Rudenko, Larysa

Rudenko, Larysa [Руденко, Лариса], b 28 January 1918 in Makiivka (now in Donetsk oblast), d 19 January 1981 in Kyiv. Opera singer (mezzo-soprano). A graduate of the Kyiv Conservatory (1940), she studied under O. Muraviova, and then was a soloist in the Kyiv Theater of Opera and Ballet (1939–70). Her nearly 50 operatic roles spanned the works of Mykola Lysenko, Kostiantyn Dankevych, Heorhii Maiboroda, Peter Tchaikovsky, Georges Bizet, and Giuseppe Verdi. She concertized abroad and from 1951 taught singing at the Kyiv Conservatory. Her biography, by L. Hrysenko, was published in Kyiv (1978).

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]