Nikolai Safonov

Nikolai Safonov was a Russian tenor with a strong voice of beautiful timbre who spent his career around opera houses more than on their stages. Trained in the regency classes of the Imperial Court Chapel and then at the St Petersburg Conservatory under Stanislav Gabel, he was still a student when he sang the first Prince Shuisky in Rimsky-Korsakov's edition of Boris Godunov in 1896. He joined the Mariinsky Theatre in 1898 as prompter and singer and was its chorus inspector from 1914, moving to the Bolshoi Theatre in 1917 and teaching in Moscow from 1920, including in Chaliapin's studio.