Elena Prokina

Elena Prokina was born in Odessa, where at the age of 12 began receiving singing lessons.
She obtained her professional education at the Leningrad Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinematography, in the Faculty of Theatre Arts and conservatory’s vocal department in the class of Professor Lavrova T.N.
At the Opera Studio Theatre of the Conservatory Elena Prokina made her opera debut in roles such as Cherubino (The Marriage of Figaro), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), Dido (Dido and Aeneas, and Tatyana (Eugene Onegin).while her post graduate studies at the chamber music department (prof. Izotova Kira), she made  her professional Opera stage at Mariinsky opera theater, where she got a great opportunity to participate in various festivals of Russian opera: Mussorgsky Music Festival (Ksenia in Boris Godunov, Parasia in  Sorochinsky Fair),  and Prokofiev Music Festival (Natasha Rostova in War and Peace, Pauline in The Gambler). Elena also sung ipart of Margarethe in Faust (Gounod), Violetta in Traviata (Verdi), Desdemona in Otello (Verdi), Maria in Mazepa( Tchaikovsky), Tatiana in (Onegin). Production of the opera War and Peace was carried out in collaboration with the Covent Garden Theatre, Philips Recording Company,  BBC, and for the part of Natasha Rostova Elena was nominated by Grammy Award.

She was once a winner of the first prize of the Maria Caniglia International Singing Competition in Sulmona( Italy).

For her debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in the title part of Katya Kabanova (Janáček), and following debut at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival in the role of Tatiana (Eugene Onegin), she received an Evening Standard Award in the category of “Outstanding Opera Performance”.

Subsequently the geography of her international career iexpans: Lisbon and Monte Carlo, Amsterdam, San Francisco, Sydney Opera houses inviting Elena to perform the part ofTatiana ( Oneghin).

In Los Angeles Opera she performed in one of Verdi’s early operas, Stiffelio, alongside Plácido Domingo, and as Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. in Dallas Opera Elena to perform as Katya Kabanova and Maria in Wozzek(Berg).in San Francisco Opera and Oslo Philharmonic Hall she sung part of Mimi in La Bohème.

Elena began her long lasting collaboration with Zurich Opera, where, under the baton of Nello Santi, she performed Verdi roles such as Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, Giselda in I Lombardi and Lucrezia in I due Foscari, as well as Puccini’s Tosca. Amsterdam Opera invited her for the roles of Tatiana (Eugene Onegin), Desdemona (Otello), Jenufa (Jenufa) by Janáček, and Iolanta (Iolanta) by Tchaikovsky; iShe performed in Royal Madrid Opera House the part of Desdemona; in La Scala in Milan in the roles of Blanche in Dialogues of the Carmelites (Poulenc), and  Lisa in Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky) in Bilbao - Jenufa and Elsa in Lohengrin (Wagner), in Cagliari i- title part of Euryanthe (von Weber);  Athens – iGiselda in I Lombardi ( Verdi), in  Brussels  Royal Opera House –  Lucrezia Contarini in I due Foscari ( Verdi), in  Graz Opera as Amelia in Un ballo in maschera (Verdi), in Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Desdemona. She performed at Berlin Opera (Onegin,) Hamburg Opera i(Simmon Boccanegra, Queen of Spades, Oneghin), at Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires i(Queen of Spades).

Elena has frequently appeared in Opera productions of Sydney Opera, in Australia, with parts of Tatiana, Amelia (SimoneBoccanegra), Desdemona, Madame Butterfly.

She has also appeared at numerous Opera and music festivals: the Edinburgh Festival, the Glyndebourne Festival, the Britten Festival (United Kingdom); Matsumoto (Japan), St Denis (Paris), the Bregenz Festival (Austria), Usedom (Germany), Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (Italy) and others.

Elena Prokina has worked with renowned opera directors such as Sir Peter Hall, Sir Trevor Nunn, Graham Vick, Harry Kupfer and Götz Friedrich, and with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Nello Santi, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Bernard Haitink, Edo de Waard, Frühbeck de Burgos, Evgeny Svetlanov, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Hartmut Haenchen, Rudolf Barshai, Mstislav Rostropovich and many others.

Elena has devoted the greater part of her career to concert performances and chamber music.

She has given recitals at the Barcelona Opera (Teatre del Liceu), Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Musikverein in Vienna, as well as in Aldeburgh, Lisbon, Porto (Casa da Música), Las Palmas (Auditorio Alfred Craus), Tenerife and the St Petersburg Philharmonic Hall. Elena Prokina has performed at renowned concert halls such as the Berlin Philharmonic and the London Festival Hall, the Barbican Hall, the Albert Hall, the Gulbenkian Centre in Lisbon, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, The Hague, Pennsylvania, Lincoln Centre in New York, Weimar, Salle Pleyel and Maison de la Musique in Paris, the Birmingham Philharmonic, Ferrara, Ghent, Antwerp, Glasgow, Helsinki, Toronto, Utrecht, Conzertgebbouw in Amsterdam, Konzerthous and Musikverein in Vienna,  and has also performed with numerous international orchestral ensembles.

Concert repertoire:

Bach - Cantata Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen BWV 51

Boccherini. Stabat Mater

Mozart. Requiem

Mozart. Exsultate jubilate kv165

Thomas. Messe solennelle

Verdi. Requiem.

Britten. War Requiem

Bethoveen . Egmont, stage music, Op. 84: , "Die Trommel gerühret",” Freudvoll und leidvoll “Op.84

Grieg. Peer Gynt. Solveig’s song, Solveig’s lullaby. Op.23

Mendelssohn. Salve Regina, MWV C 2

Mozart.  K. 108: III. Ora pro nobis (Regina coeli)

Rachmaninov. The Bells

Shostakovich. 4 songs of Ophelia Hamlet, Op. 32

Shostakovich. 14th Symphony

Tchaikovsky. Two scenes of Ophelia. Hamlet (Гамлет), Op. 67b  

Tchaikovsky. Duet of Romeo and Juliette

Haydn: Arianna a Naxos, Hob. XXVIb:2

Haydn: Scena di Berenice (Hob. XXIVa: 10)

Lokshin. Three scenes of Margarethe from Faust

Markevitch. Psaume-Tehillim

Villa-Lobos, Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5