Opera Singer. A leading soprano of Moscow's Bolshoi Opera, she was also a respected voice teacher. The child of school teachers she manifested her musical talent from a young age by soloing in public at seven and upon her 1902 graduation from the Moscow Conservatory was immediately signed by the Bolshoi with which she was to be associated for the rest of her life. Forming a professional relationship with pianist and composer Sergei Rachmaninoff Antonina assumed the title role in the January 24, 1906, world premiere of his opera "Francesca da Rimini" (there are better known tellings of the same tale by other composers) and in 1912 was the dedicatee of his "Vocalise". Over the years she headlined not only at the Bolshoi but at St. Petersburg' Marinsky Theatre and in other major Russian venues; among her noted roles were the title leads of Rimsky-Korsakov's "Snow Maiden", Jules Massenet's "Manon", and Leo Delibes' "Lakme", as well as Ludmilla from Glinka's "Ruslan and Ludmilla", Tatyana in Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin", and Elsa from Wagner's "Lohengrin". In 1912 Paris was to see her as Gilda in a particularly memorable performance of Giuseppe Verdi's "Rigoletto" that featured the legendary Titta Ruffo as the tragic title court jester and Enrico Caruso as the lecherous Duke. In 1922 Antonina was part of a state sponsored tour of major European capitals which attempted to show that the Soviet government was not 'uncultured', then in 1927 she sang Ninetta from Prokofiev's "Love for Three Oranges" in Bolshoi performances conducted by her husband Nikolay Golovanov. The recipient of multiple honours including the Stalin Prize and designation as People's Artist of the USSR, Antonina taught at the Stanislavsky Opera Studio and at the Bolshoi from 1936 on; from 1943 until her death she held a professorship at the Moscow Conservatory. Much of her recorded legacy is available on CD.