Opera singer Kaiyrgul Sartbayeva dies

Soviet and Kyrgyz opera singer Kaiyrgul Sartbayeva has died, the Kyrgyz National Conservatory announced.

Sartbayeva was born on 20 June 1936 in Kara-Bulak, in the Chuy region. She graduated from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory in 1962 and began performing at the Kyrgyz Opera and Ballet Theatre.

Her repertoire included more than 50 operatic roles. Among them were Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, Liza in The Queen of Spades, Marguerite in Faust and the title role in Jamila.

She was named a People's Artist of the Kyrgyz Soviet Socialist Republic in 1974 and a People's Artist of the Soviet Union in 1980.