On March 8 2020, the heart of Grigory Vasilyevich Kontsur, Honoured Artist of the Republic of Tyva, stopped beating. He had worked in the Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre for more than 30 years.

Grigory Vasilyevich was born on May 2, 1941, in the village of Vodyanoye, Dneprovsky District, Zaporizhia Region, graduated from the Odesa Conservatory (Department of Vocals), was a soloist of Donetsk Opera House (where the young singer made his debut with one of the most difficult parts of Leporello in Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni) and the Voronezh Opera House.

In the Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre, Grigory Kontsur had been working since its opening in 1978. He possessed the voice of a rare beautiful timbre and the versatile acting gift. Grigory Kontsur performed more than 45 parts. Among them are such leading parts of the bass repertoire as Boris Godunov (the eponymous opera by Mussorgsky), Basilio (Il Barbiere di Siviglia by

Rossini), Mephistopheles (Faust by Gounod), Konchak (Prince Igor by Borodin), Gremin (Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky), Susanin (A Life for the Tsar by Glinka), Ferrando (Il Trovatore by Verdi), Priest (Aida by Verdi), Marriage Broker (The Bartered Bride by Smetana), Miller (Rusalka by Dargomyzhsky), and others. It was he who performed the role of Polonius in the world premiere of Sergei Slonimsky’s opera Hamlet, Dramma per Musica in 1993 and Boris Godunov in the premiere performance of The Tsar’s Loge based on Mussorgsky’s operas Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina.

Grigory Vasilievich enjoyed spectators’ love not only as a performer of large-scale opera parts, but he also used to turn to chamber genres: romances and Russian and Ukrainian folk songs that required exquisite vocal work. In the 1980s, the artist toured extensively in Germany, Denmark, Spain, and Portugal.

The artistic journey of Grigory Vasilyevich Kontsur is a real example of selfless service to art.