Mariinsky Theatre Guest Soloist
• Honoured Artist of Russia (2021)
• People’s Artist of the Republic of Bashkortostan (1994)
• Recipient of the Onegin National Opera Award (2019)
• Recipient of the Irina Arkhipova Foundation Gold Medal and prize “For outstanding achievements in the performing arts in the last decade of the 20th century” (2001)
• Prize-winner at the International Rachmaninoff Competition (Moscow, 1998; 1st prize)
• Prize-winner at the International Maria Callas Grand Prix (Athens, 1995; Grand Prix)
• Prize-winner at the Unisa Transnet International Music Competition (Pretoria, South Africa, 1994; 1st prize and Gold Medal)
• Prize-winner at the International Fyodor Chaliapin Vocalists’ Competition (Kazan, 1994; 1st prize)
• Prize-winner at the All-Union Glinka Vocalists’ Competition (Alma-Ata, 1991; 4th prize and Hope award)
Askar Abdrazakov was born in Ufa in 1969. In 1994 he graduated from the Ufa State Institute of Arts (class of Milyausha Murtazina), subsequently undertaking postgraduate studies under Irina Arkhipova at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory.
In 1994 the singer was invited to perform Puccini’s Messa di Gloria at the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory under the baton of Vladimir Fedoseyev, and he also performed in the opera The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya at the Bregenz Festival (Austria). In 1995 he made his debut at the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, appearing as Don Basilio (Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia) and Konchak (Prince Igor). In 1996 Askar Abdrazakov performed the part of Prince Gremin (Eugene Onegin) at the Teatro lirico Giuseppe Verdi in Trieste (Italy). In 1997 at Paris’ Théâtre du Châtelet he sang the role of the Bonze in Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol (with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pierre Boulez); this production was later staged in Brussels, London, Rome, Seville and Berlin. In 1999 he performed the title role in the world premiere of Sergei Slonimsky’s opera Visions of Ivan the Terrible, conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich in Samara.
Has appeared at the Mariinsky Theatre, the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, the Washington Opera, the Teatro alla Scala, Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, the NHK Hall in Tokyo, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Madrid’s Teatro Real, the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, the Staatsoper Hamburg, the Megaron (Athens Concert Hall), Parma’s Teatro Regio, Florence’s Teatro Comunale, the Teatro Regio in Turin, the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa and many other venues. Among the outstanding conductors with whom the singer has collaborated are Valery Gergiev, Claudio Abbado, Michel Plasson, Marcello Viotti, Bruno Bartoletti, Lorin Maazel, Bertrand de Billy, Oleg Caetani, Maurizio Arena, Daniele Gatti, Alexander Anisimov, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Daniel Oren, Mark Ermler, Jesús López-Cobos, Nello Santi, Mark Elder and Ralf Weikert. His stage partners have included Anna Netrebko, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Mirella Freni, Ferruccio Furlanetto and Dmitri Hvorostovsky.
Has taken part in the festivals Irina Arkhipova Presents…, Arena di Verona and the Festival International de Colmar (France) among others.
From 1991 to 2010 he was a soloist with the Bashkir State Opera and Ballet Theatre, of which he has been Artistic Director since 2019. In May 2021 that theatre hosted a premiere of a new production of the opera Don Quichotte, marking Askar Abdrazakov’s debut as a stage director (in August 2021 the performance was first presented at the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia).
In 2012–2013 he was a soloist with the Irina Arkhipova Regional Charitable Foundation.
Guest soloist with the Mariinsky Theatre since 2013 (in January 2013 he made his debut at the theatre, performing the role of Don Quichotte).
Repertoire at the Mariinsky Theatre:
Don Quichotte (Don Quichotte)
Méphistophélès (Gounod’s Faust)
Don Giovanni, Leporello (Don Giovanni)
Tsar Saltan (The Tale of Tsar Saltan)
Filippo II (Don Carlo)
Prince Gremin (Eugene Onegin)
The King, the Herald (The Love for Three Oranges)
Narbal (Les Troyens)
Konchak (Prince Igor)
Don Basilio (Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia)
Ruslan (Ruslan and Lyudmila)
Lorenzo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi, concert performance)
Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte)
Sparafucile (Rigoletto)
Guido (Gemma di Vergy, concert performance)
Repertoire also includes the title role in the opera Attila, the roles of Zaccaria (Nabucco), Boris Godunov and Pimen (Boris Godunov), Banco (Macbeth), Jacopo Fiesco (Simon Boccanegra), Méphistophélès (Méphistophélès and La Damnation de Faust), Vasily Sobakin (The Tsar’s Bride), Kochubei (Mazepa), Dosifei and Prince Ivan Khovansky (Khovanshchina), Priam (Les Troyens), Ramfis and the Pharaoh (Aida), the Grand Inquisitor (Don Carlo), Aleko and the Old Gypsy (Aleko), Duke Bluebeard (Duke Bluebeard’s Castle), Farlaf (Ruslan and Lyudmila), a Viking Merchant (Sadko), Baldassare (La favorita), the bass roles in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, Shostakovich’s Thirteenth Symphony and requiems by Mozart, Verdi and Dvořák.
From 2015 to 2018 he was Artistic Director of the Chaliapin Dacha Festival (Plyos, Ivanovo Region); from 2016 to 2018 he headed the jury of the International Fyodor Chaliapin Vocal Competition in Ufa. Has presented his own programme Orpheus’ Dressing Room on Orpheus Radio.
In 2010–2011 he was Minister of Culture of the Republic of Bashkortostan. Since 2019 he has been an Advisor on Culture and the Arts to the Head of the Republic of Bashkortostan. Member of the Regional Political Soviet of the political party United Russia in the Republic of Bashkortostan (former member of the Presidium of the Regional Political Soviet).
Information for April 2022
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