Leonid Zimnenko

Biography

He graduated from the Moscow State Conservatoire, where he studied with O. Sveshnikova.
Since 1971, he has been a soloist with the Moscow Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theatre.
He also appears at Moscow’s Helikon-opera.
Since 1999, he has been appearing at the Bolshoi Theatre.

Repertoire

His roles at the Bolshoi include:
The General (The Gambler – world premiere of 1^st version)
Prince de Bouillon (Adriana Lecouvreur)
Sobakin (The Tsar’s Bride)
Tokmakov (The Maid of Pskov)
Title role (Ivan Susanin)
Dosifei (Khovanshchina)
Gremin (Eugene Onegin)
Frost (The Snow Maiden)
The Inn-keeper (The Fiery Angel)
The Old Convict (The Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk)
Prince Nikolai Bolkonsky (War and Peace)
Pimen (Boris Godunov)
The Cook (The Love for Three Oranges)

In 2002, he took part in a concert performance of Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust at the Bolshoi Theatre.

Also in repertoire:
Federico Barbarossa (La battaglia di Legnano)
Osmin (Die Entfurhrung aus dem Serail)
Falstaff (Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor)
Ruslan (Ruslan and Lyudmila)
Title role (Boris Godunov)
Chub (Cherevichki)
The Village-Head (May Night)
Mendoza (Betrothal in a Monastery)
King of Clubs (The Love for Three Oranges)
King Rene (Iolanta)
Magara (Slonimsky’s Virinea)
Saltan (The Tale of Tsar Saltan)
Dodon (The Golden Cockerel)
De Silva (Ernani)
Don Basilio (Il barbiere di Siviglia)
Ramfis (Aida)
Kochubey (Mazeppa)
Mephistopheles (Faust)

Tours

He tours a lot abroad. He has appeared, among other countries, in Germany, Austria, Holland, Portugal, Spain, France, Great Britain, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Finland, Japan.

He sang Kochubey in a Bulgarian Opera production of Mazeppa; he sang the title role in Boris Godunov in France and Spain; he appeared as Osmin (Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail) for Berlin’s Komische Oper (director Harry Kupfer); he took part in productions of Schnitke’s Life with an Idiot in Amsterdam (conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, director Boris Pokrovsky, 1992); – The Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk for Netherland Opera (Amsterdam); – in a production of Verdi’s Stiffelio in Ludwigshafen (Germany, 1993); he sang Prince Gudal in Rubinstein’s The Demon at the Wexford Festival (Ireland, 1994); he sang the parts of Prince Nikolay Bolkonsky and of Kutuzov (War and Peace) for the Paris National Opera at L’Opera Bastille (director Francesca Zambello, 2000); he sang the role of Chub in Tchaikovsky’s opera Cherevichki at the Garsington Opera Festival (Great Britain, 2004); performed parts of Count Rostov and General Benigsen in War and Peace at the Paris National Opera.

Discography

CD:
Prince Gudal (Rubinstein’s The Demon, conductor Alexander Anisimov, Marco Polo)
The Guard (Schnitke’s Life with an Idiot, conductor Mstislav Rostropovich, Sony Classical)

DVD:
Prince Nikolay Bolkonsky (Prokofiev’s War and Peace, conductor Gary Bertini, director Francesca Zambello, TDK)


He is a prize-winner of the All-Union M.I. Glinka Competion of Vocalists (Vilnius, 1973).