Ekaterina Gubanova


Ekaterina Gubanova is a Russian mezzo-soprano opera singer who has performed at major international opera houses, including the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Paris Opera, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Royal Opera in London, the Vienna State Opera, the Salzburg Festival, and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich.
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Early life and training

Gubanova was born in Moscow in 1979. Early in her life she studied piano, then branched into choral conducting and enrolled at the Moscow Conservatory, graduating with honors in that field. Later she switched gears and undertook singing studies at the Moscow Conservatory and then at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. In 2001 she won the Grand Prix and Audience awards at the Marmande International Singing Competition in France.
In 2002 she became a member of the Young Artists Program at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, where she sang the supporting roles of Flora in Verdi's La traviata, the Second Maid in Richard Strauss's Elektra, the Third Lady in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, the Hostess of the Inn in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, Suzuki in Puccini's Madama Butterfly, Alisa in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, and Bianca in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia.
In 2004 she won second prize in the Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition in Helsinki.
In October 2004 she sang the minor role of Barbara in Walter Braunfels's Prinzessin Brambilla at the Wexford Festival Opera with Daniele Belardinelli conducting the Cracow Philharmonic Orchestra. The production was recorded, and David Gutman, writing in Gramophone, gave "a muted cheer for dusting off an opera, all too justly neglected" and remarks "the lacklustre orchestral playing and the heroine's raw and unfocused singing are enough to destroy any atmosphere that might be generated. Ekaterina Gubanova shows much more talent...."

Career

She debuted with the Opéra National de Paris in 2005 at the Opéra Bastille in the minor role of the Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte, but gained critical notice there in the same year when she sang Brangäne in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, in a production by Peter Sellars, conducted by Valery Gergiev. This became a signature role which she has performed all over the world, including in Baden-Baden, Rotterdam, Berlin, Tokyo, Saint Petersburg, Munich, Madrid, and Valencia.
Since her debut in Paris she has also performed at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera, the Vienna State Opera, the Bavarian State Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Semperoper in Dresden, the Teatro Real Madrid, the Moscow Bolshoi Theater, the Rome Opera, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, the Gran Teatre Barcelona, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the National Opera Amsterdam, and the opera houses of Rotterdam, Florence, Valencia, Buenos Aires, Toronto, and Tokyo and in Israel.
She has also made guest appearances at the BBC Proms, in the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, at the Salzburg Festival, at the Lucerne Festival and at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. At the Bayreuth Festival from 2019 to 2021 and in 2023 she sang the role of Venus in Tannhäuser. She has also performed there Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde and Kundry in Parsifal.
Gubanova has worked with many well-known conductors, including Daniel Barenboim, Semyon Bychkov, Gustavo Dudamel, Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, James Levine, Kent Nagano, Simon Rattle, Mark Elder and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Her role repertoire as an opera singer mainly includes operas by Wagner and Verdi as well as works by Russian and French composers. Due to the flexibility of her voice, she also took on alto roles such as Erda. Gubanova also performs in concerts, oratorios and art song recitals, her repertoire including Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Verdi's Messa da Requiem, Rossini's Stabat Mater , as well as in works by Gustav Mahler: the Symphony No. 2, Das Lied von der Erde and the Rueckert-Lieder.

Awards

  • 2001: International Marmande Competition, France
  • 2004: Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition, Helsinki
  • 2020: Casta Diva Award in the category "Singer of the Year"

Recordings

Video

Audio

Repertoire (selection)

Gubanova's engagements are documented by Operabase and Olyrix.