...Listening to Nikitin’s powerful yet intense voice, admiring his perfect and free control of all the sound ranges and loving his heroic image that is no less bewitching than his voice, it is impossible not to think of Chaliapin. Nikitin conveys a sense of power combined with the broad scale of veiled compassion felt by the great performer towards his character.
MatthewParis.com
Nikitin proved the most interesting singer, bringing warmth and surprising power to the grueling third act of Siegfried.
New York Times
Evgeny Nikitin sang with the balance of power and compassion necessary to turn Friar Laurence, a relatively minor character in the Shakespeare play, into a wise, peacemaking figure who reconciles the Capulets and Montagues in the work’s final bars.
New York Times
Born in Murmansk. Graduated from the St Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire (class of Bulat Minzhilkiev, 1997). While still a 4th year student, he was invited to join the Mariinsky Opera. He has since performed frequently, taking part in the theatre’s most significant productions.
Wagnerian roles hold a special position in Yevgeny Nikitin's repertoire. As a Wagnerian singer Yevgeny Nikitin has been noted by the Russian and international music press.
Repertoire at the Mariinsky Theatre:
Ruslan (Ruslan and Lyudmila)
Boris Godunov, Shchelkalov, Rangoni (Boris Godunov)
Shaklovity (Khovanshchina)
Prince Igor, Vladimir Galitsky (Prince Igor)
the Demon (The Demon)
Thibaut (The Maid of Orleans)
Eugene Onegin (Eugene Onegin)
Tomsky (The Queen of Spades)
Ebn-Hakia (Iolanta)
Aleko (Aleko)
Gryaznoi (The Tsar’s Bride)
Gusli Player (The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia)
Creonte, Narrator (Oedipus Rex)
Chief of Police (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk)
Ruprecht (The Fiery Angel)
Remenyuk (Semyon Kotko)
Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro)
Ramfis (Aida)
Don Giovanni (Don Giovanni)
Attila (Attila)
Banco (Macbeth)
the Marchese di Calatrava (La forza del destino)
Philip II (Don Carlo)
Lodovico (Otello)
Colline (La Bohème)
the High Priest of Dagon (Samson et Dalila)
Baron Scarpia (Tosca)
Hermann (Tannhäuser)
Dutchman (Der Fliegende Holländer)
Heinrich der Vogler, Friedrich of Telramund (Lohengrin)
Wotan (Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried)
Fasolt (Das Rheingold)
Gunther (Götterdämmerung)
Kurwenal (Tristan und Isolde)
Klingsor, Amfortas (Parsifal)
Jokanaan (Salome)
Orest (Elektra)
The Prisoner (Il prigioniero in concert)
Alfio (Cavalleria rusticana)
Yevgeny Nikitin appears at the world's great theatres and participates in opera festivals. In 2002 the singer made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in Andrei Konchalovsky's production of War and Peace (Dolokhov). He subsequently returned there for La Bohème (Colline), Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Pogner), Das Rheingold (Fasolt), Elektra (Orest) and Parsifal (Klingsor).
Yevgeny Nikitin made his Paris debut in 2003 at the Théâtre du Châtelet (as the Demon in Rubinstein's eponymous opera). At the Opéra de Paris he has performed the roles of Jokanaan (Salome), Klingsor (Parsifal), Tomsky (The Queen of Spades), Gunther (Götterdämmerung) and Orest (Elektra). There in 2008 Yevgeny Nikitin first sang as the Prisoner, the title role in Luigi Dallapiccola's opera Il prigioneir. He also performed the role at the Russian premiere of the opera at the Mariinsky Theatre (2015).
Yevgeny Nikitin regularly appears at the Bayerische Staatsoper. Following his debut in 2008 (as Jokanaan in Salome) he returned as the Dutchman, Klingsor and Telramund. Since last season he has appeared as Ruprecht in a new production of The Fiery Angel (directed by Barrie Kosky).
This season he appears in Fidelio at the Teatro di San Carlo, in Parsifal at the Metropolitan Opera, Paris Opera and Osterfestspiele Baden-Baden.
Yevgeny Nikitin has featured in Mariinsky Theatre recordings of Boris Godunov and Semyon Kotko. Nikitin also appears on Mariinsky label recordings of Oedipus Rex (Creonte), Semyon Kotko (Remenyuk), Das Rheingold (Fasolt) and Parsifal (Amfortas). With the London Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev there have been recordings of Mahler's Eighth Symphony and Berlioz' Roméo et Juliette, and with the Musiciens du Louvre orchestra under Marc Minkowski came Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer.
2015 saw the release of the singer's first solo disc – Wagner: Opera Arias, which includes scenes from Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, Der Fliegende Holländer and Die Walküre (the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, conducted by Christian Arming).
