The performance of Aida at the historic stage of the Mariinsky Theatre on 20 December will be dedicated to the anniversaries of Mariinsky Opera soloists Larisa Shevchenko (People's Artist of the USSR) and Alexei Steblyanko (People's Artist of the RSFSR).
Larisa Shevchenko and Alexei Steblyanko, graduates of the Leningrad Conservatoire (class of Nina Serval, People’s Artist of the RSFSR), have been members of the Kirov-Mariinsky Theatre since 1976. They belong to that generation of dazzling artists who joined the company in the 1970s along with its then new Principal Conductor, Yuri Temirkanov.
Over the years Larisa Shevchenko’s vocal skills have resulted in prestigious awards: in 1975 she was awarded 2nd prize at the All-Union Glinka Vocalists’ Competition, and in 1979 she took the Grand Prix of the Golden Voices competition at Ostend in Belgium (together with Sergei Leiferkus). Having brilliantly performed the role of Leonora in Verdi’s Il trovatore at the competition, Shevchenko soon made her debut in the same role at the Kirov Theatre. At that time her repertoire included numerous highly demanding roles such as Tatiana in Eugene Onegin and Maria in Mazepa by Tchaikovsky, Olga in The Maid of Pskov by Rimsky-Korsakov and Micaëla in Carmen by Bizet. When, in 1977, Boris Pokrovsky staged Prokofiev’s War and Peace at Leningrad’s greatest theatre Larisa Shevchenko was given the role of Natasha Rostova. One critic noted that “In a short time, on the stage the young performer managed to reveal not only all the nuances of the role but also to express aural trust and empathy for her character.”
Alexei Steblianko possesses a rich voice with a broad range that allows him to perform tenor roles of highly varied character. His degree work at the conservatoire was the role of Lensky, and already in his first years working at the theatre he had performed the roles of the Pretender, José and Hermann among others. In War and Peace, while still a trainee, Steblianko performed two roles – as Pierre Bezukhov and Napoleon (the latter conceived by the composer for a baritone). At the Teatro alla Scala in 1982 Alexei Steblianko appeared in a production of Berlioz’ Les Troyens. The singer performed the incredibly demanding role of Énée to perfection. With the arrival of Valery Gergiev as Principal Conductor, the repertoire of the Mariinsky Theatre expanded to include operas by Musorgsky in which Steblianko sang tenor roles such as Gritsko in The Sorochinsty Affair, Golitsyn in Khovanshchina and the Pretender in Boris Godunov, a production by Andrei Tarkovsky at Covent Garden that was brought to the Mariinsky Theatre in 1990.
Partners in life, Larisa Shevchenko and Alexei Steblianko have also frequently performed together on the stage – in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, Verdi’s Otello and Puccini’s Manon Lescaut among numerous other productions. He sang lead roles in Aida in his first years at the theatre alongside such acclaimed Mariinsky Theatre stars as Irina Bogacheva, Galina Kovaleva and Boris Shtokolov. The art of these singers has been recorded in the opera films The Comedians (based on Leoncavallo’s I pagliacci) and Carmen, filmed by Leningrad TV. In the 1990s the performers toured with unfailing success in Europe and America, appearing, among other productions, in The Queen of Spades staged Yuri Lyubimov after the opera by Tchaikovsky in Karlsruhe and Bonn, later presented in Moscow in 1997 at the Novaya Opera theatre.
Vladimir Khavrov
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