Sergei Skorokhodov’s somewhat incorporeal, high but nuance-rich tenor voice emphasised the “heavenly” origins of Lohengrin. For the soloist, who one month ago sang the role of Edgar in Donizetti’s opera Lucia di Lammermoor together with Anna Netrebko, this was yet another major artistic victory.
Georgy Kovalevsky, Sankt-Peterburgskiye vedomosti (“St Petersburg News”), 18 February 2009
Skorokhodov possesses a strong, clear voice, with an exceptionally winning upper register. (…) Since then, he has gone on to become one of the Mariinsky’s principal treasures.
Raymond Stults, The Moscow Times, 6 October 2009
Sergei Skorokhodov’s expressive tenor voice and the singer’s filigree technique were the crowning glory of the performance.
Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger
Sergei Skorokhodov was born in St Petersburg. From 1980–1990 he studied at the St Petersburg Glinka Choral School. In 1998 he was admitted to the St Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory.
In 1999 he joined the Mariinsky Academy of Young Opera Singers and made his Mariinsky Theatre debut as Guido Bardi in the Russian premiere of Zemlinsky’s Eine florentinische Tragödie (concert performance conducted by Valery Gergiev).
In 2004 and 2005 Sergei attended masterclasses held by Renata Scotto at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Soloist with the Mariinsky Theatre since 2007.
Repertoire at the Mariinsky Theatre:
Bogdan Sobinin (A Life for the Tsar)
Lensky (Eugene Onegin)
King Charles VII (The Maid of Orleans)
Prince Yuri (The Enchantress)
Vaudémont (Iolanta)
Chaplitsky and Master of Ceremonies (The Queen of Spades)
Prince Andrei Khovansky and a Leader of the Streltsy (Khovanshchina)
The Pretender (Grigory Otrepiev) (Boris Godunov)
Vladimir Igorevich (Prince Igor)
Ivan Lykov (The Tsar’s Bride)
Vakula the Smith (Christmas Eve)
Levko (May Night)
Yaromir, the Novgorodian and First Tradesman (Mlada, concert performance)
First Herald (The Snow Maiden)
Young Gypsy (Aleko)
Ivan Yakovlevich, the Chief of Police’s Doorman, a Policeman and a Gentleman (The Nose)
Zinovy Borisovich (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk)
Pierre Bezukhov (War and Peace)
Anatol Kuragin (War and Peace, concert performance)
A Heated Gambler (The Gambler)
A Doctor (The Love for Three Oranges)
Don Luigino (Il viaggio a Reims)
Pollione (Norma, concert performance)
Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore)
Sir Edgar Ravenswood and Norman (Lucia di Lammermoor)
Ismaele and Abdallo (Nabucco)
Foresto (Attila)
Macduff (Macbeth)
The Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto)
Alfredo Germont and Viscount Gaston de Letoriere (La traviata)
Gabriele Adorno (Simon Boccanegra)
Trabuco (La forza del destino)
Don Carlo, the Count of Lerma and the Royal Herald (Don Carlo)
Messenger (Aida)
First Villager (Pagliacci)
Mario Cavaradossi and Spoletta (Tosca)
Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly)
Rinuccio and Gherardo (Gianni Schicchi)
Tinca (Il tabarro)
The Unknown Prince (Calaf) (Turandot)
Erik (Der fliegende Holländer)
Tannhäuser (Tannhäuser)
Lohengrin and a Brabantian Noble (Lohengrin)
Walther von Stolzing (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg)
First Knight of the Grail (Parsifal)
Second Jew (Salome)
The Tenor / Bacchus (Ariadne auf Naxos)
The Emperor (Die Frau ohne Schatten)
Guido Bardi (Eine florentinische Tragödie, concert performance)
Raoul de Nangis (Les Huguenots)
Hoffmann (Les Contes d’Hoffmann)
First Philistine (Samson et Dalila)
Shepherd (Kròl Roger)
Tenor parts in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Missa solemnis, Verdi’s Requiem and Janáček’s cantata Otče náš (Our Father)
Has sung in the Mariinsky Theatre’s premiere of Nabucco (2005) and in premieres of new Mariinsky Theatre productions of L’elisir d’amore (2011, collaboration with the Opéra national de Paris and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), Iolanta (2023), Les Huguenots and Ariadne auf Naxos (2024).
Repertoire also includes: Tsarevich Guidon (The Golden Cockerel), Andrei (Mazepa), Sergei (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk), Froh (Das Rheingold), Jason (Cherubini’s Médée) and tenor part in Rachmaninoff’s The Bells.
In 2010 Sergei Skorokhodov made his Metropolitan Opera debut in The Nose, and now he appears there as Erik in Der fliegende Holländer.
The artist performs at the Opéra national de Paris (Khovanshchina), the Bayerische Staatsoper (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Boris Godunov, Das Rheingold as well as The Nose directed by Kirill Serebrennikov), the Deutsche Oper Berlin (La traviata, The Golden Cockerel), the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin (La traviata, Macbeth), the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and the Bergen National Opera (Der fliegende Holländer), the Royal Swedish Opera (The Nose), Madrid’s Teatro Real (The Golden Cockerel), the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera (Eugene Onegin, Iolanta, Kròl Roger), the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (Eugene Onegin), the Opéra de Monte-Carlo and the Dallas Opera (Iolanta), Lyric Opera of Chicago (Nabucco), Washington National Opera (Boris Godunov) and the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia (Boris Godunov directed by Alexander Sokurov, Iolanta, La traviata, Mazepa) among others. On 24 February 2022 Sergei sang the title role in the premiere of a new production of Lohengrin directed by François Girard at the Bolshoi Theatre (collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera). He also performed at the Glyndebourne and Edinburgh festivals, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino festival, and gave concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Royal Festival Hall, Munich’s Gasteig, the Konzerthaus Berlin and other venues.
In the 2018–19 season the singer made his debut at the Teatro alla Scala, appearing in Khovanshchina conducted by Valery Gergiev.
Together with the Mariinsky Opera Company he has toured to Amsterdam, Paris, London, Stockholm, Mikkeli (Finland) and Eilat (Israel).
