Irina Arkhipova was a mezzo-soprano in the great Russian tradition, best known as Carmen in the classical opera. She was born Irina Konstantinova Arkhipova on December 2, 1925, in Moscow, Russia. Her father, Konstantin Ivanovich Vetoshkin, was a renown construction engineer in Moscow. Her mother, Evdokia Efimovna, sang at a church choir. Young ...