Opera singer of Georgian origin, people’s artist of the Soviet Union and the soloist of the Bolshoi theatre Zurab Sotkilava , died Monday morning in his 81st year of life.
«He had a severe illness which he fought until the end», — said General Director of the Bolshoi theatre Vladimir urin, who first announced to the public about the death of a brilliant singer.
In 2015 Sotkilava had surgery to remove a malignant tumor of the pancreas in Germany. And after a course of treatment in Moscow, the soloists returned to work.
Opera genius also excelled as a footballer. In 1956 he became the captain of the football team Loadof AI in the age of 20, which won the championship of the USSR. Due to the severe injuries Sotkilava had to finish sports career.
Farewell to the famous Georgian will be held September 20. The funeral will be held in Tbilisi at the behest of the artist.
Recall that Zurab Sotkilava was born in 1937, in Sukhumi. In 1965 he graduated from the Tbilisi Conservatory. From 1966 to 1968 he trained in Milan theater La Scala , the Dinaro Barra. In 1973, he debuted at the Bolshoi theatre in Moscow in the party of josé («Carmen» by Georges Bizet).
Among his most famous parties Manrico in «Il Trovatore» by Giuseppe Verdi, Mario Cavaradossi in «Tosca» by Giacomo Puccini, an Impostor in «Boris Godunov» and Golitsyn in Khovanshchina by modest Mussorgsky.
