Irina Dolzhenko

On graduation from the Tashkent State Conservatoire, Irina Dolzhenko joined the Natalia Sats Children’s Musical Theatre in Moscow. Meanwhile, she started to perform at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre in Moscow. She studied with Mietta Sighele and Giorgio Luchetti in Italy and with Régine Crespin in France. She also took classes of acting technique at the State University of New York at Albany.

In 1996, she joined the Bolshoi Theatre. At the Bolshoi Theatre, she performs Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro and Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte by Mozart, Amneris in Aida, Azucena in Il trovatore, Fenena in Nabucco, Preziosilla in La forza del destino, Flora in La traviata, Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera and Giovanna in Rigoletto by Verdi, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly by Puccini, the title role in Bizet’s Carmen, Berta in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, Adalgisa in Bellini’s Norma, Princess de Bouillon in Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur, Marguerite in Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust, Annina in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, Margret in Berg’s Wozzeck, Ježibaba in Dvořák’s Rusalka, Amelfa in The Golden Cockerel, Lel and Spring in Snow Maiden, Lyubasha in The Tsar’s Bride, and the Old Mother Babarikha in The Tale of Tsar Saltan by Rimski-Korsakov’s, Marina Mniszech, the Innkeper and Ksenia’ Nurse in Boris Godunov and Marfa in Khovanshchina by Mussorgsky, Naina in Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila, Laura and Marta in Iolanta, Boyarïnya Morozova in The Oprichnik, Countess, Governess, Polina and Milovzor in The Queen of Spades, Olga and Nurse in Eugene Onegin, Lyubov in Mazeppa, Nenila in The Enchantress by Tchaikovsky, Blanche in Prokofiev’s Gambler and Grandmother in Banevich’s Story of Kai and Gerda and participates in The Fables of the Vixen, the Duckling and Balda. The singer’s répertoire also includes Mozart’s Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem, Dvořák’s Stabat Mater, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Taneyev’s At the Reading of a Psalm, Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky, Tchaikovsky’s Moscow, Taneyev’s Symphony no. 1, Beethoven’s Symphony no. 9, and Mahler’s Symphony no. 2 among others. In 2013, she was appointed as the Artistic Director of the Krasnoyarsk Opera Theatre.

She has performed at the Vienna Chamber Opera, Sweden Royal Opera, German Opera in Berlin, Colon Theatre in Buenos Aires, New Israeli Opera, Cagliari Opera (Boyarïnya Morozova in The Oprichnik and Mérope in Enescu’s Œdipe), Bordeaux Opera (Domna Saburova in The Tsar’s Bride), Châtelet Theatre (Laura in Iolanta), Paris National Opera (Matriosha in Prokofiev’s War and Peace), Estonian Opera (title role in Carmen), Latvian Opera (Amneris in Aida and Ulrica in Un ballo in macshera). In 2016, she performed Khivrya in Prokofiev’s Semyon Kotko at the Concertgebouw with the Dutch Radio Orchestra and Chorus under the baton of Vladimir Jurowski. In 2019, she sang Amneris at the Macedonian Opera. She participated in the Schönbrunn Festival, Savonlinna Festival, Mozart Festival in France, Jerusalem Festival, Wexford Festival, Stravinsky Festival in Arnhem (Stravinsky’s Mavra), and Trakai Festival (Un ballo in macshera). The singer gave her recitals in Sigulda and Jūrmala. Irina Dolzhenko has toured to Japan, Corea, Australia, USA, and Europe. The singer cooperated with Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Valery Gergiev, Mikhail Pletnev, Vladimir Jurowski and other renowned conductors.

Irina Dolzhenko‘s discography includes Verdi’s Requiem under the baton of Mark Ermler (2001), Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila under the baton of Alexander Vedernikov (Pentatone сlassic, 2004), Tchaikovsky’s Oprichnik under the baton of Gennady Rozhdestvensky (Dynamic, 2004).

Special Prize for the USSR Glinka Competition (1981)
Title “Honoured Artist of Russia” (2001)
Title “People’s Artist of Russia” (2010)