Alexandra Durseneva

Mezzo soprano

Born in Kharkov into an artistic family. She completed her studies at the Kharkov State Pedagogical Institute and the vocal department of the Kharkov Institute of the Arts (T. Veske’s class). Her professional career started at the Kharkov Opera Theatre where she sang the main repertoire.
Since 1994, she has been a soloist with the Bolshoi Theatre.

Repertoire

Amelfa (Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel)
Vanya (Glinka’s Ivan Susanin)
Lyubasha (Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride)
Konchakovna (Borodin’s Prince Igor)
Marta (Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta)
Marfa (Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina)
Ratmir (Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila)
Ulrica (Un Ballo in maschera)
Nurse (Eugene Onegin)
Princess Clarice (Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges)
Basmanov (Tchaikovsky’s The Oprichnik)
Baba the Turk (Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress)
Mother Superior (Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel)
Sonyetka (Shostakovich’s The Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk)
Xenia’s Nurse, Innkeeper (Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov)
Spring (Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Snow Maiden)
Countess (The Queen of Spades)
Fenena (Nabucco)

Tours

She tours abroad with the Bolshoi Theatre Opera Company and as guest soloist. In 1999, she made her Royal Opera debut in The Golden Cockerel at Sadler’s Wells. She has appeared at the Bregenz Music Festival (Austria) and at the Arnhem Music Festival (The Netherlands). She has sung in The Demon and The Tsar’s Bride at the Konzerthaus, Vienna. She has appeared in productions by the following, among other, opera houses: Dublin (Innkeeper — Boris Godunov), Leipzig (Podtochina — Shostakovich’s The Nose and Mistress Quickly — Falstaff), Amsterdam (Podtochina), Jena (Mavra by Stravinsky), Teatro Lirico Cagliari, (Fyodor Basmanov — The Oprichnik); she took part in a performance of Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass, in Madrid. Having sung the part of Marta in Iolanta with Danish Opera, she made her La Scala debut in the same role (2002). In 2004, at the Igor Stravinsky Festival in Arnhem (The Netherlands), she took part in a concert performance of the opera Mavra. In 2006, she took part in a performance of Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery at Glyndebourne Festival. In the same year, she sang An Old Gipsy Woman in a concert performance of Rakhmaninov’s Aleko in Salle Pleyel (Paris, conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev). In 2007, she sang Ulrica (Un ballo in maschera) in West Norwegian Opera.

She has worked with the following, among other, outstanding conductors: Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Yuri Temirkanov, Mark Ermler, Andrei Chistyakov, Mikhail and Vladimir Jurowski; and with the following, among other, directors: Harry Kupfer, Boris Pokrovsky, Peter Ustinov, Tim Hopkins, Lamberto Pugelli, Graham Vick.

Discography

Rimsky-Kosrakov’s The Ledend of the Invisible City of Kitezh — Alkonost, conductor — V. Fedoseyev, Koch Schwann, 1997.
Rubinstein’s The Demon — Nurse, conductor — V. Fedoseyev, Koch Schwann, 1998.
Tchaikovsky’s The Oprichnik — Basmanov, conductor G. Rozhdestvensky, Dynamic, 2004.
Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila — Ratmir, conductor A. Vedernikov, PentaTone сlassic, 2004.
Rakhmaninov’s Aleko — An Old Gipsy Woman, conductor V. Fedoseyev, Relief, 2007.