Nina Koshetz - Tchaikovsky: None but the lonely heart

Нина Павловна Кошиц. Accompanied by Celius Dougherty. Rec. 1939. Nina Koshetz (1891 - 1965) was born into a family of intellectuals in Kiev. In 1908—13 she studied in Moscow State Conservatory with U. Mazetti. Having received voice lessons in France from the retired dramatic soprano Felia Litvinne, she sang leading roles in opera and performed in principal opera houses across Russia and Europe. In the late 1910s she performed at the Petrograd Conservatory and was accompanied by then-unknown Vladimir Horowitz. In 1920 she went to America and joined the Chicago Opera Association where she sang in the premiere of Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges (1921). She later performed for the Russian Opera Company in New York and on tour in South America. At the end of the 1920s she was active in France, where she appeared in the French premiere of Sadko. Known for her overly-extravagant life style, her vocal powers declined in the 1930s and in 1940 she retired to Hollywood where she made a living as a voice teacher and restaurateur (a venture that ended in bankruptcy in 1942). She also appeared in bit parts in several Hollywood movies. She died in Santa Ana, California in 1965.