Patorzhynsky, Ivan

Patorzhynsky, Ivan [Паторжинський, Іван; Patoržyns’kyj], b 3 March 1896 in Petro-Svystunove, Oleksandrivske county, Katerynoslav gubernia, d 22 February 1960 in Kyiv. Opera singer (bass) and voice teacher. A graduate of the Katerynoslav Conservatory (1922), he studied singing under Z. Maliutina and was the soloist at the Kharkiv Theater of Opera and Ballet (1925–35) and the Kyiv Theater of Opera and Ballet (from 1935). His singing style was representative of the contemporary Ukrainian vocal school. His operatic roles included Karas in Semen Hulak-Artemovsky’s Zaporozhian Cossack beyond the Danube, Vybornyi and Taras Bulba in Mykola Lysenko’s Natalka from Poltava and Taras Bulba, Deacon Havrylo in Kostiantyn Dankevych’s Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Vasyl Kochubei in Peter Tchaikovsky’s Mazepa, the Miller in A. Dargomyzhsky’s Rusalka, and Mephistopheles in Charles Gounod’s Faust. In concert he performed Ukrainian folk songs and art songs by M. Lysenko, Yakiv Stepovy, and Mykhailo Verykivsky. He toured in Italy, Germany, and North America. From 1946 he was a professor at the Kyiv Conservatory; his pupils included Dmytro Hnatiuk, Andrii Kikot, and Yevhen Chervoniuk. In 1945–54 he was the first director of the Ukrainian Theatrical Society. Biographies of him were written by Vsevolod Chahovets (1946) and E. Grosheva (1976).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]