Opera Singer. A soprano of wide repertoire, she shall be remembered for her 30 year career at Moscow's Bolshoi Opera. Born at Lesje in the St. Petersburg District, she was displaced with her family to Estonia during World War II and did farm work. Following the conflict she studied at the Conservatory of Tartu Salme then moved on to St. Petersburg (then, Leningrad) and finally to the Gnessen Music Academy of Moscow. Engaged by the Bolshoi, she made her 1956 bow as the doomed Gilda of Verdi's "Rigoletto" then over her years with the company sang leading roles in operas Russian and otherwise. Though her signature piece was the tragic Geisha Cio-Cio-San of Puccini's "Madame Butterfly", a part she assumed 173 times, she also earned praise as Verdi's Ethiopian Princess "Aida", Tatiana in Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin", Senta of Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman", Micaela from Georges Bizet's "Carmen", Duniasha of Serge Prokofiev's "War and Peace", Marguerite from Gounod's "Faust" and Olga in "Rusalka", Alexander Dargomyzhsky's telling of the Little Mermaid legend which predates Antonin Dvorak's better known version by half a century. Indeed, because she worked for a state-run theater, she was sometimes tasked with comprimario roles and thus when duty called she could be heard as a Princess in "Aida", Larina from "Eugene Onegin" and Mercedes of "Carmen". At home on the recital stage, she often sang the soprano parts in the Verdi "Requiem" and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Margarita appeared with the Bolshoi at the Vienna State Opera, was named People's Artist of Russia in 1966 and People's Artist of the USSR in 1973, left the stage in 1986, and was for many years a professor at the Gnessen Music Academy. She lived out her days in Moscow and died after a protracted illness; at her death she could be heard on a number of 'live' and studio recordings.