Aleksandrs Antoņenko

Aleksandrs Antoņenko has been called one of the finest lyric-dramatic spinto tenors in the world. He began his career in 1997 by singing in the Latvian National Opera choir, but within five months he had already made his solo debut, in the role of Oberto in Handel’s Alcina, singing brilliantly in both the tenor and countertenor range. He has gone on to sing in Don Giovanni, Aida, La traviata, Der fliegende Holländer, Nabucco, Così fan tutte, Carmen, Pique Dame, Eugene Onegin, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District and Tosca at the Latvian National Opera.

Antoņenko gained widespread international recognition as Otello in the 2009 production conducted by Riccardo Muti at the Salzburg Festival. However, he made his international debut already in 2004 and has performed at many of the world’s most renowned opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera in New York City (Otello, Don José, Herman, Pollione in Norma, Grigori in Boris Godunov, Luigi in Il tabarro), the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London (Herman, Cavaradossi, Calaf, Des Grieux, Canio, Turiddu), La Scala in Milan, the Vienna State Opera, the Opéra Bastille in Paris, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, the Semperoper in Dresden and opera houses in Monte Carlo, Rome, Barcelona, Geneva and elsewhere. His repertoire includes more than thirty opera roles. In addition to Verdi and Puccini, he also portrays roles in works by Mozart, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Bizet, Saint-Saëns, Boito, Catalani, de Falla, Dvořák, Janáček, Korngold and others.

Antoņenko has also performed at the Arena di Verona and throughout the world presenting performances of vocal-instrumental works, including Verdi’s Requiem and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis and Symphony No. 9. He has appeared together with some of the world’s most famous opera singers and conductors, including Renee Fleming, Barbara Frittoli, Bryn Terfel, Riccardo Muti, Jiří Bělohlávek, Valery Gergiev, Antonio Pappano, etc.

In Latvia in recent years, audiences have heard Antoņenko in productions at the Latvian National Opera as well as the “Born in Latvia” festival in Jūrmala and various concerts featuring opera repertoire. With pianist Reinis Zariņš, he has performed in several programmes focusing on classics of Latvian music as well as the songs of Richard Strauss; the pair’s concert of music by Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner at the Jūrmala Festival earned them the 2020 Latvian Grand Music Award for best interpretation. Antoņenko has also participated in the Latvian Radio Big Band’s programme of Raimonds Pauls’ songs. Since 2015, he has served as the honorary chairman of the jury for the regional qualifying round in Jūrmala of the International Belvedere Singing Competition.

Antoņenko received the Latvian Grand Music Award in 2003 for his opera performances and Verdi’s Requiem. In 2014 he was awarded the Latvian Award for Excellence in Culture. He is also a winner of the Jussi Björling Prize and Austria’s Grand Prix de la Culture.

Antoņenko graduated from the Jāzeps Mediņš College of Music in Riga in 1998, where he studied wind instrument performance as well as singing under Margarita Gruzdeva, who is still today his vocal teacher and advisor. He went on to study in the Department of Vocal Music at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music in Prof. Arvīds Luste’s class.

LMIC 2020