Lutfiyar Imanov

(17.04.1929 - 21.01.2008)

Opera singer. The teacher. People’s Artist of the USSR

In 1986-91 he was a chairman of the Union of Theatre Workers of Azerbaijan.

Lutfiyar Imanov was born on April 17, 1929 in the Sabirabad region. He played the first role in 1943 on the stage of the Sabirabad State Musical Theatre in the play “The Bride for Five Manats”. At the age of 18 he organized a theatre group. In 1957 he graduated from the Azerbaijan State Conservatory in the class of A. Milovanov, worked in the State Variety Orchestra, and then in the Theatre of Musical Comedy. 

In 1959, he sang the part of Koroglu in the opera “Koroglu” during the decade of Azerbaijan culture in Moscow. In 1968 he graduated from the Institute of Arts. He performed the main roles in more than 30 operas. He completed an internship at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in 1965, and 6 months in 1975 at the Teatro La Scala in Milan, Italy. In 1985, he played the role of Asker in the “Arshin Mal Alan” performance at the Ankara Opera and Ballet Theatre.

He gave vocal lessons in the opera houses of Istanbul and Izmir in 1991-1995. In 1995 he performed at the festival in Tehran on the occasion of the anniversary of the great Azerbaijani poet Mohammed Fuzuli, in 1996 at a concert dedicated to the memory of Vivaldi in Italy, at the festival “Songs of the Millennium” in Germany. He performed parts in such classical opera productions as “Carmen”, “Faust”, “Othello”, “Il trovatore”, “Aida”, “Rigoletto”, etc. For a long time he worked as a teacher at the Baku Music Academy. He had been chosen twice as a member of the Supreme Council of Azerbaijan in 1980-1990. In 1977, he was awarded the honorary title of People’s Artist of the USSR.

He died on January 21, 2008 in Baku and was buried in the Alley of Honour.