MUSICAL SAMPLES Saint-Saens, Rahmaninov,
Lets leave Sviridov,
I left my home Tchaikovsky,
Verdi,
Il Trovatore (fragment) |
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| mezzo-soprano,
Russia Elena Popova was born in Leningrad into the family of a well-known author and a well-known architect. She began to study music at the age of five, upon graduating a special school focused on the German language, she continue her musical education at the Music College named after Mussorgsky, where she studied piano and vocals at the same time. After successful audition with the great opera star Elena Obraztsova and following her advice, Elena Popova become a student of Leningrad State Conservatoire named after Rimsky-Korsakov. Her teachers at the Conservatoire were the prominent professor Tamara Novichenko (vocals), professor Tatiana Melentieva (chamber music) and professor Margarita Heifets (opera art). Thus, singing became Elena’s devotion and career. She become a Prize Winner at the Young Singers Competition of the Conservatoire in 1985 and the St. Petersburg Young Performers Competition in 1986. In 1993 Elena Popova reached the final stage of the Robert Stolz Wettbewerb in Hamburg. She had her first public appearance in Europe in 1986 singing “Varvara’s Quatrains” from the opera Not Only Love by R. Schedrin with the Berlin-Rundfunk-Orchestra conducted by H.-J. Leipold at the Schauspielhaus (Berlin, Germany). Since 1987 Elena Popova has been soloist of two popular opera companies in St. Petersburg - State Music Theatre of the Conservatory and St. Petersburg Chamber Opera Theatre, artistic director Yu. Alexandrov. Elena’s voice being “…of an amazingly deep timbre, velvet-warm and velvet-soft…” and multiplied by her “…true gift for acting in presentation of personages…” cannot but impress the most demanding audiences, who rise to applaud her gratefully, both at the opera and in concert halls. The repertoire of Elena Popova is really diversified. In addition to such parts as Lyubasha (The Czar’s Bride by Rimsky-Korsakov), Olga (Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky), Marina (Boris Godunov by Mussorgsky), Martha (Faust by Gounot), Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana by Mascagni), Eboli (Don Carlos by Verdi), Asucena (Il Trovatore by Verdi) and others Elena has performed with great success at the best venues including the Grand Hall of St. Petersburg Philharmonic such masterpieces as Mozart’s Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem, Cantatas by Vivaldi and Pergolesi, Rossini’s Mass, and Mahler’s Second Symphony and Kindertotenlieder. Her chamber music concerts, which Elena Popova is tending to prefer more and more, feature vocal cycles by Schumann, Granados, and de Falla, songs by Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Glinka, Mussorgsky, Miaskovsky, Medtner, Sviridov, and so on. Her performance of vocal cycles by St.Petersburg modern composers Slonimsky, Tischenko and Salmanov was a major contribution to development of the cultural traditions of St. Petersburg. Elena’s interest in operetta has inspired her to perform music of Stolz, Strauss, and Lehar. Elena Popova has performed in artistic partnership with such outstanding musicians as conductors Saulus Sondeckys, Alexander Dmitriev, Alexander Kantorov, Nikolai Alexeyev and pianists Igor Uryash, Yulia Lev, Irina Sharapova, Inga Dzektser and Irina Teplyakova. Elena also frequently appear with the Divertissement String Ensemble, artistic director Ilya Ioff. Currently Elena Popova teaches at the St.Petersburg State Conservatoire named afterRimsky-Korsakov along with successful touring (Russia, Germany, Italy, Finland, South Korea, and other countries). E-mail: elenapopowa@yandex.ru Classical
Music of St.Petersburg |
| REPERTOIRE LIST
VOCAL CYCLES STAGE WORKS ROMANCES, SONGS
etc. of… |
