Evgeny Kolobov (19.01.1946 – 15.06.2003),

Upon graduation from the song-school under the Glinka Chapel in Leningrad and the Urals State Conservatory, Evgeny Kolobov was appointed principal conductor of the Ekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theatre (1974–1981).

In 1981 he became a conductor at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg.

In 1987 Evgeny Kolobov was appointed musical director of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theatre in Moscow.

He was awarded the titles “Honored Art Worker of Russia” (1979) and “People's Artist of Russia” (1983).

In 1991 Evgeny Kolobov and a number of his like-minded colleagues, supported by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, founded the Novaya Opera Theatre of Moscow. The maestro's creative principle is to revive undeservedly forgotten music and to produce new, modern interpretations of well-known compositions.

Evgeny Kolobov was the first opera conductor in Russia to stage Verdi's La forza del destino, Bellini's Il pirata, Donizetti's Maria Stuarda, Catalani's La Wally, Verdi's I due Foscari, Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov in the composer's original version and Thomas's Hamlet. He has also produced new, remarkable stagings of Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila, “O Mozart! Mozart…” (based on the opera Mozart and Salieri by Rimsky-Korsakov and Mozart's Requiem), Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Golovin's First Love (Kolobov's debut as stage director), Verdi's La Traviata.

The maestro and his company successfully performed at musical festivals in the USA, in Italy, Germany, Spain, France, Portugal, Finland, Israel and Cyprus.

The maestro made several highly acclaimed recordings on the radio and TV and released 19 compact disks.

Evgeny Kolobov was honored with the prestige national prizes “Triumph” and “Golden Mask”, a special award of the Moscow Government for achievements in the arts and the Order “Creator of St. Petersburg”.

Says Evgeny Kolobov

about the Novaya Opera:

“Great music… With this music I strive to make a theatre of my own, to make it diverse and interesting. We do not restrict ourselves to operatic productions. Our theatre puts on symphony concerts, various literary soirees and chamber programmes”.

about conducting:

“I am convinced that the principal law-maker in an opera house is Music. Ideally, the conductor, the stage director and the set designer should work on a production together, in creative concord, from the very beginning. Another important condition is that they all should be fascinated by this opera.

Being a conductor seems a beautiful profession, but in fact it is a tragic one: there are so many people between music and myself. I understand music one way, while somebody else does it another way. A conductor is like a translator of the composer's design”.

about life and himself:

“An artist must have two principal qualities: a good name and a talent. The existence of talent depends on God, but a good name is the responsibility of the artist”.

Productions

Discography