Dinara Alieva

Biography

Dinara Alieva was born in Baku, Azerbaijan. She graduated from the Byulbyul Specialized Middle School of Music, piano class. In 2004, Dinara graduated from the Baku Academy of Music, class of Khuraman Kasimova.

From 2004 to 2006, she was a soloist of the Akhundov Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, where she sang the role of Leonora in Il Trovatore, Violetta in La Traviata and Mimi in La Bohème.

Since 2010, Dinara has been a soloist at the Bolshoi Theatre, where she made her debut in 2009 as Liù (Turandot).

Works by Puccini and Verdi occupy a special place in the singer's repertoire. For instance, Alieva performed part of Violetta Valeri in La Traviata more than 250 times in the best concert halls in Russia and worldwide.

She performs on the world's major opera houses’ stages, such as Vienna State Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Paris National Opera, Latvian National Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu (Barcelona), Mikhailovsky Theatre, Hamburg State Opera, Bavarian State Opera (Munich), Frankfurt Opera, Teatro Regio (Parma), Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie (Brussels), China National Opera House (Beijing), New Israeli Opera.

As a guest soloist, she has performed at Yuri Temirkanov’s festivals the Christmas Meetings and the Arts Square, Prague Proms, Verdi Festival Parma, Vladimir Spivakov International Music Festival in Colmar (France), Budapest Summer Festival on Margaret Island, Stars on Baikal International Music Festival and Denis Matsuev Crescendo Festival, Musical Olympus Festival at Carnegie Hall, Russian Seasons at Opera Monte Carlo, Winter International Arts Festival in Sochi and Yuri Bashmet International Music Festival in Yaroslavl. She is a regular guest at the Maria Callas memorial events in Athens.

She has collaborated with such conductors as Yuri Temirkanov, Tugan Sokhiev, Vladimir Spivakov, Dmitri Jurowski, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Alexander Sladkovsky, and Yuri Bashmet, Pier Giorgio Morandi, Daniel Oren, Paolo Carignani, Giacomo Sagripanti, Donald Runnicles, Emmanuel Villaume, Giuliano Carella, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Massimo Zanetti, Marcello Rota, and others.

She has collaborated with internationally renowned directors Hugo de Ana, Robert Wilson and Davide Livermore.

Dinara is the Founder of the Dinara Alieva OperaArt International Music Festival, which has been held in Moscow since 2015. As the artistic director of the festival, Dinara sees her task in demonstrating Russian audiences rarely performed works (for example, Puccini’s La rondine), as well as giving young performers the opportunity to perform at the best venues in Moscow with internationally renowned musicians. At Alieva's invitation, outstanding singers and conductors of the present day have taken part in the festival in different years: Charles Castronovo, Stephen Costello, Stefano Secco, Enkhbatyn Amartuvshin, Nadezhda Kucher, Olesya Petrova, Elena Stikhina, Vasily Ladiuk, Vladislav Sulimsky, Daniel Oren, Pier Giorgio Morandi, Konstantin Orbelian, Janis Liepins, and others.

At different times she took lessons from Montserrat Caballe and Elena Obraztsova. From 2006 to 2020, she studied with the outstanding Russian vocal coach, Professor Svetlana Nesterenko.

Repertoire

At the Bolshoi:
Liu (Turandot)
Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus)
Musetta, Mimi (La Boheme)
Marfa (The Tsar’s Bride)
Micaela (Carmen)
Violetta (La Traviata)
Iolanta (Iolanta)
Elisabeth of Valois (Don Carlo)
Amelia (Un Ballo in Maschera)
title part (Dvořák’s Rusalka) — first performer at the Bolshoi
Princess Olga Tokmakova (The Maid of Pskov, in concert)
Floria Tosca (Tosca)
Donna Elvira (Mozart’s Don Giovanni)

Also in repertoire:
Magda (Puccini’s La Rondine)
Tatiana (Eugene Onegin)
Leonora (Il Trovatore)
Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni)
Desdemona (Otello)
Elvira (Ernani)
Cio-Cio-san (Madama Butterfly)
Leonora (La forza del destino)
Nedda (I Pagliacci)
Maria (Mazeppa)
Zemfira (Aleko)

Tours

Dinara Alieva performed leading roles at the Mikhailovsky Theatre, Saint-Petersburg (Violetta, La Traviata, 2008) and Stuttgart Opera (Micaela, Carmen, 2007).

