Hmyria, Borys

Hmyria, Borys [Гмиря, Борис; Hmyrja], b 5 August 1903 in Lebedyn, Kharkiv gubernia, d 1 August 1969 in Kyiv. Opera singer (high bass). In 1939 he graduated from the Kharkiv Conservatory and became a soloist at the Kyiv Theater of Opera and Ballet. His more important roles were Miroshnik in A. Dargomyzhsky’s Rusalka (The Nymph), Mephistopheles in Charles Gounod’s Faust, the title role in Modest Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov the title role in Mykola Lysenko’s Taras Bulba, and Kryvonis in Kostiantyn Dankevych’s Bohdan Khmelnytsky. He also performed chamber music works and art songs. He toured Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Poland, China, and other countries. He is the subject of biographies by Illia Stebun (1960), Pavlo Holubiev (1959), and Borys Buriak (1975).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]