Irina Arkhipova dies at 85 in Moscow

The Russian diva mezzo-soprano Irina Arkhipova has died in Moscow on 11. Februray 2010. She was 85. The director of the Arkhipova Foundation, Nadezhda Khachaturova, said the singer died of cardiac arrest Thursday at Moscow's Botkin hospital.

Irina Arkhipova, People's Artist of USRR, was the head of the jury of the 1993 All-Russian Glinka Vocalists Competition which took place in Smolensk. The first prize was for a four-year student of the St. Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory called Anna Netrebko. As winner of the All-Russian Glinka Vocalists Competition, Anna Netrebko sang at the Opening of the Irina Arkhipova Foundation Concert at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow in 1993.