Elena Sommer

Prize-winner at the Verona International Vocalists’ Competition (Italy, 1999)

Elena Sommer graduated from the vocal faculty of the St Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire (class of Iraida Levando).

Joined the Mariinsky Academy of Young Singers in 2000.
Mariinsky Theatre soloist since 2008.

Repertoire at the Mariinsky Theatre:
Nanny (Eugene Onegin)
Laura (Iolanta)
Nezhata (Sadko)
Mayor's sister-in-law (May Night)
Fata Morgana, Smeraldina (The Love for Three Oranges)
The Duenna (Betrothal in a Monastery)
Gipsy Matryosha (War and Peace)
Little Robber (The Story of Kai and Gerda)
Plyushkin (Dead Souls)
Venus (Tsar Demian)
Minerva (Cephalus and Prokris in concert)
Marcelina (Le nozze di Figaro)
Berta (Il barbiere di Siviglia)
Second Lady (Die Zauberflöte)
Modestina, Maddalena (Il viaggio a Reims)
Meg Page (Falstaff)
Mistress Bentson (Lakmé)
Frugola (Il tabarro)
Cesca (Gianni Schicchi in concert)
Erda (Das Rheingold)
Grimgerda (Die Walküre)
Composer, Dryad (Ariadne auf Naxos)
Servant (Elektra)
Marthe (Faust)
Hécube (Les Troyens)
Geneviève (Pelléas et Mélisande)

Moreover, the singer’s repertoire includes the roles of Olga (Eugene Onegin), the Countess and Polina (The Queen of Spades), Marta (Iolanta), Lyubasha (The Tsar’s Bride), Duenna (Betrothal in a Monastery), Amneris (Aida), Siebel ( Faust), Didon (Les Troyens), Orfeo (Orfeo ed Euridice), Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Witch, Didon (Didon and Aeneas), Handel’s Brockes Passion and Dixit Dominus, Bach’s Magnificat, Johannespassion and Christmas Oratorio, Haydn’s Stabat Mater, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle and Schoenberg’s cycle Pierrot Lunaire.

Together with the Mariinsky Opera Company, Elena Sommer has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, the Théâtre du Châtelet, the Alexander Theatre (Helsinki), the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia; she has also toured to Los Angeles, Madrid and Tokyo. She has taken part in the Moscow Easter Festival and festivals in Mikkeli, Baden-Baden and Vladikavkaz.

Elena Sommer has performed as a guest soloist with the Latvian National Opera, (Waltraute in Der Ring des Nibelungen conducted by Andris Nelsons) and the Hall aux Grains in Toulouse(Olga in Eugene Onegin conducted by Tugan Sokhiev). Has toured to the USA as part of the programme Diana Vishneva: Beauty in Motion where she performed Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire.