Since the beginning of the 1930s, Paliashvili was frequently unwell. Having been diagnosed with sarcoma of the adrenal gland, the composer was taken to Leningrad to their friend Yustin Janelidze, a famous Soviet-Georgian surgeon. Janelidze operated on Paliashvili, but when he saw that surgical interference would do no good, he stopped the operation and sewed up the wound. He estimated that Paliashvili had only several months to live. Paliashvili was bedridden during the summer months of 1933 and his condition continually deteriorated, all the while a new season had begun at the Tbilisi Opera House. Several days before his death, Paliashvili reportedly wished to hear his opera Abesalom da Eteri for the last time. The radio was switched on and Paliashvili strained to listen, happy at first but soon contorted with severe pain. At 5 p.m. on October 6, 1933, he died.