Aigul Akhmetshina

In recent years the young mezzo-soprano Aigul Akhmetshina has made acclaimed appearances at numerous renowned opera houses. Following her Salzburg Festival debut in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, during the 2023/24 season she will appear as Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Bavarian State Opera and Glyndebourne Festival, as Carmen in Marina Abramović’s opera project 7 Deaths of Maria Callas at the English National Opera, as Elisabetta (Maria Stuarda) at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples and in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome. Other future projects will include her debuts at the Zurich Opera House and the Theater an der Wien, and returns to the Bavarian State Opera, the Teatro Real in Madrid, Covent Garden, the Met and the Deutsche Oper Berlin – as Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier), Adalgisa (Norma), Elisabetta, Carmen, Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Charlotte (Werther), Isabella (L’italiana in Algeri) and Dalila (Samson et Dalila).

Aigul Akhmetshina’s recent appearances have included Charlotte, Rosina, Maddalena (Rigoletto) and Lola (Cavalleria rusticana) at Covent Garden, Maddalena at the Met, Olga (Eugene Onegin) at the San Francisco Opera, Elisabetta at the Dutch National Opera, Angelina (La Cenerentola) at the Teatro Real, Fenena (Nabucco) at the Hamburg State Opera, Rosina and Carmen at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Paulina (The Queen of Spades) under Kirill Petrenko at the Baden-Baden Easter Festival, Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus) at the New National Theatre in Tokyo and Varvara (Káťa Kabanová) at Glyndebourne Festival.

Previous engagements have included her celebrated role debut as Carmen in Barrie Kosky’s production at Covent Garden, Paulina in Naples, Hannah in Weinberg’s The Passenger in Madrid, Rosina and Olga for the Israeli Opera, Dulcinée in Massenet’s Don Quichotte for the Wexford Festival Opera and Rosalia in concert performances of West Side Story under Antonio Pappano.

In concert, she has performed with orchestras such as the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia and the Russian National Orchestra.

Aigul Akhmetshina studied at the Arts College in Ufa. She continues to study with Nailya Yusupova. In 2017 she became a member of the prestigious Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In the same year she won first prize at the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition and third prize at the Sonora International Opera Competition Francisco Araiza in Hermosillo (Mexico). She has also won prizes in several Russian singing competitions.