In early March, the Hvorostovsky Krasnoyarsk Opera and Ballet Theatre will receive the visit of invited singers who’ll take part in the premiere performances of the revived version of Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore. The stellar cast includes soprano Valentina Pravdina (the Helikon Opera), mezzo-soprano Ksenia Dudnikova (Bolshoi Theatre of Russia), and baritone Emil Sakavov (Abai Kazakh National Opera and Ballet Theatre, Almaty).

Valentina Pravdina regularly performs the role of Leonora in Il Trovatore at her home theatre. She’ll reprise the role in Krasnoyarsk on March 2. A graduate of the Glinka Nizhny Novgorod State Conservatory, Valentina continued her studies at the Galina Vishnevskaya Opera Singing Centre; she’s an alumna of the Second Youth Opera Artist Programme at the Helikon Opera. Valentina is a multiple prize-winner at international competitions. Her repertoire includes roles such as Iolanta, Mimì, Butterfly, Micaëla, Rusalka, and others.

Ksenia Dudnikova is already known to Krasnoyarsk audiences: she performed the role of Konchakovna in Prince Igor last December. On March 2, she’ll take to the stage as the vengeful gypsy Azucena in Il Trovatore. Ksenia graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory. She has performed in leading Russian theatres (the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre, Novosibirsk Opera House) and at prestigious international venues including the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, where she made her debut as Princess de Bouillon in Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur. A nominee for the Golden Mask award,  Dudnikova has been a guest soloist at the Bolshoi Theatre since 2016 and a principal soloist since 2021.

Emil Sakavov will perform the role of Count di Luna on March 1 and 2. A native of Kazakhstan, he is a soloist at the Abai Kazakh National Opera and Ballet Theatre, where he has sung the parts of Figaro, Eugene Onegin, Escamillo, and others. In 2023, Sakavov took part in the International Opera Festival in Kazan, performing Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. He is a laureate of numerous international competitions across Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, and Europe, and is also a recipient of the prestigious Nazarbayev Presidential Scholarship of Kazakhstan.

Emil Sakavov will also feature in the Puccini Passions concert of verismo masterpieces on March 5, where he’ll perform the famous prologue from Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and the aria of Gérard from Umberto Giordano’s Andrea Chénier.