Elena Pankratova Soprano

Biography

Elena Pankratova was born in Ekaterinburg (Russia) and studied at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in the class of Renata Scotto. Her performance as the Dyer’s Wife in Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 2010 brought her to the attention of the public. Soon thereafter she was invited to reprise the role at La Scala in Milan, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, The Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, the Royal Opera House in London, The Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, and the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin. She was the first dramatic soprano from Russia to be invited to the Bayreuth Festival where she sang the roles of Kundry in Parsifal and Ortrud in Lohengrin. She has also appeared as Odabella (Attila) at La Scala in Milan and the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg and sung the title role of Elektra at the Vienna Staatsoper, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Dresden Semperoper, and at theatres in Lyon, Naples, Bucharest, Frankfurt, and Dortmund. Her repertoire also includes the title role in Turandot (which she has sung in Vienna, Bonn, Bologna, Florence, Naples, Tel Aviv, Saint Petersburg, and Barcelona). She has appeared as Kundry at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam and the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, Venus (Tannhäuser) in Munich and Tokyo, Sieglinde (Die Walküre) in Dresden, Florence and Saint Petersburg, Leonore (Fidelio) in Geneva, Seville and Bilbao, Amelia (Un ballo in maschera) in Vienna and Savonlinna, and Leonora (Il Trovatore) in Stuttgart, Dortmund and Moscow. More recently, she performed the title role of Tosca in Manchester, Ludwigsburg, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Oslo and Savonlinna. She also appeared as Ariadne (Ariadne auf Naxos) in Bonn and Munich, and sang the title role of Norma in Düsseldorf, Basle, and Saint Petersburg. Her other roles include Senta (Der Fliegende Holländer) in Dresden, Frankfurt, Cologne and Savonlinna; Leonora (La forza del destino) in Saint Petersburg, Mannheim and Bremen, Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus) in Frankfurt and Munich, and Abigaille (Nabucco) in Frankfurt, Munich and Mexico. In 2018, she received the Casta Diva Award for “Best Singer of the Year” for her performances as Kundry in Bayreuth and the Dyer’s Wife in Berlin.