Olga Pudova

• Recipient of the Golden Sofit, St Petersburg’s most prestigious theatre prize (2021; for the title role in The Snow Maiden)
• Prize-winner at the 19^th World Opera Competition Operalia (2011, Moscow; 3^rd prize)
• Prize-winner at the 10^th Competizione dell’Opera (Dresden, 2010; 2^nd prize)
• Prize-winner at the 5^th Elena Obraztsova International Competition of Young Opera Singers (Moscow, 2006; 1^st prize and special prize for the best performance of a French romance)
• Prize-winner at the 7^th Rimsky-Korsakov International Competition for Young Opera Singers (St Petersburg, 2006; 2^nd prize)
• Prize-winner at the 1^st Pavel Lisitsian International Vocal Competition (Vladikavkaz, 2003)

Olga Pudova was born in Leningrad. Graduated from the Rimsky-Korsakov St Petersburg State Conservatory in 2006 (class of Grayr Khanedanian).

In 2001 she entered the Mariinsky Academy of Young Opera Singers. She made her Mariinsky Theatre debut in 2006 as Contessa di Folleville (Il viaggio a Reims). Mariinsky Opera soloist since 2017.

In 2011 the singer was awarded the Golden Sofit, St Petersburg’s most prestigious theatre prize, for the role of Zerbinetta in the Mariinsky Theatre’s production of Ariadne auf Naxos.

In 2012 Olga Pudova took part in the Salzburg Festival’s Young Singers Project, during which she attended masterclasses conducted by Thomas Hampson, Christa Ludwig, Michael Schade and Helmut Deutsch. Also undertook further studies at the International Summer Academy in Mikkeli (Finland).

In 2013 the singer made her debut at the Vienna State Opera, performing the role of the Queen of the Night in a premiere of a new production of Die Zauberflöte. She subsequently sang that role at the Opéra national de Paris, the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Komische Oper Berlin, the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Turin’s Teatro Regio, Venice’s Teatro La Fenice, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Vlaamse Opera (Flemish Opera) in Ghent and Antwerp, the Opéra de Nice, the Opéra National de Bordeaux, Paris’ Opéra Comique, the Dallas Opera and Opera Philadelphia as well as at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.

As a guest soloist she has appeared at the Semperoper Dresden (Fiakermilli in Arabella and the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte), the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris and the Opernhaus Zürich (Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos), the Grand Théâtre de Genève (Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail), the Bayerische Staatsoper (Olympia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann), the Theatre Royal in Glasgow and the Edinburgh International Festival (La Fée in Cendrillon), Welsh National Opera (title part in Le Rossignol), the Latvian National Opera and the State Opera of Tatarstan (title role in Lucia di Lammermoor and Gilda in Rigoletto) among other venues.

Olga Pudova sang as Giunia in a semi-staged production of Mozart’s opera Lucio Silla under Laurence Ekilbe at the Philharmonie de Paris, the Royal Opera of Versailles, the Theater an der Wien and the Komische Oper Berlin among other theatres.

In February 2019 she made her debut at the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, performing the role of Cunegonde (Candide), in April the same year the artist portrayed Contessa di Folleville (Il viaggio a Reims). She also appears there as the Swan-Princess (The Tale of Tsar Saltan) and Violetta Valéry (La traviata).

Repertoire at the Mariinsky Theatre:
Lyudmila (Ruslan and Lyudmila)
Snow Maiden (The Snow Maiden)
The Queen of Shemakha (The Golden Cockerel)
Swan-Princess (The Tale of Tsar Saltan)
Nightingale (Le Rossignol)
Chertokutsky’s Young Wife (The Carriage)
Konstanze (Die Entführung aus dem Serail)
The Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte)
Rosina (Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia)
Contessa di Folleville (Il viaggio a Reims)
Elvira (I Puritani)
Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor)
Adina (L’elisir d’amore)
Norina (Don Pasquale)
Gilda (Rigoletto)
Violetta Valéry (La traviata)
Oscar (Un ballo di maschera)
Nannetta (Falstaff)
Musetta (La bohème)
Madame Herz (Der Schauspieldirektor)
Adele (Die Fledermaus)
Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos)
Olympia (Les Contes d’Hoffmann)
Tytania (Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream)

In concert performances:
Bela (Klinichev’s Bela)
Sandrina (La finta giardiniera)
Amina (La sonnambula)
Linda (Linda di Chamounix)
Marie (La Fille du régiment)
Leïla (Les Pêcheurs de perles)
Lakmé (Lakmé)
La Fée (Cendrillon)
Cunegonde (Candide)

Her repertoire also includes soprano roles in Rachmaninoff’s The Bells and Orff’s Carmina Burana.

At the Mariinsky Theatre Olga Pudova has sung at premieres of productions of Ariadne auf Naxos (2011 and 2024), Il barbiere di Siviglia (2014), Der Schauspieldirektor (2017), The Snow Maiden (2020), Don Pasquale (2022, 1980 production revival), Die Zauberflöte (2022) and Die Entführung aus dem Serail (2023).

Has taken part in Mariinsky Opera tours to Baden-Baden (Il viaggio a Reims) and Turku (Ariadne auf Naxos), as well as concerts by the Academy of Young Opera Singers in Great Britain, France, Finland, Austria, the USA, Germany, Italy and Norway.

In 2015 the singer’s first solo album How Nice It Is Here (Rachmaninoff’s romances), recorded with the ensemble Russia named after Lyudmila Zykina, was released on Universal Music Russia.