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 and Claudia Muzio a spinto soprano. Of all these, Claudia Muzio was the only one to share some roles with Raisa (Leonora in "Il trovatore", Desdemona in "Otello", Aida, Santuzza, and "Tosca"). Raisa was the company's only Maliella in Wolf-Ferrari's "I gioielli della Madonna" ("Jewels of the Madonna"), "Gioconda", Amelia in "Un ballo in maschera" (always billed as "Masked Ball" in Chicago), Rachel in "La Juive" (always announced as "The Jewess" in Chicago), and of course the Mount Olympus in opera for sopranos, "Norma" in Bellini's opera. This is significant as Claudia Muzio had performed Norma with some success in