tsereteli, subsequently working with Opéra Privé de Paris. Kaidanov toured the USA, Italy, Netherlands, and Scandinavian countries, singing at many prestigious venues, such as Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona (1922 and 1929), Royal Albert Hall (1927) and The Lyceum, London (1931). He participated in the first British premiere of Rimsky-Korsakov's Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya opera in 1926 and toured with Latvian National Opera in Germany in 1928.