• People's Artist of Russia
• Recipient of the Baltika prize
• Recipient of the Golden Sophit, St Petersburg's highest theatre prize (2000, 2006)
• Recipient of Russia's national Golden Mask theatre prize for the role of Alberich in the opera Das Rheingold ("Best male role in opera", 2001)
Graduated
from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatoire (class of Professor
V.G. Shushlin) and joined the Saratov Opera and Ballet Theatre in 1973.
Soloist with the Kuibyshev Opera and Ballet Theatre from 1974. Soloist
with the Wiener Staatsoper from 1992.
First performed at the Mariinsky Theatre as Scarpia in the 1994 premiere of Tosca, and he joined the company in 1995.
Repertoire includes:
Shchelkalov (Boris Godunov)
Shaklovity (Khovanshchina)
Prince Igor (Prince Igor)
Apparition (Sadko)
Grigory Gryaznoi (The Tsar's Bride)
Mazepa (Mazepa)
Prince Nikita (The Enchantress)
Tomsky and Zlatogor (The Queen of Spades)
Robert (Iolanta)
the Emperor of China (The Nightingale)
A Fat Englishman (The Gambler)
Stenier (Maddalena)
Tsarev (Semyon Kotko)
Matveev and Raevsky (War and Peace)
Nabucco (Nabucco)
Giorgio Germont (La traviata)
Renato (Un ballo in maschera)
Rodrigo (Don Carlo)
Macbeth (Macbeth)
Amonasro (Aida)
Sir John Falstaff (Falstaff)
Alfio (Cavalleria rusticana)
Scarpia (Tosca)
Telramund (Lohengrin)
Alberich (Das Rheingold, Götterdämmerung)
Amfortas (Parsifal)
Jokanaan (Salome)
Michele (Il tabarro)
Repertoire also includes: Gasparo (Rita, ou mari battu), Rigoletto (Rigoletto), Di Luna (Il trovatore), Dikoj (Katya Kabanova).
Has toured with the Mariinsky Theatre throughout Europe, Israel, the USA and Japan.