15 May 2014, Thursday

The Bolshoi Theatre marks the 50th anniversary of a People's Artist of the USSR Irina Bogacheva's creative career. For the past five years the star of the Mariinsky Theatre has been working with the Bolshoi Theatre as well - she is a guest pedagogue of the Young Artists Opera Program. At the concert, which will take place at the Beethoven Hall, the audience will have a chance to hear not only the wonderful participants of the Young Artists Opera Program and those singers, whom she taught in Saint Petersburg, but the legendary opera singer as well. Irina Bogacheva will perform arias from the "main" operas of her life that the audience likes so much.
Irina Bogacheva is an outstanding Russian singer; she is a representative of the Golden Age of the Soviet vocal school. In 1960s-1980s she was one of the most popular singers in Russia and the one of the most sought-after Russian opera singers abroad. Bogacheva was one of the brightest stars of the Kirov (the Mariinsky) Theatre. She was a student of the legendary Saint Petersburg vocal pedagogue Iraida Timonova-Levndo and had an internship with the legendary Italian pedagogue Gennaro Barra at La Scala. Irina Bogacheva is a talented pedagogue as well. She is the head of the department of singing at the vocal and directing faculty of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory; some of the leading Russian opera singers studied in her class. Irina Bogacheva has been working with the Bolshoi Theatre for five years - she became a pedagogue of the Bolshoi Theatre Young Artists Opera Program almost as soon as the Program was established.

Young Artists Opera Program artistic director Dmitry Vdovin:
- I tell young artists that she is an example to follow: she can teach them not only how to get into wonderful vocal shape, but also how to keep it year after year. We will hear at the concert that she is in a great vocal shape herself; as we know, this is something that even the most prominent singers cannot always manage to do as they age. We were very happy when we managed to get her to work with us. Irina Bogacheva is the main vocal pedagogue of the country; she is the head of the council on vocal art at the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. She has great experience, knowledge and taste. Because of our friendship, the Saint Petersburg Conservatory became our friends' house; wonderful singers come to our program from the Conservatory. It is enough to recall the name of Venera Gimadieva - having graduated the Young Artists Opera Program, she became a jewel in the crown of the Bolshoi Theatre opera company. We are very honored to celebrate the anniversary of this wonderful singer "on our territory"; we hope that her ties with the Bolshoi will become stronger and stronger.