|
The Russian soprano, Elena Kononenko, studied singing at the "Glinka" Music College in Minsk, her hometown, with Olga Lukyanenok and completed her singing studies in Moscow at the Gnessin Academy of Music with Elena Obolenskaya. She completed her studies as a concert pianist at the State Academy of Music in Minsk with Ludmila Shelomenzeva. She attended master-classes with Francisco Araiza, Bruno Pola, Virginia Zeani, Grace Bumbry and Adriana Stamenova Porta and others.
Immediately after completing her studies, Elena Kononenko was engaged as lyric coloratura soloist by the Moscow Chamber Opera under the direction of Boris Pokrowsky, where she toured in major opera houses until 2007 (Teatro Colón/Buenos Aires, Grand Theater Bordeaux, Odzi Hall Tokyo, Teatro Regio Turin, Tel Aviv, Vienna, Amsterdam, Strasbourg, Paris, Rome, Milan and others) sang leading title roles in her field. After two successful concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg together with José Carreras, as well as joint performances with Roberto Alagna and Simon Estes, she was invited by the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow as a guest. Between 2001 and 2003, she sang two principal roles with them in operas by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: Marfa in The Tsar's Bride and the Queen of Schemachan in The Golden Cockerel. In 2000, she performed with the celebrated tenor José Carreras in Moscow and St. Petersburg, under the baton of David Gimenez. She gave further successful performances at the Johann Strauss Festival in St. Petersburg under the auspices of the Mariinsky Theatre, with Roberto Alagna and Lubov Kazarnovskaya in Moscow (2003), and with Simon Estes in the House of Music in Moscow (2007).
Guest performances have taken Elena Kononenko to major opera houses and concert halls worldwide, including Teatro Colón/Buenos Aires, Cairo Opera House, Oji Hall/Tokyo, Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, Milan Summer Festival, Teatro Regio/Turin, Tel Aviv, Vienna, Amsterdam, Paris, Strasbourg, Rome and Taipei. Also well-versed in the concert repertoire, she has appeared in the St. Petersburg Philharmonia, the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall and the Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yuri Simonow. In October 2006, she sang the Seven Romances on Poems by Alexander Blok in the Gasteig concert hall/Munich, in the first performance by the Zeitsprung ensemble, to mark D. Shostakovich's 100th birthday. Her rendering of the role of Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata in winter 2007 led to a successful début in the Small Festival Hall [now Haus für Mozart] in Salzburg. During the 2008-2009 season she sang the title role in Puccini's Tosca, which saw the start of her development as a dramatic soprano, and brought her guest performances as Tosca in many theatres and at opera festivals in Norway, Denmark, Germany, England and Austria.
Elena Kononenko has been living in Salzburg since 2008, from where she continues her international activities as a concert and opera singer. Her repertoire has expanded to include great Verdi heroines such as Abigaille and Lady Macbeth, and Wagner roles such as Elisabeth and Isolde. Russian opera is represented by roles including Tchaikovsky's Lisa and Tatyana as well as the title role in Alexander Dargomyzhsky's opera Rusalka. Her repertoire includes also works by Gustav Mahler, Edison Denisov, Schnittke and Dmitri Shostakovich, among others. At the same time, she devoted herself to the music of J.S. Bach (Magnificat, Passions, Oratorios and Cantatas), George Frideric Handel
(Messiah), W.A. Mozart (Great Mass in C
minor, Coronation Mass), Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
(Stabat Mater), L.v. Beethoven (Missa
Solemnis), Verdi (Requiem) and others. Elena Kononenko was awarded the title Honored Artist of the Russian Federation by the Russian state for her artistic achievements. |
