One of the late Mike Richter‘s most endearing traits was his fascination with rare or downright offbeat recordings, such as this complete 1963 performance of Verdi’s Don Carlos in Russian by artists of the Bolshoi.

Mike wrote on his “WWW Site on a Disc Volume 3”:

Russian recording did not get around to Don Carlos until 1963 when A. Naidenov led a four-Act version with the forces of the Bolshoi. Only two of the soloists were major names in the West: Irina Arkhipova as Eboli and Ivan Petrov as Philip. The title rôle was allotted to the Georgian, Zurab Andjaparidze. Elisabetta is Tamara Milashkina; Rodrigo, Vladimir Valaitis.

There is a flavor to this recording which is somehow both Italianate and Russian. Overall, the flavor is Italian, the line is Verdian and the sonority is familiar. Yet individual singers, notably Andjaparidze and Milashkina, have qualities often identified as Russian so that the sound at any moment is somehow “wrong”, though not because of language alone.

Carlo: Zurab Andjaparidze
Elisabetta: Tamara Milashkina
Eboli: Irina Arkhipova
Philip: Ivan Petrov
Posa: Vladimir Valaitis
Tebaldo: Zvezdina
Inquisitor: Yaroslavtsev
Lerma: Zaharov