Evgeny Nikitin
Originally from Murmansk north Russia, Nikitin entered the Saint Petersburg conservatory in 1992. In his final year he already appeared as a soloist with the famed Mariinsky Theatre and was soon invited to major theatres and festivals though Europe, the Americas and Asia.
2002 marked his debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in War and Peace. Returns to the Metropolitan include Colline (La Bohème), Pogner (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Fasolt (Das Rheingold), Oreste (Elektra), Rangoni (Boris Godunov). He made his Parisian debut at the Théâtre du Châtelet in the title role of Rubinstein's The Demon and returned in 2005 to sing the title role of Boris Godunov. Recent engagements at the Paris National Opera include Jochanaan (Salome), Klingsor (Parsifal) and the title role of Dallapiccola's Il Prigioniero. Other recent productions include Der fliegende Holländer in Baden-Baden (Gergiev), Toronto and Leipzig, Fasolt at Le Festival d'Aix-en-Provence (Rattle), Der Wanderer at the BBC Proms (Eschenbach), Amfortas (Parsifal) in Berlin and Valencia (Maazel). He made his debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich in 2008 as Jochanaan and has returned there as Klingsor and Telramund.
Recent concert performances include Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death at both the Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival under Eschenbach and at the Berlin Philharmonic under Vasily Petrenko, Mahler's 8th Symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra and Rubinstein's The Demon at the Barbican Centre London. He maintains his relationship with the Mariinsky Theatre, returning to sing leading bass-baritone roles - Boris Godunov, Prince Igor, Ruslan, Filippo (Don Carlo), Prince Igor, Der Holländer, Amfortas, Wotan (Das Rheingold), The Wanderer (Siegfried) and both Don Giovanni and Figaro. 2010 saw him at the National Symphony Orchestra Washington for Verdi's Requiem under Christoph Eschenbach, and it marked his debut at the Verbier Festival as Jochanaan. 2011 saw his return to the Metropolitan as Rangoni and included the title role of Boris Godunov in Nice, Telramund at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Don Pizarro (Fidelio) in Valencia under Zubin Metha's baton and Ibn Hakia (Iolanta) at the Salzburg Festival.
Highlights of the 2011/12 season include his return to the Paris Opera as Tomski (Pique Dame), Der Holländer at the Tokyo Opera, Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death in Berlin. Summer 2012 marks his debut at the Bayreuth Festival in a new production of Der fliegende Holländer, conducted by Christian Thielemann.
Evgeny Nikitin has recorded Rangoni (Boris Godunov) and Remeniuk (Semyon Kotko), both for Philips Classics. Two new critically acclaimed recordings of Parsifal with him singing Amfortas have just been released, one with the Mariinsky under Gergiev and the second with Janowski and the Berlin Radio Symphony.
