The April playbill of the Hvorostovsky Krasnoyarsk State Opera and Ballet Theatre features new performances of Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi, which premiered to great acclaim in February. On April 3 and 4, the title role of the court jester will be performed by Oleg Fedonenko, a soloist of the Pushkin Nizhny Novgorod State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre.

Fedonenko is a familiar and welcome guest in Krasnoyarsk. Born and educated in the city, he took his first professional steps here: in 2012, he graduated from the Krasnoyarsk College of Arts, and in 2016 completed his studies with distinction at the Hvorostovsky Siberian State Institute of Arts, where he studied under People’s Artist of Russia Larisa Marzoyeva.

Since 2017, Fedonenko has been a member of the Nizhny Novgorod opera company, where his repertoire includes roles such as Onegin, Yeletsky, Escamillo, Prince Igor, and, of course, Rigoletto. In 2022, he made his debut at the Bolshoi Theatre as Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and has since appeared there as a guest soloist.

The singer’s artistry has been recognized with numerous awards. He is a first-prize winner of the Moscow International Competition of Young Performers of Russian Art Romance Songs Romansiada (2016) and the International Georg Ots Music Festival-Competition (2019, Mr. X category). In 2021, he received the Creative Success award and was nominated for both the Russian National Opera Award Onegin and the Russian National Theatre Award Golden Mask (2022) for his performance as Count Almaviva.

Fedonenko has appeared at leading concert venues across Russia including the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the St. Petersburg Academic Capella, and the Moscow International House of Music, and has collaborated with prominent conductors such as Dmitri Sinkovsky, Fabio Mastrangelo, and Alexey Bogorad.

The Krasnoyarsk production of Rigoletto is directed by Sergei Novikov in collaboration with the Nizhny Novgorod Opera and Ballet Theatre. On the same nights, April 3 and 4, the role of Gilda will once again be performed by Yekaterina Begunovich, a soloist of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre.