Soviet Singer

In the polyglot world of U.S. music, Russian singers have always been in short supply. It is nearly a quarter-century since Feodor Ivanovich Chaliapin sang his last Manhattan recital. Last week the first Soviet singer to appear in the U.S. since World War II arrived in Manhattan to launch a six-week cross-country tour. Her name: Zara Doloukhanova.

In her debut in Manhattan's Town Hall, Armenian-born Mezzo-Soprano Doloukhanova, 39, strode onstage aglitter with diamonds, and swathed in pink silk wrappings. Her program included Russian songs (Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff), Armenian folk songs, Schubert and Strauss lieder, operatic arias from Rossini and Mozart, even one English air--Cyril Scott's Lullaby. Noted for a repertory of 500 works by 100 composers, in five different languages, she displayed a solidly centered, richly colored voice of moderate power, smooth as cream in the lower register, clear and unforced in the upper one. She was able to pay out a prodigious breath supply with fluid ease, showed an impressive command of Italian, French and German diction, although her English came through with a yawing, Akim Tamiroff drawl. Zara's only lacks: conviction and stage presence.

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