Larisa Shevchenko

Soprano

Soprano

•People`s Artist of the USSR.
•Recipient of the State Prize of the USSR.
•Prize-winner at the All-Russian Glinka Vocalists? Competition (1975).
•Recipient of many awards at international competitions including the Grand Prix and special audience prize (the Netherlands, 1977) and the gold medal and audience prize at the bel canto competition in Oostende (1978).
•Awarded the Golden Sofit, St Petersburg?s highest theatre prize, in the category Best Opera Role for her interpretation of Turandot in Puccini?s opera of the same name (2003).

Born in Lvov (Ukraine). After graduating from the Leningrad State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire in 1976, she made her Mariinsky Theatre debut as Tatiana in Tchaikovsky?s Eugene Onegin. Mariinsky Theatre soloist from the same year.

Her extensive repertoire includes over thirty roles from Russian and European operas, among them:
Yaroslavna (Prince Igor),
Filippevna (Eugeny Onegin),
Maria (Mazepa),
Lisa (The Queen of Spades),
Akhrosimova (War and Peace),
Katerina Ismailova (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk),
Amelia (Un ballo in maschera),
Leonora (La forza del destino),
Elisabeth (Don Carlo),
Aida (Aida),
Giorgetta (Il tabarro),
Turandot (Turandot),
Senta (Der Fliegende Hollander),
Ortrude (Lohengrin),
Brьnnhilde (Die Walkure),
Mrs Grose (The turn of the Screw).

In addition to operatic roles, she frequently performs concerts of symphony music. Her concert repertoire is based on works by Beethoven (Ninth Symphony), Mahler (Second Symphony), Shostakovich (Fourteenth Symphony), Mozart (Requiem), Verdi (Requiem) and Britten (War Requiem).

From 1992–1997 she was a soloist with the Bonn Opera, performing as Lisa in Tchaikovsky?s The Queen of Spades (Stage Director: Lyubimov; music revised by Schnittke).
In addition to tours with the Mariinsky Opera Company to Italy, the Netherlands, the USA and Spain, she regularly gives solo concerts. She has performed in Birmingham, Edinburgh, Manchester, Melbourne and throughout Germany.