Soloist
Lena Belkina
- Mezzo-Soprano
Biography
“Rossini would have been thrilled by Lena.“ (La Stampa)
The press has already taken her to its heart: “fulminant, brilliant, beautiful voice” (Das Opernglas), “a touching mezzo” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), “…a treat for the ears and the eyes…” (WAZ). The young mezzo-soprano Lena Belkina is already in demand all over the world.
The 2019/20 season will see Lena perform in productions like Carmen at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, La Donna del Lago at the Theater an der Wien or on a concert tour with the Hamburg Symphonic Choir in Germany.
In 2017/18, she made her debut as the leading lady in Carmen at the Bregenz Lake Festival. In the past seasons she was part of Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Grand Theatre de Genève, Teseo and Maid of Orleans at the Theater an der Wien, concert performances of Tancredi in Brussels and the Walpurgisnacht in Bratislava, Les contes d’Hoffmann at the New National Theatre in Tokyo and La donna del lago at Opéra de Lausanne.
Special attention was paid to Lena’s performance at the Mikhaylovsky Theatre in St Petersburg, where she sang the part of Polina/Milovzor together with Elena Obraztsova as countess in Pique Dame, under the baton of Mikhail Tatarnikov.
Lena Belkina sang her way into the international limelight back in 2012 with her Angelina in Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Carlo Verdone/Gianluigi Gelmetti). The live video recording made by Mondovision was awarded the 64º PRIX ITALIA and the Warsaw Music Gardens Festival audience prize. What entranced the Oscar-winning director about his star performer was her extraordinary charisma: “…una fotogenia straordinaria, e la giusta dolcezza malinconica e sognante nei suoi grandi occhi neri…” (“Extraordinarily photogenic, with the ideal melancholy and the dreamy sweetness of her big dark eyes”) (Verdone in Cultura). Since then, this film version produced by Andrea Andermann has been shown in more than 150 countries.
Additionally, the Ukrainian singer was engaged by the Rossini Opera Festival Pesaro as Arsace in a newly revised edition of the opera Aureliano in Palmira. It was the first performance of the opera at the festival and was directed by Mario Martone.
Lena Belkina sang Olga (Eugen Onegin) in several theatres like the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, the Palau de les Arts Valencia, the Malmö Opera, the Opéra de Limoges and previously at the Leipzig Opera. Here, the singer was ensemble member for several years. Afterwards she joined the ensemble of the Vienna State Opera, where she performed roles like Cherubino (Nozze di Figaro), Flora (Traviata), Second Lady (Magic Flute) and Javotte (Manon).
Other significant engagements during the last seasons include Cherubino (Nozze di Figaro) at the New National Theater Tokyo, Rosina (Barbiere di Siviglia) at Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Angelina (Cenerentola) in Prague and Varvara (Katia Kabanova) in Turin.
She is a sought-after guest at many concert stages like Jerusalem (Das Lied von der Erde), the Konzerthaus Vienna, where she accompagnied José Carreras at his Farewell Tour and in Monte Carlo (Lieder und Tänze des Todes).
Meanwhile, the young mezzosoprano has produced two recordings with SONY Music: after her highly acclaimed Debut-Album DOLCI MOMENTI featuring Belcanto-Arias by Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti with Alessandro de Marchi, the new Album CLASSIC VIENNA with works by Mozart, Gluck and Haydn accompanied by the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Andrea Sanguineti was released in summer 2017.