Russian news agencies say Soviet-era opera and pop singer Muslim Magomayev has died. He was 66.
ITAR-Tass news agency cites his widow Tamara Sinyavskaya as saying he died at his Moscow apartment after a long illness. Other news agencies cite the government as their source.
 |
|
|
 |
| Soviet pop legend Muslim Magomayev dies at 66 |
|
|
|
|
 BREAKING NEWS |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In July, Azeri news agency APA reported that Magomayev suffered from heart disease.
Magomayev started his career as an opera singer, but sold millions of albums and concert tickets after switching to popular music. His fame was at its peak in the 1960s and 70s.
His grandfather, also named Muslim, was a composer of opera and folk music.
Muslim Mahammad oglu Magomayev (born August 17, 1942) was an Azerbaijani baritone operatic and pop singer of the 1960s and 1970s.
Muslim Magomayev represented one of the most respected artistic dynasties in Azerbaijan. His grandfather Muslim Magomayev (1885-1937), a friend and contemporary of the prominent Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov, was one of the founders of Azerbaijani-composed music. Magomayev's father, Mahammad Magomayev, who died during World War II, was a gifted Scenic designer, and his mother was an actress.
Muslim learned to play a piano as a child, and began to take lessons from teachers of voice at the age of 14. He finished the piano and composition class of the musical school at Baku Conservatoire, and then graduated from the vocal class of Baku conservatoire. As a teenager he became interested in Italian songs, American jazz and other styles of popular music.
In 1962, at the age of 20, Magomayev first appeared in Moscow where he performed within the frameworks of the Days of Azerbaijani Culture. He sang two musical pieces in a gala-concert on the USSR's main stage, the Kremlin Palace of Congresses, and became a celebrity on a spur of the moment. A year later he gave his first solo concert in the Moscow Tchaikovsky Concert Hall to a full house and became a soloist of the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre. Muslim earned fame in the USSR as an opera singer with Rossini's "Barber of Seville". He also became known for his arias from Puccini's "Tosca", Hajibeyov's "Koroghlu" and "Shah Ismayil", which was composed by his grandfather.
Join Pravda.ru forum to experience freedom of speech
Iran to Enrich Uranium Despite Global Opposition
Forum
Source: 
