Russian-language featurette on Ildar Abdrazakov’s 2015 performance as Henry VIII at the Metropolitan Opera for GTRK Bashkortostan.
Russian interview and featured performance clips for Mir Belogorya.
At 38, Ildar Abdrazakov is one of the most sought-after basses on the international opera stage. His dark velvety voice, flawless technique, musical integrity, classy sense of style and acting skills are just a few of the many qualities that have made him one of the favorite singers of the world’s most prestigious conductors and opera houses.
In 2001, when bass-baritone Ildar Abdrazakov made his debut at Milan’s La Scala in a recital at the age of 25, after winning the International Maria Callas Grand Prix Opera competition, he was scared. “For the first time I go to La Scala, for each thing, for each rehearsal, my knees were shaking,” he says. “But the audience was very fine with me. I did a good enough job for a great conductor [Riccardo Muti] to say nice things to me.”
It could almost be the plot of an opera: a dark, dashing descendant of both Genghis Khan and Tamerlane appears and sweeps all before him. But in the case of Russian-born bass Ildar Abdrazakov—“I’m one-fourth Tatar and three-fourths Bashkirian,” he says with a smile—it happens to be true.
Ildar Abdrazakov, one of the most exciting Russian singers to emerge on the international scene in the past decade, is the star of Dmitri Tcherniakov’s new production of Prince Igor at the Met. The bass chats with F. Paul Driscoll about conductors, directors and video games.
Exploring Wine Bar Offerings with Opera Star Ildar Abbdrazakov
This week, bass Ildar Abdrazakov talks about his title role in SF Opera’s production of Mephistopheles.
Even with opera’s diabolic trio under his belt, Russian bass-baritone Ildar Abdrazakov doesn’t quite seem devilish.
Ildar Abdrazakov, who sings the title role in Boito’s Mefistofele at San Francisco Opera, doesn’t look devilish, quite to the contrary: The Russian bass has movie-idol good looks, even if he has mastered opera’s diabolic trio.
He has a beautiful voice, a velvet carpet of a voice… he sings intelligently. Furthermore, he’s a pleasing stage personality.
He has been regarded for some time as one of the top opera singers in the world.
One of the most sought-after young basses in the operatic world.
Abrazakov is without rival in this repertory today, bringing to it a complex and appealing personality.
The Bashkir bass-baritone Ildar Abdrazakov has taken a route to deserved international prominence almost unparalleled among singers from the former USSR. Still in is thirties, he has made his reputation singing the Italian and French repertoire with a distinction encompassing stylistic and linguistic acumen allied to a strong stage presence.
The beauty of the voice, singing in its native language, is immediately and persistently striking.…the bass resonance is genuine and doesn’t disappear even in the softest phrases.
One of the most exciting Russian singers to emerge on the international scene in the past decade.
Ildar Abdrazakov, Russia’s great bass, was magnificent.
Abdrazakov plumbed the cavernous depths of Verdi’s writing for low male voice; he was imposing in everything he sang.
Making his role debut as Mefistofele, Ildar Abdrazakov, the bass-baritone from Bashkortostan, filled the house with a muscular, big, well-projected voice.…This is Opera with a capital O, well deserving of its standing-O reception.
As the servant Figaro, whose marriage is the subject of Beaumarchais’ comedy, the hunky Russian bass-baritone Ildar Abdrazakov boasted big, rich tone and nimble Italian diction for his patter numbers. He’s a natural stage animal too, achieving easy rapport with the audience when he called for them to “open their eyes” in his last act aria “Aprite un po’ quegli occhi.
He has a lush bass voice that won’t quit. The tone alone can seduce, especially when the singer files it down to a honeyed mezza voce.
He sang soundly and seemed perfectly comfortable, and credible, as the World’s Sexiest Man — not something every young bass or bass-baritone can pull off: carelessly sexy in the robust Champagne aria, wistful and serious and quiet in the serenade ‘Deh, vieni alla finestra.’
Whenever that soft-grained bass-baritone Ildar Abdrazakov muted his tone, it was easy to feel the shiver of death and the world’s sorrows cradled in his hands.
A sweet-toned, lyric sheen that is ideal for the bel canto repertoire, but he can summon up the rougher, darker timbre necessary for the nastier characters in the bass spectrum.
Ildar Abdrazakov stole the show as Don Basilio, giving us a splendidly devious exposition of the virtues of slander in “La calunnia è un venticello.”
Coffee and tea have just been delivered at an oyster bar near the White House when I turn on my digital recorder. A Mephistophelean grin curls onto Ildar Abdrazakov’s face as he picks up the device and speaks into it: “Hello. My name is Ildar. Now I will try to explain to you my life, onstage and off.”
Mr. Abdrazakov has a sturdy, dark and rich voice that carries well. Yet it was the refinement and clarity of his singing, the Verdian accents, that made him so moving.
Best of all, though, was the sensational bass, Ildar Abdrazakov, who has just about everything – imposing sound, beautiful legato, oodles of finesse.
A bass of elegance and unforced resonance.
Русский