Thanks to all for the information!  Margaret Mikulska wrote:

>Nonetheless, I think that Mark Reizen left any bass or bass-baritone
>far behind and in the dust.

I'll have to check Reizen because I hardly imagine Chaliapin left in the
dust or, on the other hand, overrated.  There is something more in him than
the quality of being "incredibly powerful and yet almost tangibly soft".
His strength is not in the objective qualities: hell knows what it is.:)

I'm not an opera fan, though: I especially cherish his songs (Russian folk
songs, Schubert's Doppelganger, Massenet's Elegie etc)

Juozas Rimas Jr (not the one playing)
http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/141/juozas_rimas.html