Mezzo-soprano
People`s Artist of Russia (2002).
Recipient of the State Prize of Russia (2007).
Olga Borodina is a first prize gold medal winner of the Rosa Ponselle Vocal Competition (New York), and also won the International Francesco Vinas competition (Barcelona). As a leading member of the Mariinsky Theatre she performs extensively throughout Europe, the United States, Japan and China.
Olga Borodina performs equally frequent recitals in the world`s most famous concert halls.
Olga Borodina established herself very quickly as one of today`s most exciting mezzo-sopranos. She made her highly acclaimed Covent Garden debut in London, sharing the stage with Placido Domingo in Samson et Dalila. Since then she has performed in London in La cenerentola, La damnation de Faust, Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina.
Since her international debut, Olga Borodina has been a frequent guest at opera houses across the globe. Olga Borodina made her American debut in 1995 in San Francisco in La cenerentola. Here she has also sung as Lyubasha, Dalila and Carmen. Her Metropolitan Opera debut came in 1997 with the role of Marina Mnishek (Boris Godunov). At the Met, her repertoire includes her finest roles: Amneris in Aida, Pauline in The Queen of Spades, Carmen in Bizet`s opera of the same name, Isabella in L`italiana in Algeri and Dalila in Samson et Dalila, which opened the 1998–1999 season and where she was partnered by Placido Domingo under James Levine. She first performed at La Scala in Milan in 1999 in Adriana Lecouvreur, followed by the role of Dalila in 2002. At the Opera de Paris her repertoire includes the roles of Carmen, Eboli and Marina Mnishek. In the USA, Olga Borodina appears with the Washington Opera and the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
European engagements have included Carmen with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Colin Davis, Aida at the Wiener Staatsoper, Don Carlo at the Opera Bastille and the Salzburg Festival, where she made her debut in 1997 in Boris Godunov, and Aida at Covent Garden.
Olga Borodina frequently appears in concert programmes with the world`s finest ensembles. Her repertoire includes Verdi`s Requiem, Berlioz` La mort de Cleopatre and Romeo et Juliette, Rossini`s Stabat Mater, Ravel`s Sheherazade, Musorgsky`s Songs and Dances of Death, Stravinsky`s Pulcinella and Prokofiev`s Ivan the Terrible and Alexander Nevsky. She works with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra under James Levine and the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev. Olga Borodina performs chamber programmes at the finest concert halls in Europe and the USA, among them Wigmore Hall and the Barbican Centre (London), the Konzerthaus (Vienna), the National Concert Hall (Madrid), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Rome), the Davies Hall (San Francisco) and the Edinburgh and Ludwigsburg Festivals, as well as at theatres including La Scala (Milan), the Grand Theatre (Geneva), the Staatsoper (Hamburg), the Theatre des Champs Elysees (Paris) and the Liceu (Barcelona). In 2001 she made her Carnegie Hall recital debut with James Levine as accompanist. Recent works from the 2006–2007 season include Verdi`s Requiem under Riccardo Muti in London, Ravenna and the Lebanon, Songs and Dances of Death with the Orchestre National de France and Samson et Dalila in concert in Brussels and Amsterdam (Concertgebouw).
Olga Borodina`s discography with Philips Classics includes over twenty CDs, among them the operas Khovanshchina, The Queen of Spades, War and Peace, Prince Igor, Boris Godunov, Eugene Onegin, La forza del destino, Don Carlo, Rakhmaninov`s Vespers, Stravinsky`s Pulcinella and Berlioz` Romeo et Juliette, together with conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Bernard Haitink and Sir Colin Davis. On the Erato label she has recorded Samson et Dalila opposite Jose Cura with Sir Colin Davis.
Her solo recital recordings, all under the Philips Classics label, include Tchaikovsky Songs which was voted "Best Debut Recording of 1994" by the jury of the Cannes Classical Music Awards, Songs of Desire, Bolero, an album of Opera Arias with Welsh National Opera Orchestra and Carlo Rizzi and the double album A Portrait of Olga Borodina featuring a collection of songs and arias.
Her most recent recordings include Verdi`s Requiem with the Mariinsky Theatre chorus and orchestra under Valery Gergiev, Aida with the Wiener Philharmoniker under Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Berlioz` La mort de Cleopatre with the Wiener Philharmoniker under Gergiev (Decca).