On 22 November the opera Idomeneo is being performed in honour of the jubilee of Honoured Artist of Russia Yevgeny Akimov. The artist's solo recital will take place at the Concert Hall on 10 December.
People began to speak of the tenor Yevgeny Akimov in St Petersburg in the mid 1990s. The young soloist of the Zazerkalye theatre caused a furore at the premiere of L'elisir d'amore in1996, dazzlingly performing the role of Nemorino: "With a rare voice in terms of power and beauty as well as acting skills Akimov was rightly awarded the starring role in the production, and one may have no doubts as to his future as a star" (Anna Bulycheva). Following this came Russia's most important theatre prize, the Golden Mask, and an invitation to join the Mariinsky Opera.
At the St Petersburg Conservatoire Yevgeny Akimov studied under Lev Nikolaevich Morozov and, at the same time, assimilated the opera repertoire while appearing at the Zazerkalye theatre. The rise of his career as an opera singer luckily coincided with the rise of the Mariinsky Theatre, which has sttod at the avant-garde of artistic life and has boldly broadened its repertoire. Here he has sung some forty key roles – from the Duke in Rigoletto to Pierre Bezukhov in War and Peace. The range of characters sung and performed by Yevgeny Akimov at the Mariinsky Theatre is impressive: he has been Almaviva and Rodolfo, Don Ottavio and Lensky, Alfredo Germont and José, the Holy Fool and Elvino, Ferrando and Andrei Khovansky. Yevgeny Akimov's clear, fresh and mellifluous voice is not only invaluable in the Italian bel canto repertoire, as he can also be heard in Das Rheingold (Froh), Der Fliegende Holländer (Daland’s Steersman), The Love for Three Oranges (the Prince), Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Zinovy Borisovich) and The Fiery Angel (Mephistopheles). Akimov's greatest accomplishments include the role of the Holy Fool in Boris Godunov, in which he found such timbre and such intonational sub-texts thanks to which his character is seen as a symbol of the opera.
In 2002 Yevgeny Akimov received another Golden Mask for the role of Rodolfo in the opera La Bohème at the Zazerkalye theatre, and he became the hero of the premiere of Rodion Shchedrin's new opera The Enchanted Wanderer in New York. The five roles allocated to the tenor in The Enchanted Wanderer were also performed by him at the work's premiere in St Petersburg (recording available on the Mariinsky label). Yevgeny Akimov has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, the Opéra de Paris and the Teatro Regio in Turin. In 2007 he was awarded the title of Honoured Artist of Russia. Still performing, Yevgeny Akimov is today passing on his talents to the next generation of singers at the Elena Obraztsova Academy.
The Mariinsky Theatre is celebrating the singer's jubilee with a performance of Idomeneo with the performer appearing in the title role.
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