"The Russian mezzo Aigul Akhmetshina is only in her early 20s, but she has got it all: striking good looks, a vibrant stage presence and a great voice. ‘The new Netrebko’"
- David Mellor, Daily Mail
Represented by
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Roberto Rizzi Brignoli, Conductor
Keith Warner, Stage Director
Daniel Carter, Conductor
Katharina Thalbach, Stage Director
Debuts with Zurich Opera as Rosina Barbiere di Siviglia, Olga Eugene Onegin with Gran Teatre del Liceu, Prince Orlofsky Die Fledermaus at New National Theatre Tokyo, Varvara Katya Kabanova for Glyndebourne Opera Festival, and returns to the Royal Opera House for Carmen, Deutsche Oper Berlin as Fenena Nabucco and Carmen.
Debuts at Metropolitan Opera, Dutch National Opera, Teatro Real, Baden-Baden Festspielhaus, Berliner Philharmoniker and returns to Royal Opera House.
Polina Pique Dame for Teatro San Carlo Napoli, Hannah Die Passagier at Teatro Real, Rosina Barbiere di Siviglia and Olga Eugene Onegin with Israeli Opera, Dulcinea Don Quichotte for Wexford Opera Festival, Stabat Mater with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Olga Eugene Onegin in concert with Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and Russian National Orchestra, Preziosilla La forza del destino, Carmen in Barrie Kosky’s production, concert with Maestro Papano and Anna Netrebko, Carmen La Tragédie de Carmen, Sonyetka Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Royal Opera House, a concert version of West Side Story with Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, concerts with National Russian Orchestra, and with London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall.
Grand Prix at the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition.
Carmen
Royal Opera House Covent Garden- Carmen's Card Aria "En vain pour éviter"
Carmen
Royal Opera House Covent Garden- Carmen's Card Aria "En vain pour éviter"
Carmen
Royal Opera House Covent Garden - Carmen's aria "Seguidilla"
Carmen
Royal Opera House Covent Garden - Carmen's aria "Seguidilla"
Carmen
Royal Opera House Covent Garden- Carmen's Aria "Habanera"
Carmen
Royal Opera House Covent Garden- Carmen's Aria "Habanera"
As Lisa’s companion Polina, Aigul Akhmetshima displayed a powerful mezzo-soprano, with an asserting firmness in the voice that gave her singing an ear-catching tension.
Akhmetshina, already a rising star at Covent Garden for her Carmens, and a thrilling Preziosilla in the B-cast recent Forza del destino (she should have been alongside Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann), has everything for this role: the looks, the sultry vocal endowment and a natural “watch-me” stage charisma that had the audience on the edge of their seats. We can expect great things from this impossibly young — she is only 23 — singer, if she isn’t pushed into heavy roles too soon.
Aigul Akhmetshina is very much the star attraction in the cast. Her outstanding success as Carmen at the Royal Opera last summer was evident in the way in which she portrayed the sultry señorita with whom the Don is besotted. Akhmetshina clearly relishes the dance content – perfect flamenco wrists – and her every move crackles with electricity. Her vibrant mezzo is well-suited to the role too, earthy in the guitar-accompanied “Ne pensons qu'au plaisir d'aimer”, but gorgeously shaped in Dulcinée’s apology after she laughingly rejects Quichotte’s proposal of marriage.
Aigul Akhmetshina ist optisch und stimmlich eine Idealbesetzung für die Partie der Belle Dulcinée. Mit samtweichem Mezzosopran fängt sie einerseits die Melancholie der Figur ein, wenn sie in ihrer Auftrittsarie die Vergänglichkeit der Jugend beklagt, und spielt andererseits absolut glaubhaft die Verführungskunst dieser Femme fatale aus, die ihre Verehrer zappeln lässt.
Aigul Akhmetshina was a superbly alluring Preziosilla, executing her song-and-dance numbers with panache and displaying some great low-register vocal technique along the way. She’s a talent to look out for.
Aigul Akkmetshina did everything that was asked of her as Preziosilla, which is a lot, ranging from attempted seduction of Don Alvaro, to creating a series of musical-theatre style dance numbers for the final scene of Act Three. Akhmetshina has a high, bright mezzo-soprano voice and is perhaps not a conventional Preziosilla but she shone here with a winning personality and I look forward to her in further roles.
Jette Parker Young Artists’ Program member Aigul Akhmetshina was a technically secure and often exciting Preziosilla with a youthful and agile voice. Even more remarkably, this mezzo from Bashkortostan threw herself with gusto into the highly choreographed dance sequences, a mix of chorus line, belly dancing and burlesque. I don’t envy her A-cast colleague who needed to compete with the moves of this multi-talent.
The star of the evening was undoubtedly Aigul Akhmetshina, whose vivid, vocally lustrous Preziosilla should really have been chosen for the cast. This singer is clearly going places.
Aigul Akhmetshina, a 21-year-old Russian mezzo-soprano, is the real deal. She was discovered as a 19-year-old by David Gowland, the artistic director of the Jette Parker Young Artists programme, who proudly and skilfully accompanied her in a lunchtime recital at St Clement Danes in London. Akhmetshina began with Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder, sounding much more mature than 21 (already a Brangäne for Tristan und Isolde), although there's a charming naivety about her. She has the beauty in her voice for this music but also darkness and blade, with an intense vibrato. She's innately musical - and instinctive - which was revealed in Shostakovich's Spanish Songs. Her resonant lower register and easy top combine a 'cool hotness' - perfect for Carmen, which she's covering at ROH next year. Akhmetshina is heading for the major mezzo roles, and deserves to be a big star.
Mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina has an immaculate voice. It is slender, gentle, and soothing on many levels, making her a solid Carmen. She has a ringing top that was on full display throughout the inserted portions of the Habanera, which challenges the singer with a higher tessitura. She managed her voice quite well throughout this version of the piece, especially in moments where she had to sing over a blasting choral ensemble. There was great flexibility in her singing throughout the Seguidille, but she truly shone throughout Gypsy song that opens Act two. Here she not only managed to tackle all of the piece’s vocal challenges, but did so while dancing incessantly. Her voice never sounded the least bit troubled by the choreography; it was a true virtuoso display. “En vain pour éviter” was perhaps the lone moment where her Carmen projected any contrasting emotions, the mezzo darkening her delicate timbre and even expressing a sense of dread with some sharp accents in the lower reaches of her voice as she lamented her fate.
Aigul Akhmetshina, who opened the second act in Dalila's big aria, launching herseld with ease over the huge orchestration...She has a dark quallity to her voice and shone dramatically on stage
