Elena Maximova

Contralto

Elena Maximova graduated from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire. In 2000, she was engaged as a soloist with the Moscow Stanislavsky Musical Theatre and today performs roles in most of the theatre’s repertoire, includinge Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Polina (The Queen of Spades), Siebel (Faust), Nicklausse (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Olga (Eugene Onegin), Preziosilla (La Forza del Destino), Despina (Così fan tutte), Charlotte (Werther) and the title role in Carmen.

Elena has an intensive concert schedule and enjoys collaborating with various notable Russian orchestras including the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, the National Philharmonic of Russia with musical director Vladimir Spivakov (Symphony No. 7 by Krzysztof Penderecki in December 2003), the Hermitage Chamber Orchestra and the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, under Alexander Dmitriev’s direction.

Elena made her European debut in the new production of Rigoletto (Maddalena) under the direction of Zubin Mehta at the Bayerische Staatsoper in 2005. In following seasons, she returned to sing Suzuki, Carmen, Olga and Federica (Luisa Miller). She has also performed at the Opéra National de Lyon (Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades), the Berlin Staatsoper (Carmen), the Semperoper Dresden (Carmen), the St Gallen Festival (Samson et Dalila), the Teatro Comunale in Florence under Zubin Mehta (Carmen and La Forza del Destino), the Palau de les Arts in Valencia (Carmen), in Tokyo (La Forza del Destino), at the Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam under Mariss Jansons (Eugene Onegin), the Teatro Massimo Palermo (Carmen) and the Teatro alla Scala (Carmen).

On the concert platform, she has performed Verdi Requiem with Orchestra de la Comunitat Valenciana, conductor Lorin Maazel, in Palau de les Arts, Valencia with Montréal and Choeur Saint-Laurent Symphonic Orchestra under Kent Nagano’s direction at the Lanaudière Festival, Canada, in Orvieto with Zubin Mehta and in Zurich with David Zinman.

In 2012 she made her debut as Carmen at the Vienna Staatsoper, sang Helene (War and Peace) in Moscow and Marguerite (Faust) at the St Gallen Festival In 2013 she made her debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Olga, sang Maddalena at the Vienna Staatsoper and starred in a new production of L’italiana in Algeri at the Sranislavsky Theatre, Moscow.

In the 2013/14 season, Elena made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera New York as Olga, sang Eboli (Don Carlo) in Helsinki and under Valery Gergiev at the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg and sang Leonora (La Favorite) at the St Gallen Festival.

In 2014/15 she performed Eboli at the Vienna Staatsoper, Marfa (Khovanshchina), in a new production under Semyon Bychkov, the roles of Maddalena, Rosina, Polina, Olga and Giulietta at the Metropolitan Opera New York under James Levine and in Rome as Polina.

In 2015/16 she performed the roles of Maddalena, Marfa, Cheubino and Rosina at the Vienna Staatsoper, Carmen at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, at the Semperoper Dresden and Bayerische Staatsoper and Charlotte at the New National Theatre, Tokyo.

In 2016/17 she sang Carmen, Angelina (La Cenerentola) and Prince Orlofsky at the Vienna Staatsoper, Carmen at the New National Theatre Tokyo, Olga at the Metropolian Opéra New York and Maddalena at the Opera National de Paris.

Future projects include Marfa at the BBC Proms in London, Carmen with Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Maddalena at the Vienna Staatsoper and Prince Orlofsky at the Teatro alla Scala Milan.