Ildar Abdrazakov has firmly established himself as one of opera’s most sought-after basses and one of his generation’s most celebrated and recognized artists. Since making his debut at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 2001 at 25, the Russian native has become a mainstay at leading houses worldwide, including Metropolitan Opera, Paris National Opera, the Vienna State Opera and Bavarian State Opera. Being also an active concert artist, he has performed at London’s BBC Proms and at Carnegie Hall, as well as with leading international orchestras, including the Chicago Symphony and the Vienna Philharmonic. <
Ildar Abdrazakov kicks off the 2021/22 season as Don Basilio in a new production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Vienna State Opera. He returns to Vienna in the title role of Boris Godunov and as Selim (Il Turco in Italia) alongside Cecilia Bartoli. The Russian bass appears as Banquo in the season opening production of Macbeth at the Teatro alla Scala, where he also appears in solo recital. Ildar Abdrazakov makes a role debut as Scarpia (Tosca) at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and his house debut as Gremin (Eugene Onegin) at the Opera Royal de Wallonie. In addition, he returns to the Bolshoi Theatre as Don Giovanni, to the Opera de Monte-Carlo as Selim and to Zurich Opera as Mustafa (L’Italiana in Algerie). Ildar Abdrazakov can be heard as Attila in concert performances at the Royal Opera House and at the Stavanger Konserthus, where he performs Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death.
Highlights of the 2020/21 season include a new production of Boris Godunov at the Opera de Monte-Carlo, the globally televised season opening concert at the Teatro alla Scala, first appearances at the summer festivals of Choregies d’Orange and Sopot Classical Festival and his return to the Salzburg Festival with concerts of Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust.
Ildar Abdrazakov has appeared with virtually every major opera company in the United States and Europe such as Madrid’s Teatro Real, the Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona, the San Francisco Opera, the Washington National Opera and the Los Angeles Opera. Since his house debut in Don Giovanni (2004) Ildar Abdrazakov has become a mainstay at the Metropolitan Opera. He headlined the gala opening of the company’s 2015/16 season in the title role in a new production of Le nozze di Figaro. Previously, he sang the title role in a new Dmitry Tcherniakov’s staging of Borodin’s Prince Igor. Other notable Met productions include his role debut as Henry VIII opposite Anna Netrebko in Anna Bolena, Dosifey in Khovanshchina, Escamillo in two productions of Carmen, the title role of Attila under the baton of Riccardo Muti, the title role in Le Nozze di Figaro, Assur in Rossini’s Semiramide, Leoporello in Don Giovanni and most recently Banquo in Macbeth and Mephistopheles in La Damnation de Faust.
Ildar Abdrazakov is a frequent guest at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, where he joined Riccardo Muti in concert for the reopening of the theatre in 2004/05 and sang Moses in a production of Rossini’s Moïse et Pharaon that was recorded and released on CD and DVD. The bass made his Salzburg Festival debut in 2009 in a new production of Moïse et Pharaon. Since then, he has returned regularly, singing amongst others Méphistophélès in a new production of Faust, Mustafà alongside Cecilia Bartoli in the Festival’s new production of Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri and performances of Verdi’s Requiem conducted by Riccardo Muti.
His first appearance at London’s Royal Opera House in 2009 was made with Verdi’s Requiem in concert with Sir Antonio Pappano. Since then he returned there to sing Don Basilio in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Filippo II in Verdi’s Don Carlo. The title role in Le Nozze di Figaro was the vehicle for Abdrazakov’s 1998 house debut at St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre. Among his other signature roles are both the title role and Leporello in Don Giovanni,
Méphistophélès in Faust and La damnation de Faust, Oroveso in Bellini’s Norma; Selim in Il Turco in Italia and Assur in Semiramide. The Russian bass is noted for Verdi roles including Walter in Luisa Miller and the title character in Oberto and Attila, as well as Banquo and Filippo II. The French version of this role took Ildar Abdrazakov to the Paris National Opera in 2017/18, where he also made his triumphant debut in the title role of Boris Godunov, broadcast live in cinemas all over the world and sang Prince Igor in a new production by Barrie Kosky. In 2018/19, Ildar Abdrazakov made his debut as a stage director in a production of Attila for Bashkir State Opera in which he also performed the title role.
On the concert stage he has given recitals in Russia, Italy, Japan and the United States, and has performed with orchestras including the Orchestre Metropolitain, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Deutsches Symphony Orchester, the Bavarian Radio Symphony, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala and Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Among the noted conductors with whom he has collaborated are Valery Gergiev, James Levine, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Gianandrea Noseda, Bertrand de Billy, Riccardo Frizza and Riccardo Chailly. In November and December 2017 Ildar Abdrazakov toured Europe with Rolando Villazón. The concerts presented the repertoire of their first joint album “Duets”, featuring duets from Italian and French operas.
Ildar Abdrazakov’s debut solo album Power Players, a celebration of the great Russian bass roles, was released in early 2014 on Delos, to great critical acclaim. His recording of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with Riccardo Muti won a Grammy Award. He also has recorded unpublished arias by Rossini with Riccardo Chailly and the Symphony Orchestra of Milan, as well as Giuseppe Verdi for Decca, and Cherubini’s Mass with Muti and the Bayerischer Rundfunk for EMI Classics. For Chandos he has recorded Shostakovich’s Suite on Verses of Michelangelo and Rachmaninoff’s The Miserly Knight, both with Gianandrea Noseda and the BBC Philharmonic. In early 2017 Abdrazakov signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. His first solo album Verdi was released in 2019.
Abdrazakov was born in Ufa, the today’s capital of the republic of Bashkiria in Russia. Upon graduating from the Ufa State Institute of Arts, he joined the Bashkirian Opera and Ballet Theatre. In the late 1990s he won a string of prestigious vocal competitions: the Moscow Grand Prix named after Irina Arkhipova, the Glinka International Vocal Competition, the Rimsky-Korsakov International Competition, and the International Obraztsova competition. His 2000 win at the Maria Callas International Television Competition in Parma thrust him into the international spotlight and led to his debut at La Scala the following year.
Ildar Abdrazakov has his own foundation, created to support and promote young talented musicians. Since 2018 he is annually organizing festivals in Russia, inviting renowned singers to give concerts and masterclasses there. Since 2014, Ildar Abdrazakov is also Artistic Director of the Elena Obraztsova International Academy of Music.
