Irina Lychagina

Principal Director and Artistic Director of the Opera Company of the Hvorostovsky Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre

Irina Vladimirovna Lychagina graduated from the Lenin Moscow State Pedagogical Institute and the Lunacharsky State Institute of Theatrical Art (now the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts - GITIS).

Between 1993 and 1996, she participated in the British Council projects.

Between 2000 and 2023, Irina Vladimirovna was Principal Director of the opera company of the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre. She’s plastique director and choreographer of such significant productions in the current history of this theatre as Madama Butterfly by Puccini (the production has received the National Theatre Award Golden Mask), Betrothal in a Monastery by Prokofiev, Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky, The May Night by Rimsky-Korsakov.

She’s director of the plastique structure of the world premiere of Vladimir Kobekin's opera Hamlet (Danish) (Russian) Comedy. The production was a great event in the music life of Russia, it was nominated for the Golden Mask award in five categories.

As an assistant director, she participated in the production of the opera The Snow Maiden by Rimsky-Korsakov at the Bolshoi Theatre and Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges at the Latvian National Opera House.

Irina is fluent in English and indispensable in collaborating with invited foreign directors.
 She assisted to Olivier Py (Pelléas et Mélisande), Christopher Alden (A Midsummer Night's Dream), Andrejs Žagars (Tannhäuser, Manon), Peter Stein (Aida). After working on Aida, Peter Stein invited Irina Lychagina to take part in his next Russian project, a production of La Damnation de Faust by Berlioz: she successfully directed large-scale crowd scenes.

In 2019, she participated as an assistant director in the production of Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress - a co-production of the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre with the Festival in Aix-en-Provence. After the departure of the invited directors, she was responsible for maintaining the high artistic level of their productions. In 2019, she resumed the production of the opera Manon by Jules Massenet: this work was dedicated to the memory of director Andrejs Žagars.

As production director of the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre, she released the following productions: the operetta Moscow, Cheryomushki by Shostakovich (2006; a year later, the production was nominated for the National Theatre Award Golden Mask in the categories Best Performance in an Operetta and Best Director); the opera Orpheus and Eurydice by Gluck (2014; the production was dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the composer); the media ballet Rashomon. Variations (joint work of the theatre and the project Open Stage); Introduction to the Orchestra and Guide to the Orchestra (educational productions for children and youngsters).

She also worked on almost all the productions of the current repertoire as a director responsible for the preparation and maintenance of repertoire performances and the introduction of new artists.

She directed various concert programmes including gala nights dedicated to the anniversary of People's Artist of Russia Dmitri Bryantsev, concerts of the Queen of the Opera project with the participation of Jessye Norman, Sumi Jo, Maria Guleghina, Khibla Gerzmava. Irina is stage director of the concert of soloists of Moscow music theatres at the Jurmala festival and the concert in memory of Andrejs Žagars on the stage of the Helikon Opera.

Among her works in other theatres, there are: La Serva Padrona by Pergolesi (the Helikon Opera Theatre), Pagliacci by Leoncavallo (the Helikon Opera Theatre), Duke Bluebeard's Castle by Bartók, Albert Herring by Britten, Il Matrimonio Segreto by Cimarosa (the RITI-GITIS, Moscow). In the State Theatre of Nations (Moscow), she staged the following productions: White Jazz for Two Pierrots, County Lady’s Album, Inspector General. After Comedy. Opera. She’s the choreographer of the following performances in Moscow theatres: The Royal Cow by Larisa Titova and Alexander Starotorzhsky (the Et Cetera Theatre), Three Tall Women by Edward Albee (the Mayakovsky Theatre), Viy by Nikolai Gogol (the Pushkin Theatre), and others. Translator of the musical The Producers for the Et Сetera Theatre. She staged the Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin at the Abay Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre (city of Alamaty, 2019).

Since April 2023, Irina has been Principal Director and Artistic Director of the opera company of the Hvorostovsky Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre.