Dmitry Usatov
Russian tenor, opera artist and tutor (b. 10/22 February 1847 near Saint Petersburg; d. 10/23 August 1913 in Yalta), born Dmitry Andreyevich Usatov (Дмитрий Андреевич Усатов).
Dmitry Usatov was an artist at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow form 1880 to 1889, where he was the first to perform the roles of Lensky in Yevgeny Onegin, Andrey in Mazepa, and Vakula in Cherevichki. For the latter role, Tchaikovsky wrote an additional aria at the singer's request, and around the same time he orchestrated the song Legend for Usatov.
In his later years, Usatov taught singing in Tiflis, where his pupils included Fyodor Chaliapin, before retiring to Yalta in 1902.
Dedications
In 1884, Tchaikovsky's dedicated his song Death — No. 5 of the Six Romances, Op. 57 — to Dmitry Usatov.
Correspondence
No letters from Tchaikovsky to Dmitry Usatov are known, but one letter from Usatov to the composer, dating from around 1884, is preserved in the Tchaikovsky State Memorial Musical Museum-Reserve at Klin (a4, No. 4475).
