High-Voice Standouts At XV International Tchaikovsky Competition

Elegance. Stamina. Distinction. Power. These are all elements that can set singers apart from each other in a competition, especially when at least three people are singing "Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém" from Dvořák's Rusalka. As the voice division of the International Tchaikovsky Competition began on June 23, several higher voices stood out in the crowd. Here is a small sampling of some unique talent from Round 1: 

Antonina Vesenina (Russia) Click here to watch performance	Yulia Matochkina (Russia) Click here to watch performance
Ewa Tracz (Poland) Click here to watch performance	Anastasia Fedorova (Russia) Click here to watch performance

Did any of these make it to Round 2 of the competition? Find out after the jump. 

Gramophone Magazine's Editor James Jolly interviews soprano Deborah Voigt who was the first prize winner 
in the 1990 Tchaikovsky Competition and is a jury member this year. See more after the jump.

Mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina was featured in the opening concert of the competition concert in Moscow.
Click here to watch the performance.

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Happy Birthday: Olga Borodina

"Меркнет свет дневной [Konchakovna's Cavatina]" Prince Igor (Borodin)

"Net, tol'ko tot, kto znal"
[None but the lonely heart]
(Tchaikovsky)

"Olga Borodina (born July 29, 1963, in Saint Petersburg) is a leading dramatic mezzo-soprano, known for her roles in Russian operas at her home company, the Mariinsky Theatre, and for her international performing and recording career in a varied repertoire. Borodina made her debut in Samson and Delilah at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden with Plácido Domingo. She performs frequently at the Metropolitan Opera and the San Francisco Opera and many other opera houses in roles including La Cenerentola, Marguérite in La damnation de Faust, Eboli in Don Carlos, Principessa in Adriana Lecouvreur, Carmen, Marfa in Khovanshchina and Amneris in Aida. Borodina is known for her "plush" voice. She has received recognition as a People's Artist of Russia in 2002, the first prize gold medal of the 1998 Rosa Ponselle Vocal Competition, and also won the Barcelona competition in 1989. She was awarded the State Prize of the Russian Federation (2006). She was one of

"Printemps qui commence"
Samson et Dalila (Saint-Saëns)

the winners of the 2007 Opera News Awards for distinguished achievement. Borodina is featured in many Russian opera recordings on Philips conducted by Valery Gergiyev with the Mariinsky company. Her Russian heritage is very important to her: "I'm one of the mad people who need their roots. I take nourishment from my native land, my motherland. I want my children to study in Russia, because they are Russian. I think this is tremendously important. But life in St Petersburg is becoming tougher by the day and the Russian spirit, the spirituality that was part and parcel of Russian culture, is almost not there any more. She once pulled out of a production of Carmen at La Scala because the recitatives were spoken instead of sung, and left rehearsals at the Royal Opera House for Aida, directed by Robert Wilson, because she found the conductor's (Antonio Pappano) "approach too alien to the opera". In 2006, the management of the Vienna State Opera "decided to distance itself from an engagement [with Borodina], not just for this production but also for all others" on the night of the première of L'italiana in Algeri." [Source] She is married to bass Ildar Abdrazakov.

Winning Couple: Olga Borodina & Ildar Abdrazakov

(Photo: Alexander Vasiljev)

Mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina and bass Ildar Abdrazakov, a married couple who both started out at the Mariinsky Theater and rapidly rose to worldwide fame performing at Milan’s La Scala and New York’s Metropolitan Opera, shared their first Grammy award this week. 'I am very happy that my first Grammy and Ildar’s is a family one,' Borodina told reporters at the Mariinsky Theater on Monday. The couple won the prestigious prize in the Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance categories for the recording of Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under the baton of Riccardo Muti. In order to see

more of each other, the couple try to work together as much as possible. 'We have already gotten to the stage where the managers of the world’s most acclaimed venues ask us what we would like to perform, on what date, and with which conductor,' Borodina said." [Source]