friendly rival, tenor Ivan Kozlovsky, he was the leading tenor at the Bolshoi until 1956. Repertoire Lemeshev's operatic repertoire consisted primarily of Russian works along with a particularly significant number of French and a few Italian and German pieces. Almost all works were performed in the Russian language. Unfortunately, very few complete recordings are available, with only excerpts available in spite of Lemeshev's numerous performances on stage in roles such as the Duke in Rigoletto and Almaviva in The Barber of Seville. Rodolfo in La Bohème by Giacomo Puccini Duke in Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi Romeo in Roméo et Juliette by Charles Gounod Almaviva in The Barber of Seville by Gioachino Rossini Levko in May Night by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Alfredo in La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi Astrologer in The Golden Cockerel by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Vladimir Igorevich in Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin Rodolfo in Luisa Miller by Giuseppe Verdi Indian guest in Sadko by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Lohengrin in Lohengrin by Richard Wagner Nadir in Les pêcheurs de perles by Georges Bizet Doctor Faust in Faust by Charles Gounod Tsar Berendei in The Snow Maiden by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Boyan in Ruslan and Ludmila by Mikhail Glinka Prince Sidonal in The Demon by Anton Rubinstein Dubrovsky in Dubrovsky by Eduard Napravnik Gérald in Lakmé by Léo Delibes Werther in Werther by Jules Massenet Fra Diavolo in Fra Diavolo by Daniel Auber, among others. Signature role as Lensky in Eugene Onegin Lemeshev's signature role was as Lensky in Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and he performed it more than 500 times from 1927 onwards. He performed it for the last time on his 70th birthday, after suffering three heart attacks and having a lung removed. Other key roles In 1953 Lemeshev was given the prestigious title People's Artist of the USSR. He was also appointed assistant manager of the Bolshoi from 1957 to 1959. He debuted as director in 1951, with the production of La traviata in the Maly Opera Theatre in Leningrad (now known as the Mikhailovsky Theatre). Following this, he was made director for the production of Massenet's Werther in 1957 at the Bolshoi. Toward the end of his career, he mainly gave concerts of Russian classic romances and folk songs, with performances aired on the radio, and taught in the Moscow Conservatory as associate professor. He was buried in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. Personal life Six marriages and