Sergei Leiferkus
Sergei Leiferkus is considered one of the world’s most renowned performing artists. His ability to convey both nobility and evil makes him most noted for roles such as Scarpia in Tosca, Iago in Otello, Rangoni in Boris Godunov, Telramund in Lohengrin and Alberich in Der Ring des Nibelungen.
He has appeared at most renowned opera houses throughout the world including the Royal Opera House Covent Garden; the Vienna State Opera; the Opéra Bastille, Paris; La Scala, Milan; the Metropolitan Opera, New York; Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires; working with famous conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Valery Gergiev, Lorin Maazel, James Levine, Bernard Haitink, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Kent Nagano, Leonard Slatkin, Vladimir Jurowski, Kurt Masur and Sir Georg Solti.
The singer’s repertoire includes almost fifty opera roles, among them Eugene Onegin, Mazeppa, Prince Igor, Ruprecht (The Fiery Angel), Nabucco, Macbeth, Simone Boccanegra, Amonasro, Iago, Don Giovanni, Telramund, Alberich and Klingsor. He keeps extending his already vast repertoire: his role debuts in recent years include Schigolch in Lulu, the title role in Rossini‘s Guillaume Tell and L’uomo in the German premiere of Peter Eötvös’ Senza Sangue in Hamburg; Professor Preobrazhensky in the world premiere of Alexander Raskatov’s A Dog’s Heart in Amsterdam; the Forester in The Cunning Little Vixen in Glyndebourne and in Dresden; Simone in Zemlinsky‘s Florentine Tragedy in Tokyo. He also appeared in the „Troika“-production of Rachmaninov‘s three operas at La Monnaie in Brussels, in Shostakovich‘s The Nose at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and in Tchaikovsky‘s Tsarina‘s Slippers at the Royal Opera House in London.
Sergei Leiferkus has recorded almost forty CDs. His first CD recording of songs by Mussorgsky received a Grammy nomination, while another recording of all of Mussorgsky’s songs (on four CDs) was awarded the Cannes Classical Award and the Diapason d’Or Prize in 1997.
Besides his frequent appearances in opera, concert and recital, Sergei Leiferkus also gives master classes and teaches in Berlin, Toronto, Moscow and Boston, as well as at the renowned Britten-Pears School, Aldeburgh.