Kovaleva, Galina

Born Mar. 7, 1932, in Goriachii Kliuch, Krasnodar Krai. Soviet Russian coloratura soprano. People’s Artist of the USSR (1974). Member of the CPSU since 1965.

In 1959, Kovaleva graduated from the Saratov Conservatory, where she had studied voice under O. N. Strizhova. She became a soloist at the Saratov Theater of Opera and Ballet in 1958 and at the Kirov Leningrad Theater of Opera and Ballet in 1960. Kovaleva’s roles have included Antonida in Glinka’s Ivan Susanin and the Snow Maiden and Marfa in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden and The Tsar’s Bride, respectively. Among her other roles have been the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Lucia in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Anastasiia in Petrov’s Peter the First, and Violetta and Leonora in Verdi’s La Traviata and If Trovatore, respectively. Kovaleva has performed abroad. She became a docent at the Leningrad Conservatory in 1970.

Kovaleva received second prize at the International Competition for Young Opera Singers in Sofia in 1961 and the grand prize at the International Vocal Competition Festival in Toulouse in 1962.