In 2010, she sang the part of Leonora (Il Trovatore directed by Andrejs Žagars) at the State Theatre Klagenfurt (Austria).
In 2011, she sang the roles of Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Violetta (La Traviata), and Tatiana (Eugene Onegin) at the Latvian National Opera, the role of Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni) at the Vienna State Opera and made her debut at the Frankfurt Opera as Violetta (La Traviata).
In 2013, she performed the role of Giulietta (Les Contes d’Hoffmann) at the Bavarian State Opera, the role of Violetta at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, then the role of Mimi (La Bohème) at the Teatro Verdi (Salerno, Italy).
In 2014, she returned to the Vienna State Opera to perform the role of Tatiana; she has also sung the roles of Donna Elvira at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and Mimi at the Frankfurt Opera.
In 2015 – the role of Magda (La rondine) at the Deutsche Oper and Leonora (Il Trovatore) at the Israeli Opera.
In 2016 – Tamara (Rubinstein’s The Demon) at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels and Maria (Mazeppa) at the Opera Oviedo (Spain). She took part in a new production of Il Trovatore at the Teatro Reggio in Parma singing the part of Leonora (conductor Massimo Zanetti). In the same year, she made her debut in the title role in Rusalka at the China National Opera House (Beijing).

In 2018-19, she performed the role of Violetta (La Traviata) at the Hamburg State Opera, Mimi (La Bohème) at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Elvira (Ernani) at the Latvian National Opera, Liù (Turandot) and Elisabeth of Valois (Don Carlo) at the Vienna State Opera. She made her Paris National Opera debut as Cio-Cio san in Robert Wilson's production of Madama Butterfly. That same year she sang the role of Nedda (I Pagliacci) at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Spain, alongside Marcelo Alvarez.
In the 2019/2020 season, she appeared as Violetta at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, in a revived production of Richard Eyre's La Traviata to mark the 25th anniversary of its premiere.

Among her recent engagements: Elvira (Ernani) at the Latvian National Opera, Mimi (La Bohème) at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Violetta (La Traviata) and Desdemona (Otello) at the Hamburg State Opera, Elisabeth (Don Carlo) with Semper Oper Dresden.

She participated in a concert performance of La Traviata (part of Violetta) at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the death of Maria Callas. In 2017, she performed a recital to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Maria Callas' death in the Megaron Concert Hall in Athens.

She performed at Elena Obraztsova's anniversary gala concerts at the Bolshoi Theatre (2008) and at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St Petersburg (2009). In 2018, she took part in a gala concert for the anniversary of Yuri Temirkanov as part of the International Festival Arts Square together with Nikolai Lugansky, Denis Matsuev, Yuri Bashmet, Vadim Repin, and others.

In 2016, she participated in the charity concert Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Friends to Children at the Bolshoi Theatre with the Russian National Orchestra conducted by Mikhail Pletnev. She has also given a recital together with Dmitri Hvorostovsky and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Konstantin Orbelian at the Smetana Concert Hall, Prague. The same year she performed at the Oktyabrskiy Concert Hall in St Petersburg in the project Hvorostovsky and Friends together with Marcelo Alvarez and the Hermitage Orchestra, conducted by Konstantin Orbelian.

In 2017, she took part in a performance of Verdi's Requiem with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yuri Temirkanov. A concert commemorating Dmitri Hvorostovsky was released on CD and DVD on the Delos Records label in 2018. That same year, the Russian Music Critics Union named this performance "concert of the year," and in 2019, the recording of the performance won the MusicWeb International Critics' Award as "best disc of the year."

In 2018, she gave a recital In memory of the great artist Dmitry Hvorostovsky at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall with the Svetlanov State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia conducted by Alexander Sladkovsky. That same year, she gave a recital of Romances with the Prague Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Emmanuel Villaume at the Rudolfinum in Prague.

In March 2019 took part in concert performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera The Maid of Pskov as Olga Tokmakova (Bolshoi’s tour to France, conductor Tugan Sokhiev).

Discography

2013 – Russian Songs & Arias (New Russia State Symphony Orchestra, conductor Dmitry Yablonsky; Naxos, CD)
2014 – Pace mio Dio… (Czech National Symphony Orchestra, conductor Marcello Rota; Delos Records, CD)
2015 – Dinara Alieva in Moscow (Russian National Orchestra, conductor Constantine Orbelian; Delos Records, DVD)
2015 – Alieva&Antonenko (Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra, conductor Constantine Orbelian; Delos Records, CD)
2016 – La Rondine by Puccini (Magda; Deutsche Opera Berlin; Delos Records, DVD)
2018 – Requiem by Verdi (St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, conductor Yuri Temirkanov; Delos Records, CD, DVD)