Ksenia Dudnikova

Biography

Since bursting onto the international scene in 2016 with her debut at Covent Garden as Principessa di Boullion opposite Angela Gheorghiu, mezzo soprano Ksenia Dudnikova has made a series of debuts that have quickly found her a place among the most dynamic talents of her generation. The leading mezzo-soprano of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Opera in Moscow, where she debuted in 2011, Dudnikova has won high praise there in roles including Marfa in Khovanschina, Amneris in Aida, Pauline in The Queen of Spades, Olga in Eugene Onegin and the title role in Carmen. Her performance in Aida, staged by famed director Peter Stein, led to her nomination for Best Leading Female Role in opera at the 2015 Russian National Theatrical “Gold Mask Awards”. She has also appeared with the Stanislavsky Theater on several international tours, which have included visits to the Netherlands and China.

Dudnikova begins the 2019/20 season with her role and house debut as Princess Eboli in Don Carlo with Oper Stuttgart, after which she will return to the Zürich Opera as Amneris and debut at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma as Carmen. In the 2018/19 season, the mezzo made both her role and house debut as Carmen at the Semperoper Dresden, after which she reprised the role for her debuts at the Paris Opera and Arena di Verona. She will soon appear in Verdi’s Requiem with the Montreal Symphony.
Dudnikova began the 2017/18 season with her debut at the Zürich Opera as Olga in the new production of Eugene Onegin. She subsequently debuted at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville as the Principessa di Bouillon in Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur.

In the 2016/17 season, after her momentous Royal Opera House debut as Principessa di Bouillon, Dudnikova appeared for the first time at the Grand Théâtre de Genève as the title role in concert performances of Tchaikovsky’s The Maid of Orleans and starred as Amneris with the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. In the summer of 2017, Dudnikova debuted at the Salzburg Festival as Sonyetka in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.

In the winter of 2016, she made her debut with the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow as Maddalena in Rigoletto, subsequently starring there as Marguerite in Peter Stein’s new production of Berlioz’s Damnation de Faust, under Tughan Sokiev; Lyubasha in The Tsar’s Bride and Pauline in The Queen of Spades. In 2020, she took part in the premiere performances of Sadko singing the role of Lubava Buslaevna (conductor Timur Zangiev, director Dmitri Tcherniakov).
Since October 2021, she has been a soloist with the Bolshoi Theatre Opera Company.

During the course of the 2015/16 season, the mezzo also made her debut in the title role of Bizet’s Carmen in Yekaterinburg, later appearing in the same role in Moscow.

Born in Andijan, Uzbekistan, Ksenia Dudnikova has resided in Russia since childhood, pursuing her musical and vocal studies at the Moscow State Conservatory under the tutelage of Klara Kadinskaya. Aside from her performances with the Stanislavsky Theater, in 2014 Dudnikova sang the role of Vanya in a concert performance of Glinka’s Ivan Susanin on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre, conducted by Valery Polyansky. She has also appeared as a guest soloist with several orchestras, recently performing Verdi’s Requiem under Andris Poga at the International Festival of Sacred Music in Riga. In May of 2014, she participated in the debut performance of Lennox Berkeley’s Stabat Mater in the Great Hall of the Conservatory, conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky, and in September of 2014 she performed as Frosia in a concert performance of Prokofiev’s Semyon Kotko on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre, under Valery Polyansky.

Other roles in her developing repertoire include Dalila in Samson et Dalila, Léonor in La Favorite and Marina in Boris Godunov.