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 her for his Philadelphia-Chicago Opera. As she was under 21 years of age, her engagement was confirmed in a handshake. Debuts and successes followed rapidly for Raisa. Her North American debut was on 14 November 1913 with Campanini's Chicago-Philadelphia Opera Company in Baltimore as Mimí in "La Bohème" with Giovanni Martinelli of the Metropolitan Opera in his first season in North America. (Martinelli was to be her partner in 1937 in her last stage appearance of her career in Halévy's "La Juive" in Chicago). Her first role in Philadelphia was Isabella of Aragon in the United States premiere of Alberto