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INTRODUCTION
Right from the stage of Teatro alla Scala, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor and, unexpectedly, Marcello in La Bohème, Boris Pinkhaskovich, one of the most shining baritone voices of our times, accepted our invitation to be interviewed and to chat with Alice Lechner about his debut on this magical stage, and the collaboration with M° Riccardo Chailly. Getting deeper into the conversation, Boris told us more about the beginnings of his career and his studies at the Saint-Petersburg Conservatory of Music and his teacher, Irina Bogacheva, his repertoire and preparation routine, media exposure and many others.
BIOGRAPHY
Boris Pinkhasovich was born in Saint-Petersburg into a family of musicians. His exceptional musical talent was recognized early-on and he studied conducting and singing (with world-famous mezzo-soprano Irina Bogacheva) at the Saint-Petersburg Conservatory of Music Upon graduating cum laude in 2011, he was immediately engaged as a soloist at the prestigious Mikhailovsky Theatre in Saint-Petersburg, where he sang numerous main roles, such as Prince Yeletsky and Count Tomsky in The Queen of Spades, Giorgio Germont in La Traviata, Robert in Iolanta, Belcore in L’Elisir d’amore, Silvio and Tonio in I Pagliacci, Lescaut in Manon Lescaut, Marcello in La Bohème, Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro and Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Soon afterwards his international career took off with engagements as Shchelkalov in Boris Godunov at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, ROH Covent Garden and Opéra de Bastille, Onegin at the Bavarian State Opera in München and the Vienna State Opera. He appeared as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at the Bavarian State Opera and made there his debut as Ford in Falstaff. He was Thésée in Enescu’s Oedipe at the Salzburg Festival, Robert in Iolanta in Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia and Schaunard in La Bohème at the Opéra in Monte Carlo. Further important past engagements include Thésée in Enescu’s Oedipe with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski at the Royal Festival Hall in London and in Bucharest, Paolo Albiani in Simon Boccanergra at the Bavarian State Opera. He was Hanjar in Gounod’s Le Tribut de Zamora with the Munich Radio Orchestra in Prinzregententheater in Munich and in the Opéra Royal de Versaille. He was a soloist at a Gala Concert at Chorégies d’Orange in France and at the ROH Covent Garden Hvorostovsky Memorial Concert in London, where he was hailed by the press as “the new Hvorostovsky”. Boris Pinkhasovich debut at the Vienna State Opera in 2018 as Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia was a resounding success, followed by appearances as Onegin in 2019 and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly in 2020. The season 2021/2022 features important assignments and debuts: Ford in Falstaff, Rodrigo in Don Carlo under Philippe Jordan, Yeletsky in The Queen of Spades and Lescaut in Manon Lescaut at the Vienna State Opera, an acclaimed debut in the leading role - Platon Kovalyov - in Shostakovitch’s The Nose at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Prince Yeletsky in a new production of The Queen of Spades with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Kirill Petrenko at the Easter Festival in Baden-Baden and in the Berlin Philharmonie. Future engagements include performances at the Semperoper in Dresden (Sharpless), the Vienna State Opera (Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Marcello in La Bohème), the Bavarian State Opera (Lescaut in Manon Lescaut, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly and Yeletsky in The Queen of Spades), a debut at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan as Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, a return to the ROH Covent Garden in London as Belcore in L’Elisir d’amore, and a debut at the Zürich Opera as Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor.
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INTERVIEW
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Alice Lechner comes from a music-loving family. Her first encounter with the opera universe was at the tender age of six. The grandeur of the stage productions and costumes, the backstage chatter, and last, but definitely not least, the music left her in awe, beginning with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The overall feeling that opera awakens in anyone who gets a glimpse into this part of artistic eternity, that each and every day passes the test of time, was what drew her to stay and be a part of this world. The Opera House of Brașov became her second home, and the people who worked there were her second family.
