I love this guy!!!! He is one of my five all-time favorite tenors, of those I never saw live. I find the Russian "high vocal placement' so appealing, Here he sings (In Russian) arias from:

Fra Diavolo, Huguenots, Martha, Luisa Miller, Lohengrin, Faust, Mignon, Roussalka (Dargomijsky),

The Demon (Rubenstein), Onegin (act one), May Night (2 arias), Onegin (Kooda,kooda), Pique Dame

Here is some material I fouind interesting about "rivalry."                         (71 Min.)

Lemeshev-mania

Lemeshev’s talent, artistry, acting skills and conspicuous charm very quickly made him a public idol. Almost all his performances during the 1930s and 1940s were accompanied by crowds of fans followed him through the streets, spending days and nights near his house. [1]

While Lemeshev was one of the leading tenors of the Bolshoi Theatre, he was admired by female fans, who were jokingly called "lemeshistki." The theatre lobby was a venue for scuffles between the "lemeshistki" and the "kozlovityanki" (female fans of Lemeshev's rival Ivan Kozlovsky).[2]

Additionally, the film "The Musical Story" (1941) [3] in which he played the main role, brought him the Stalin prize, and even more widespread furore and fame all over the USSR.

A great French soprano,who had a sad experience as to possible collaboration with the Nazis during the war, but acquitted.(I have her own words below.).

She sings arias from: Tannhauser,Siegfried,Walkure,Tristan und Isolde,Freischutz, Sigurd (Reyer), Tosca, and songs as follows:

Chopin: Tristesse     Schubert: Erlkonig      Faure:  Au bord de l'eau

Debussy:  Beau soir and Je tremble en voyant ton visage.                 (55 min.)

For her part, Lubin denied all ties to Nazi Germany, and grew deeply bitter over her treatment at the hands of the French government. She once said that

I have suffered an enormous injustice. They curtailed my career by ten years — my own people! The fact is that I knew some of the Germans when they came to Paris during the occupation. This gave my enemies the chance to satisfy their envy … If I saw the Germans in Paris —and they had been more than kind to me— it was to save my compatriots. It was my way of serving my country at that particular moment. Nobody knows how many prisoners I had released … When I spent three years in prison, they confiscated my château at Tours and my possessions. Did anyone bother to ask me why I did not accept Winifred Wagner’s invitations to sing in Germany during the occupation? But my trial was a complete vindication: I was completely cleared. Yes, they gave back most of what they had taken …^[5]