Raisa Gorbacheva Raisa Gorbacheva Raisa Maximovna Gorbacheva ( "Raisa Maksimovna Gorbachyova", , Титаре́нко; 5 January 1932 – 20 September 1999) was a Russian activist who was the wife of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. She raised funds for the preservation of Russian cultural heritage, fostering of new talent, and treatment programs for children's blood cancer. Raisa Maximovna Titarenko was born in the city of Rubtsovsk in the Altai region of Siberia. She was the eldest of three children of Maxim Andreyevich Titarenko, a railway engineer originally from Chernigov in Ukraine, and his Siberian wife, Alexandra Petrovna Porada, originally from Veseloyarsk. She spent her
Rosa Raisa In Chicago she added Maddalena in "Andrea Chénier", Zina in de Gounzberg's "Le Vieil Aigle", "Isabeau" in the North American premiere of Mascagni's opera, Maliella in "'I gioielli della Madonna", "La Gioconda", Basiliola in Montemezzi's "La Nave", Puccini's "Suor Angelica", Elisabeth in "Tannhäuser", Minnie in "La Fanciulla del West", Leonora in "La forza del destino", Cio-Cio-San in "Madama Butterfly" (at the Ravinia Festival outside Chicago, also Giordano's "Fedora" at Ravinia), Toinette in Frank Harling's jazz opera "A Light From Saint Agnes", Rosalinde in an English-language "Die Fledermaus", and Conchita in Zandonai's opera of the same name. Raisa also, of course,