Zhanna Usacheva

Zhanna Usacheva graduated from the Grekov Rostov Art College in 2003. She also studied at St Petersburg State Theatre Arts Academy. Usacheva joined the Rostov State Musical Theatre in 2003 as a set designer, where in 2004 she was appointed the head of the Arts and Set Decorations Department. Has worked at the Mariinsky Theatre since 2008. First she was a costume technologist at the Costumes Department, then in 2017 she became the head of the Make-Up Department (Men).

As a costume designer, Usacheva helped stage a plethora of productions throughout Russia. She took part in the production of Vladimir Baskin’s musical The Canterville’s Castle Ghost at the Zagursky Irkutsk Regional Musical Theatre (staged by Vasily Barkhatov). She helped stage Dead Souls in collaboration with the stage director Vladimir Akulov at the State Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Komi Republic and Tatiana Kamysheva’s fairy-tale opera Cipollino at the National State Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania (subsequently the branch of the Mariinsky Theatre). Zhanna Usacheva also helped decorate the production Los Locos de Valencia after Lope de Vega’s play (staged by Olga Malikova) at the same venue. Usacheva has collaborated with the State Primorsky Opera and Ballet Theatre (subsequently the branch of the Mariinsky Theatre) in Vladivostok, where she took part in the production of the ballet The Fourteenth set to Dmitri Shostakovich’s music (choreographer and stage director Aidar Akhmetov), Rachmaninoff’s Aleko and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci staged by Yefim Zvenyatsky. She has also collaborated with Zvenyatsky at the Maxim Gorky Primorsky Regional Academic Drama Theatre (Forget Herostratus!, The Twelve Chairs). Moreover, Zhanna Usacheva took part in the productions of the stage director Vyacheslav Starodubtsev at the Primorsky Drama Theatre such as The Libertine Punished (stage composition based on Pushkin’s The Stone Guest and the poet’s letters) and Cyrano de Bergerac. As a production designer, she worked a lot at the Novosibirsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, where she designed such Vyacheslav Starodubtsev’s opera productions as Aida (2016), The Queen of Spades. The Game (2016), Un ballo in maschera (2017), L’elisir d’amore (2017), Francesca da Rimini (2018), Bluebeard’s Castle (2018), Die Zauberflöte (2021). Usacheva has also collaborated with the same stage director at the Glinka Chelyabinsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre (Rigoletto). In 2017 she was invited to work on Verdi’s opera Un ballo in maschera by Yuri Laptev, Artistic Director of the Buryat State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre. That same year Zhanna Usacheva took part in the production of Alexander Stroganov’s Christmas fairy tale Master Drosselmeyer’s Nutcracker at the Tver Young Spectator’s Theatre (stage director and choreographer Artur Oschepkov). The artist designed the production The Four Seasons set to Tchaikovsky’s music (the St Petersburg Philharmonia, choreographer and stage director Vladimir Romanovsky). The repertoire of the Mikhailovsky Theatre added Vyacheslav Starodubtsev’s production Mozart. The Marriage of Figaro with Zhanna Usacheva’s costumes in 2017.

As a costume designer she helped stage Vyacheslav Starodubtsev’s production Tannhäuser (2019 and 2021) and Elizaveta Korneeva’s production The Demon (2023) at the Mariinsky Theatre.