Since then, Alice has devoted her spare time to maximising her musical knowledge through instrumental studies, studying both piano and violin for a short time. In the following years, her number one passion stepped out of the limelight and graciously gave way to Law Studies.
Since 2018 she has been studying Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.
Her passion for opera, even if it is no longer her top professional priority in terms of career, it has most definitely become her priority during her free time. Wanting to experience the best of both worlds and extend her musical horizons, she regularly attends opera performances throughout Romania and abroad.
With OPERA Charm Magazine, Alice aims to nurture her creative side to help it flourish and bloom and to discover, alongside the magazine’s readers, the fascinatingly complex world of opera.
Currently, she is an LL.M. in Business Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.
Oana Zamfir is a second year MA student at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts, at the Department of Musicology.
She studied violin for 12 years at the “Stefan Luchian” High School of Art in Botosani, later focusing on the theoretical aspects of music. In 2019 she completed her bachelor studies in Musicology as a student of the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca. Her research during 2018-2019 brought to the forefront elements of the archaic ritual within works of composers who activated during the communist period, giving her the opportunity to start a research internship at the “Carl von Ossietzky” University in Germany. In this context, she recorded conversations with members of the Sophie Drinker Institute in Bremen, and had access to documents directly from the Myriam Marbé archive.
Since 2019 she has been a teacher of Music Education and Theoretical Music Studies, making full use of interactive methods in the musical training of students and working, at the same time, with the children’s choir founded in the first year of her activity.
Her interests include pursuing a degree in interior design in 2020.
Alexandru Suciu inherited his passion for art growing up in a family of several generations of musicians. He began his musical studies at the “Augustin Bena” School of Music in Cluj, where he studied piano and guitar. Even though his main study direction was philological, his passion for music prevailed. He began his academical journey at the Faculty of Letters of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, studying Comparative literature and English. He continued by studying Opera Singing at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy. He also graduated the Musical Education section, followed by Artistic Directing at the Musical Performing Arts department.
His multidisciplinary education opened the doors towards research, which is seen both through his participation in national and international conferences and symposia, such as the Salzburg Easter School PhD-forum, organized by the Salzburg Universität or the Silesian Meeting of Young Scholars, organized by the Institute of English at the University of Silesia, as well as the collaboration with Opera Charm Magazine.
During his student years, he won several prizes, including the Grand Prize at the “Paul Constantinescu” National Musical Interpretation Competition, the Romanian Composers and Musicologists’ Union Prize at the same competition, the First Prize and the Schubert Prize at the “Ada Ulubeanu” Competition.
He further developed his artistic skills by specializing in courses and masterclasses held by personalities such as Vittorio Terranova, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Marian Pop, Ines Salazar, Riccardo Zanellato, Paolo Bosisio, Valentina Farcaș and Manuel Lange in contexts such as the Internationale Sommerakademie für Operngesang Deutschlandsberg, Corso Internazionale di Canto Lirico I.M.C. Licata or the Europäische Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Montepulciano. Besides his activity on-stage, he currently teaches Opera Singing Didactics, and Pedagogical Practice within the Department for Teacher Education and Training at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy.
Cristina is a 24 year-old Romanian soprano & a student at the National University of Music Bucharest, where she pursues the MA program in Vocal Performance.
She made her debut in Pamina from “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at only 19 years old at the Bucharest National Opera House, as a member of the Ludovic Spiess Experimental Opera Studio. Over the years she made her debut in roles such as Contessa d’Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimì & Musetta (La Bohème), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) in her university’s opera productions.
Her passion and experience extends in the field of choral music, too.
She has been part of our dream team since the fall of 2021. For a good period of time she took care of OPERA Charm’s social media and took you on the monthly journey through the history of opera through our Legends rubric – and a few times through the Theaters around the World rubric.
Her little soul rubric – from 2021 to present – is definitely the Conductors of the Future, where, every month, she gives you the chance to meet a young star of the world of conducting and, of course, to find out what’s the most charming feature of opera in these artists’ views.
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