Galina Gorchakova
Encyclopedia
Galina Gorchakova is a distinguished Russian lyric soprano
.
to a musical family. She moved to Novosibirsk
in Siberia
with her parents who were singers at the opera house there. It was in that city that she attended music school, college and the Conservatoire from which she graduated in 1988. While she was there, she was auditioned for the opera company of Sverdlovsk
and transferred there as a leading soprano. After a period, she became dissatisfied and asked to audition at the Mariinsky Theatre
in St Petersburg. Artistic director Valery Gergiev
invited her to join the company as a guest artist and she sang Il trovatore
and Prince Igor
.
's The Fiery Angel for Sir Edward Downes
who was auditioning singers for a joint production of the opera for Covent Garden
and the Mariinsky. She won the role which became her breakthrough role, and with which she made her Western debut at the 1991 Proms in London. She also sang the role the following year at the Royal Opera House and this was a triumph for her. International success in the same role followed in Milan, New York, San Francisco. It was only after her international acclaim that she was offered a permanent position at the Mariinsky theatre.
, Lisa in The Queen of Spades
, Iolanta
, Mazeppa
, Ruslan and Lyudmila. The Maid of Pskov and Fevroniya in The Invisible City of Kitezh
.
She has also sung the Italian repertoire, Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly
the opera in which she made her Metropolitan Opera
debut in 1995, Aida
, Elisabeth de Valois in Don Carlo
, the Leonoras in Il trovatore and La forza del destino
, Tosca
, and Norma
.
She was a prize-winner in the Mussorgsky and Glinka competitions. She is a People's Artist of the USSR
.
She was married, but is now divorced and has a son.
Lyric soprano
A lyric soprano is a type of operatic soprano that has a warm quality with a bright, full timbre which can be heard over an orchestra. The lyric soprano voice generally has a higher tessitura than a soubrette and usually plays ingenues and other sympathetic characters in opera. Lyric sopranos have...
.
Beginnings
Gorchakova was born in NovokuznetskNovokuznetsk
Novokuznetsk is a city in Kemerovo Oblast, Russia. It serves as the administrative center of Novokuznetsky District, but it is not administratively a part of it...
to a musical family. She moved to Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk is the third-largest city in Russia, after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and the largest city of Siberia, with a population of 1,473,737 . It is the administrative center of Novosibirsk Oblast as well as of the Siberian Federal District...
in Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
with her parents who were singers at the opera house there. It was in that city that she attended music school, college and the Conservatoire from which she graduated in 1988. While she was there, she was auditioned for the opera company of Sverdlovsk
Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District with a population of 1,350,136 , making it Russia's...
and transferred there as a leading soprano. After a period, she became dissatisfied and asked to audition at the Mariinsky Theatre
Mariinsky Theatre
The Mariinsky Theatre is a historic theatre of opera and ballet in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Opened in 1860, it became the preeminent music theatre of late 19th century Russia, where many of the stage masterpieces of Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov received their premieres. The...
in St Petersburg. Artistic director Valery Gergiev
Valery Gergiev
Valery Abisalovich Gergiev is a Russian conductor and opera company director. He is general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg.- Early life :Gergiev,...
invited her to join the company as a guest artist and she sang Il trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
and Prince Igor
Prince Igor
Prince Igor is an opera in four acts with a prologue. It was composed by Alexander Borodin. The composer adapted the libretto from the East Slavic epic The Lay of Igor's Host, which recounts the campaign of Russian prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the invading Polovtsian tribes in 1185...
.
The Fiery Angel
She was asked to learn the role of Renata in ProkofievSergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
's The Fiery Angel for Sir Edward Downes
Edward Downes
Sir Edward Thomas "Ted" Downes, CBE was an English conductor, specialising in opera.He was associated with the Royal Opera House from 1952, and with Opera Australia from 1970. He was also well known for his long working relationship with the BBC Philharmonic and for working with the Netherlands...
who was auditioning singers for a joint production of the opera for Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
and the Mariinsky. She won the role which became her breakthrough role, and with which she made her Western debut at the 1991 Proms in London. She also sang the role the following year at the Royal Opera House and this was a triumph for her. International success in the same role followed in Milan, New York, San Francisco. It was only after her international acclaim that she was offered a permanent position at the Mariinsky theatre.
