Yuri Udalov

Asistant Opera Director

Assistant Opera Director of the Bolshoi Theatre.

Born in the town of Beltsa (Moldavia). In 1978, on completing his studies at the vocal faculty of the Kishinyov Institute of the Arts (Polina Botezat’s class), he joined the Ashkhabad Theatre of Opera and Ballet (chief conductor Khydyr Allanurov) as soloist. For the seven years he was with this Company, he sang the following, among other, lead roles in the tenor repertoire: The Duke (Rigoletto), Alfredo (La Traviata), Count Almaviva (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Riccardo (Un Ballo in maschera), Lensky (Eugene Onegin), Vaudemont (Iolanta), Jose (Carmen), Paolino (Domenico Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto — ). His partners over this period were Pavel Lisitsyan, Tamara Milashkina, Evgeny Nesterenko, Vladimir Malchenko, Oleg Klyonov.

From 1985-88, he was with the Kishinyov Theatre of Opera and Ballet where he sang Lensky (Eugene Onegin — title role Sergei Leyferkus), Riccardo (Un Ballo in maschera — conductor Alfred Hershfeld), as well as the lead role in Il Trovatore (conductor — Vladimir Mochalov). He taught at the Kishinyov Conservatoire.

In 1988, he joined the Bolshoi Theatre as Chorus member. Apart from his performances with the Chorus, in 2001, he sang the role of Second Croupier in Sergei Prokofiev’s The Gambler (conductor — Gennadi Rozhdestvensky). He has appeared with, among others, the conductors Evgeny Svetlanov and Alexander Lazarev and the directors Boris Pokrovsky, Robert Sturua, Eimuntas Nekrosius. He has toured in, among other countries, the USA, Great Britain, Australia, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Germany, Luxembourg.

He is senior lecturer at the vocal faculty of the Russian Academy of Music named after Gnesins, and the author of a textbook on solo singing for theatre and music establishments of higher education. Among his students were Pavel Kondratenkov (Rome Opera soloist), Sergei Lashmanov (winner of the All-Russian Romansiada — 2002 Contest), Sergei Balashov (Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre soloist).

In 2002, he took up the post of Bolshoi Theatre Assistant Chorus Master.
In 2011, — the post of Bolshoi Theatre Assistant Opera Director.

© Bolshoi Theatre