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Opera singer. Born in the Ukrainian town of Elisavetgrad (now Kirovohrad) in the family of Afanasy Petrov (1807). Founder of the Russian school of opera singing. Performed the operas of Mikhail Glinka and Alexander Dargomyzhsky at the Bolshoi (Stone) Theatre in St Petersburg (from 1830). First performer of the part of Ivan Susanin in Mikhail Glinka’s opera A Life for the Tsar (1836). Married Anna Vorobyova (1837). Died in St Petersburg (1878).