Repertoire
She has also sung in many other key Russian operas: Tatiana in Eugene OneginEugene Onegin (opera)
Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, is an opera in 3 acts , by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by Konstantin Shilovsky and the composer and his brother Modest, and is based on the novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin....
, Lisa in The Queen of Spades
The Queen of Spades (opera)
The Queen of Spades, Op. 68 is an opera in 3 acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a Russian libretto by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, based on a short story of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. The premiere took place in 1890 in St...
, Iolanta
Iolanta
Iolanta, Op. 69, is a lyric opera in one act by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, and is based on the Danish play Kong Renés Datter by Henrik Hertz. The play was translated by Fyodor Miller and adapted by Vladimir Zotov...
, Mazeppa
Mazeppa (opera)
Mazeppa, properly Mazepa , is an opera in 3 acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by Victor Burenin and is based on Pushkin's poem Poltava....
, Ruslan and Lyudmila. The Maid of Pskov and Fevroniya in The Invisible City of Kitezh
The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya
The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya is an opera in four acts by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. The libretto was written by Vladimir Belsky, and is based on a combination of two Russian legends: that of St. Fevroniya of Murom, and the city of Kitezh, which became invisible...
.
She has also sung the Italian repertoire, Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly
Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Puccini based his opera in part on the short story "Madame Butterfly" by John Luther Long, which was dramatized by David Belasco...
the opera in which she made her Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
debut in 1995, Aida
Aida
Aida sometimes spelled Aïda, is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette...
, Elisabeth de Valois in Don Carlo
Don Carlos
Don Carlos is a five-act grand opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French language libretto by Camille du Locle and Joseph Méry, based on the dramatic play Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien by Friedrich Schiller...
, the Leonoras in Il trovatore and La forza del destino
La forza del destino
La forza del destino is an Italian opera by Giuseppe Verdi. The libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on a Spanish drama, Don Álvaro o la fuerza del sino , by Ángel de Saavedra, Duke of Rivas, with a scene adapted from Friedrich Schiller's Wallensteins Lager. It was first performed...
, Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
, and Norma
Norma (opera)
Norma is a tragedia lirica or opera in two acts by Vincenzo Bellini with libretto by Felice Romani after Norma, ossia L'infanticidio by Alexandre Soumet. First produced at La Scala on December 26, 1831, it is generally regarded as an example of the supreme height of the bel canto tradition...
.
Valery Gergiev
Although Gergiev played a key role in her early success and despite the many performances and recordings in which she has sung under his baton, both at the Mariinsky and on tour, Gorchakova has spoken harshly of his arrogant attitude towards her and other Russian singers and of what she perceives as attempts by him to stop her international career as payback for her leaving the Mariinsky.She was a prize-winner in the Mussorgsky and Glinka competitions. She is a People's Artist of the USSR
People's Artist of the USSR
People's Artist of the USSR, also sometimes translated as National Artist of the USSR, was an honorary title granted to citizens of the Soviet Union.- Nomenclature and significance :...
.
She was married, but is now divorced and has a son.
Sources
- Holland, Bernard, A Russian Cio-Cio San Plays Down Vulnerability, New York Times, 7 January 1995
- Marques, Nuno Miguel, Vissi d'arte. Vissi d'amore - An Interview with Russian soprano Galina Gorchakova, Classical Voice
- Mermelstein, David, Three More Reasons To Hail a New Russia, New York Times 20 December 1998
- Robinson, Harlow, Into the West, Opera NewsOpera NewsOpera News is an American classical music magazine. It has been published since 1936 by the Metropolitan Opera Guild, a non-profit organization located at Lincoln Center which was founded to support the Metropolitan Opera of New York City...
, April 1997 - Warrack, John Hamilton and West, Ewan (eds.), "Gorchakova, Galina", The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera, 3rd Edition, Oxford University Press, 1996, pp.204-205. ISBN 0192800280