Opera Opera Gala in Honor of Elena Obraztsova. Taking part will be Anna Netrebko, Jose Cura, Olga Peretyatko, Ekaterina Siurina, World famous Bolshoi Ballet and Opera theatre (established 1776) - Marvellous Main (Historic) Stage
Schedule for Opera Gala in Honor of Elena Obraztsova. Taking part will be Anna Netrebko, Jose Cura, Olga Peretyatko, Ekaterina Siurina, 2022
Mezzo-soprano: Elena Obraztsova
Orchestra: Bolshoi Theatre Symphony Orchestra
Taking part will be Anna Netrebko, Jose Cura, Olga Peretyatko,
Ekaterina Siurina, Maria Gulegina and others
Conductor - Eugene Kohn
Elena Vasiliyevna
Obraztsova was born in Leningrad, Russia, on July 7, 1939. Elena
began showing an interest in music and dreamed of becoming an opera star. Her
father, an engineer who played several musical instruments, found her voice
displeasing and attempted to enroll Elena in the Radio Technical Institute in
Taganrog (where he worked at the time) to study electronics. She was not
accepted, so she enrolled in the Musical School in Rostov and then the Leningrad
Conservatory. She began stenuous study with Antonina Grigorieva and began
entering competitions as a mezzo-soprano. She got the Gold Medal at the Eighth
World Youth and Students Festival in Helsinki in 1962, much to the surprise of
her teacher. The following year she earned another first prize in the Glinka
All-Union Competition in Moscow. Shortly after, she was invited to join the
Bolshoi Opera Company in Moscow and she accepted. In the 1964-65 season,
Elena Obraztsova made her operatic debut at the Bolshoi as Marina in the
Rimsky-Korsakov version of Mussorgsky‘s Boris Godunov. Soon after, she travelled
with the Bolshoi to Milan, and made her debut at La Scala on October 28, 1964,
as the Governess in Pique Dame. The following month she portrayed Maria in War
and Peace at La Scala before leaving with the Bolshoi to Montreal‘s Expo
67. During the Bolshoi‘s June-July 1975 United States tour, she appeared at
the Metropolitan Opera as Marina in Boris Godunov, stopping the show to take
five curtain calls at the end of her love duet with Grigori, sung by Vladimir
Atlantov. During the remainder of the tour, she also appeared as the Old
Countess in Pique Dame, Hйlиne Bezukhova in War and Peace, and Zhenka Komelkova
in Molchanov‘s The Dawns Are Quiet Here, which she had appeared in at the
opera‘s world premiere a few months earlier in Moscow. In 1975, Elena was
invited to open the San Francisco Opera‘s season as Azucena in Verdi‘s Il
Trovatore with Luciano Pavarotti and Joan Sutherland. She appeared in Werther at
La Scala in 1976 before returning to San Francisco to launch the 1977 season as
the Princesse de Bouillon in Cilea‘s Adriana Lecouvreur with Renata Scotto.
Meanwhile, on October 12, 1976, she caused a sensation when she made her
official debut as a regular member of the Metropolitan Opera as Amneris in
Verdi‘s Aпda (a performance that was called "one of the great Met dйbuts in
recent history"). That year, she also sang at Carnegie Hall for the Richard
Tucker Memorial Gala. In 1977, she scored a major triumph as Dalila in
Saint-Saлns‘ Samson et Dalila at the Met. Of her performance, Thor Eckert Jr.
wrote, "It is doubtful that there has been another Dalila in recent years for
whom, vocally, the highs and lows - some two and a half octaves - held not the
slightest terror. Nor does the voice reveal the slightest seam." In 1978, she
added the roles of Charlotte (in Werther) and Carmen to her Met repertoire, as
well as making her Covent Garden debut as Azucena in Il Trovatore. She also
returned to La Scala for performances of Un Ballo in Maschera and Don Carlos
and, the following year, added Adalgisa in Bellini‘s Norma to her
repertoire. During her career, Elena Obraztsova has mastered more than twenty
operatic roles. Her thrilling voice made her a favorite at the Met and at La
Scala, mostly due to her theatrical flair and vocal intensity. She has also
ventured into producing operas, making her debut as a producer in the Bolshoi‘s
production of Werther during the 1986-87 season. She has received numerous
awards and was named People‘s Artist of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist
Republic in 1973, as well as being awarded the Lenin Prize in 1976. Today,
Elena Obraztsova coaches other members of the Bolshoi. She continues to appear
in opera performances around the world and recently established the Elena
Obraztsova Competition for young singers. Obraztsova married Bolshoi conductor
Algis Ziuraitis in 1983 and she has one daughter, Elena, who was born in 1966
from her previous marriage to Vyacheslav Makarov.
Schedule for Opera Gala in Honor of Elena Obraztsova. Taking part will be Anna Netrebko, Jose Cura, Olga Peretyatko, Ekaterina Siurina, 2022
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