Abdrazakov: debut solo album (Jan 7) & title role debut in Met’s Prince Igor (Feb 6)

On his debut solo recording – Power Players: Russian Arias for Bass – Ildar Abdrazakov returns to his Russian roots, celebrating the iconic bass roles that are the hallmark of his homeland’s operatic heritage. The new album offers many of the greatest hits of the Russian basso repertoire, with selections by Glinka, Tchaikovsky, Rubinstein, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Borodin, Rachmaninov, and Prokofiev that include the famous Act II aria from Prince Igor. Due for release by Delos early in the new year (international digital release on Jan 7, U.S. physical release on Jan 28, and international physical release on Feb 25), Power Players serves as a fitting companion to Abdrazakov’s title role debut in a new production of Prince Igor at the Metropolitan Opera (Feb 6–March 8), which last staged Borodin’s masterpiece nearly 100 years ago.
 
More often than not, Russian operas are about the power of sound, a ringing tone that reaches from Vladivostock to Moscow. Correspondingly, Russian operas afford a number of plum roles to basses and bass-baritones, offering them characters that wield either explicit or subtle control over their fellow characters and the plots at hand. With this album, Ildar Abdrazakov explores not only the dynamics of the Russian sound, but also the dynamics of power in iconic characters who find themselves commanding armies, condemning humanity, or reigning from the throne, and how such power weighs on their hearts, minds, and souls. This embrace of the Russian repertory also marks something of a coming of age for the 37-year-old Abdrazakov, whose voice has only recently developed the requisite maturity and heft to tackle such weighty fare.
 
Power Players features Abdrazakov’s interpretations of such highlights of the genre as Varlaam’s Drinking Song and the Coronation Scene from Boris Godunov, “O pole, pole” from Ruslan and Ludmila, “Liubvi vsem vozrasty pokorny” from Eugene Onegin, and “Ves’ tabar spit” from Aleko, which may heard as a sample track here. The album was recorded with Lithuania’s Kaunas City Symphony and Kaunas State Choir under the baton of Constantine Orbelian, whose extensive discography includes collaborations with Sondra Radvanovsky and Dmitri Hvorostovsky, among others.
 
Abdrazakov makes his first appearances in the monumental title role of Prince Igor when Borodin’s defining Russian epic returns to the Met for the first time since 1917. With Gianandrea Noseda on the podium, the Met’s new production is by Dmitri Tcherniakov, winner of four Golden Mask awards for Best Direction, and offers a psychological journey through the mind of its conflicted hero with the founding of the Russian nation as its backdrop. Abdrazakov headlines all nine performances, including that on March 1, which will be transmitted to movie theaters worldwide in the Met’s celebrated Live in HD series.
 
In anticipation of this landmark production, on January 15 the Met presents “Russian Exoticism: From Folk Music to Prince Igor,” a special concert at Le Poisson Rouge, where the Russian bass will be joined by soprano Anna Netrebko and his Prince Igor co-stars, mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili and bass Stefan Kocán. Their program will include arias from Prince Igor, selections by other Russian composers influenced by music deemed exotic, and folk songs from Russia’s eastern borders and beyond.
 
Later this season, the Russian bass may also be seen as Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra at Valencia’s Palau des les Arts (March 27–April 9), as the four villains in Les contes d’Hoffmann at the Vienna State Opera (May 23–June 4), and as Banquo in Macbeth – alongside Anna Netrebko, Simon Keenlyside, and Joseph Calleja – at the Munich Opera Festival (June 27–July 1). He also takes part in Berlioz’s Messe Solennelle at Vienna’s Musikverein (May 10-12), gives a one-night-only concert at the Royal Opera House Muscat (April 24), and teams up with tenor Ramón Vargas for a duo recital at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris (June 11). Earlier this season, Abdrazakov headlined the San Francisco Opera’s opening night gala in his staged role debut as Boito’s Mefistofele and opened the Rome Opera’s season singing de Silva in Ernani under the baton of his longtime friend and mentor, Riccardo Muti. He also joined the renowned Italian conductor for a special Verdi bicentennial performance of Verdi’s Requiem with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which was streamed live online around the world.
 
Further details of Power Players: Russian Arias for Bass and of Ildar Abdrazakov’s upcoming engagements are provided below, and more information is available at the artist’s web site: ildarabdrazakov.com.
 
 
Ildar Abdrazakov
Power Players: Russian Arias for Bass
Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra & Kaunas State Choir / Constantine Orbelian
CD label: Delos
Digital release date: Jan 7
U.S. release date: Jan 28
European release date: Feb 25
Rachmaninov: “Ves tabor spit” from Aleko
Glinka: “Farlaf ’s Rondo” from Ruslan & Ludmila
Glinka: “O pole, pole” from Ruslan & Ludmila
Borodin: “Ne sna ne otdykha” from Prince Igor
Mussorgsky: “Kak vo gorode bylo vo Kazani” from Boris Godunov
Rubinstein: “Na Vozdushnom Okeane” from The Demon
Tchaikovsky: “Liubvi vsem vozrasty pokorny” from Eugene Onegin
Tchaikovsky: “Gospod moi, yesli greshin ya” from Iolanthe
Glinka: “Chuyut pravdu” from A Life for the Tsar
Sergei Prokofiev: “Velichavaya v solnechnykh luchakh” from War and Peace
Rimsky-Korsakov: “Viking Song” from Sadko
Mussorgsky: “Coronation Scene” from Boris Godunov
 
Ildar Abdrazakov: upcoming engagements
 
Jan 15
New York, NY
The Met and LPR presents: “Russian Exoticism: From Folk Music to Prince Igor”
With Anna Netrebko, Anita Rachvelishvili, and Stefan Kocán
Le Poisson Rouge
 
Feb 6, 10, 14, 17, 21, 24; March 1, 4, 8
New York, NY
Borodin: Prince Igor (title role)
Metropolitan Opera
 
April 24
Muscat, Oman
Royal Opera House, Muscat
In Concert
 
May 10, 11, 12
Vienna, Austria
Musikverein / Riccardo Muti
 
May 23, 26, 29; June 1, 4
Vienna, Austria
Offenbach: Les contes d’Hoffmann (Lindorf, Coppélius, Miracle, Dapertutto)
Vienna State Opera
 
June 11
Paris, France
Les Grandes Voix: in concert with Ramón Vargas, tenor
Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
 
June 27; July 1
Verdi: Macbeth (Banquo)
Bavarian State Operava
 
ildarabdrazakov.com
 
www.facebook.com/Abdrazakov
 
www.twitter.com/IldarAbdrazakov
 
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© 21C Media Group, December 2013