Vishnevskaya, Galina (Pavlovna) (1926– )

Russian soprano. She made her opera debut at Leningrad in 1950, and appeared at the Bolshoi, Moscow, from 1952 where her roles included Tatyana, Lisa, Tosca, Cherubino, and Natasha. Aida was the role she sang for her debuts in New York (at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1961) and London (at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden 1962). She has been associated with Britten (The Poet's Echo, War Requiem) and with Shostakovich (she sang in the first performance of the 14th symphony at Leningrad, in 1969). She married Mstislav Rostropovich in 1955; they were obliged to leave the Soviet Union in 1975 and three years later they were stripped of their citizenship. She has written an autobiography, Galina, published in 1985.