Vladislav Piavko told he had three native places on the Earth. The first was Krasnoyarsk, where the soloist of the Bolshoy Theater was born. The second was Norilsk, where he grew up and matured. And Kolomna, near Moscow, where he studied in the rocket school and on the eve of his trip to Norilsk retired with a high rank.
Vladislav Piavko was in Norilsk less often than in Krasnoyarsk and Kolomna. As a rule, on milestone dates. In the XXI century he came with the Parade of Tenors project for the 50th anniversary of the city and the 70th anniversary of the combine. In 2008, at the celebration of the 55th anniversary of Norilsk, the People’s Artist of the USSR was awarded a medal and a certificate of honorary citizen. This event was the last occasion to meet with the place from where, according to his words, he took off like a rocket.
When in 2003 Piavko came to Norilsk with the Parade of Tenors for the first time, he showed the singers and musicians the city where, according to him, he met wonderful people who, without knowing it, served his fate:
“This is my grandfather in the garage, who taught me how to drive. And Pavel Boytsov, who brought me as an extra to the Norilsk Drama Theater. In Norilsk, from 15 to 17 years old, I had a lot of professions: a cameraman-chronicler at the Norilsk television studio, a projectionist at the Norilsk film distribution, a driver who transported ore to a processing plant.
At the age of 25 at the Bolshoy theatre, Vladislav Piavko sang Pinkerton’s aria in Chio-Chio-san play with Galina Vishnevskaya, and after an internship at La Scala, he performed all the main parts of the dramatic tenor repertoire at the country’s main opera house. Vladislav Piavko died at 79 years old. He died in Moscow on October 6, 2020, before his 80th birthday, which he was preparing to celebrate in four months.
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Text: Varvara Sosnovskaya, Photo: open sources