Yvan Rebroff

I wonder if any of you have ever heard or for that matter even heard of a singer called Yvan (Ivan) Rebroff. I certainly had not until 1995, which was when I heard Rebroff belting it out from my Turkish friend Omar’s car stereo. Holy cow! As they say, it simply blew me off. The man had such a sonorous voice, a voice that I can’t think of anybody in this world imitating. Such was its uniqueness. A voice that is listed in the Guinness book (1998 Guinness Book of World Records lists Ivan Rebroff of Russia with a range of four octaves from low F to high F an octave and a quarter above middle C – bass to soprano!! – By comparison, Roy Orbison has a 3½ to 4 octave range in his voice), a voice that ranges 4 ½ Ocatves (now that requires explanation, here is the study….). Rebroff, incidentally was German, though he sang about his motherland Russia (born to Russian émigrés in East Germany)

Little did his parents know of his rise to fame, when he was prematurely born (real name sounds quite Germanic-Hans-Rolf Ruppert) on a Berlin railway platform! Like the late Lucano Pavrotti, he grew on to sing operatic music and had a girth & beard that rivaled Pavrotti!! In the 90’s and until 2008 when he passed away, he performed a huge number of concerts and had his own TV show..

ABC Australia states - Who’s the most-requested artist on ABC Classic FM? Joan Sutherland? Andrea Bocelli? No! It’s Ivan Rebroff … the phenomenally voiced ‘Russian Bear from Berlin’ whose voice is totally unique for its ability to stretch from extremely deep and low to very high counter-tenor, almost soprano regions! Airings of his voice virtually jam the ABC phone lines with requests!

 Lara’s theme – Who does not love it, originally an instrumental for the movie, words were added by Ray Coniff and the song became an instant hit. Andy Williams sang it too, but the version by Rebroff, well, listen to it!!

 To listen to the instrumental Lara’s theme