Mikhail Petrenko
© Askonas Holt
bass
St Petersburgborn bass Mikhail Petrenko graduated from the renowned St Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire in the class of Professor Minzhilkiev. He was awarded diplomas at the International Rimsky-Korsakov Competition for Young Opera Singers in 1998 and the Elena Obraztsova International Competition for Young Opera Singers the following year. In 2000 he was a finalist and diploma-winner at the Maria Callas New Verdi Voices Competition in Parma. Mikhail’s vocal flexibility lends itself to a vast range of operatic repertoire including roles such as Heinrich (Lohengrin), Hunding (Die Walküre), Hagen (Götterdämmerung), Friar Laurence (Romeo and Juliet), Ferrando (Il trovatore), Basilio (The Barber of Seville), Daland (The Flying Dutchman), King Marke (Tristan and Isolde), Sarastro (The Magic Flute), Leporello (Don Giovanni), the Pope (Benvenuto Cellini), and the title role in The Marriage of Figaro. Mikhail also regularly appears in concert: previous engagements have included the Storm Knight in Kashchey the Immortal with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski at the 2008 BBC Proms, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yannick NézetSéguin, as well as with the Tokyo Metropolitan and Montreal Symphony orchestras. He has also sung Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass with the NHK Symphony Orchestra under Charles Dutoit, and Verdi’s Requiem with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Harding. He repeated this repertoire in the 2012/13 season with The Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, with whom he has built a strong relationship and regularly collaborates, and will again repeat this repertoire with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra this season.
Mikhail’s continued fascination with the music of Wagner has taken him across the world, singing under renowned conductors including Myung-Whun Chung in Tristan and Isolde – a work he will repeat with the same conductor and the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra in three concerts later this year. Last season he took part in performances of the entire Ring Cycle conducted by Daniel Barenboim at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, as well as Die Walküre and Götterdämmerung at the Teatro alla Scala conducted by Daniel Barenboim and KarlHeinz Steffens respectively, and concert performances of the Ring under Jonathan Nott and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. Adding to an already varied discography, Mikhail recently sang Rachmaninoff’s The Bells with the Berlin Philharmonic under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle, which was recorded for release on EMI. In a change to his usual appearances, he also features as Leporello in Juan, Kasper Holten’s film version of Don Giovanni, which was well received by audiences worldwide. Mikhail enjoyed a hugely successful 2012/13 season including his role debut as Oreste in Strauss’s Elektra at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Highlights of the current season include a return to the Metropolitan Opera as Prince Galitsky in Prince Igor, as well as Gounod’s Faust with The Netherlands Opera and Marc Minkowski. In forthcoming seasons Mikhail will sing the title roles in Duke Bluebeard’s Castle and The Marriage of Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera; appear in another Ring Cycle at the Wiener Staatsoper; and give another concert performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 under Hannu Lintu and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 9