From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Miroslav Changalovic (serbian: Мирослав Чангаловић, Miroslav Čangalović)(born March 3, 1921 – died October 1, 1999) was a Serbian opera and concert singer and is considered to be one of the greatest basses in Serbian and Yugoslav history.

Changalovic was born in a small Bosnian town of Glamoc. It was due to his friendship with the family of Dushan Trbojevic, a distinguished Serbian pianist and composer, that he familiarized himself with the art of opera as well as operatic and concerto performing. His operatic debut took place in 1946 in Belgrade's National Theater Opera House, with the role of jailer in Puccini’s opera [[Tosca]]. Between 1946 and 1954 he took singing lessons by Zdenka Zikova, a well-known operatic singer and a pedagogue.

His operatic repertoire included more than 90 roles which he interpreted with his rich voice and his dramatic strength. His most successful creation is considered to be that of [[Boris Godunov]], from the Mussorgsky's opera of the same name. Right next to it is the role of Dosifey, from the opera Khovanschina of the same composer. By many music historians and critics he is regarded as the greatest ever Boris Godunov, right after Chaliapine. His other roles include those of Don Quichotte (Massenet's Don Quichotte), Galitsky and Konchak (Borodin's Price Igor), Mephistopheles (Gounod's Faust), Phillip The Second (Verdi's Don Carlos), Figaro (Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro), Kuchobey (Tschaikovsky's Mazeppa), Ivan The Terrible [Rimsky Korsakov's The Maid of Pskov], Mitke [Konjovic's Koshtana], and others.

His concert repertoire consisted of 520 pieces that included solo songs, song-cycles, cantates and oratorios. A great deal of this were pieces written and composed by numerous serbian and yugoslav composers, most of which had its premiere thanks to Changalovic. His concert career lasted more than 40 years during which he gave over 300 concerts held across former Yugoslavia as well as more than 160 world wide.

His outstanding achievements were awarded on various occasions both at home and abroad. To note just a few; he was awarded twice by International Jury of Critics in France as the best singer of the season at the Festival Theatre of Nations in Paris, in 1959 [for the role of Mephistopheles] and in 1961 [for that of Boris Godunov]. He was also awarded by the French government as the Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres, for his contribution to promoting the french culture.

He died in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1999.