Askar Abdrazakov made his debut in Frankfurt with Dosifej in this production of Khovanshchina. He returned, at short notice, to sing Sobakin in Die Zarenbraut/The Tsar’s Bride and for the title role in Boito’s Mefistofele (2009/10). A winner of many awards, this Russian bass appears regularly at important opera houses all over the world. Engagements this season include a new production of Don Quichotte conducted by Valery Gergiev at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg and Shostakovitch’s 14th symphony in Madrid. He appears reguarly in his home country and other theatres where he has performed include the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris (Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pierre Boulez, which was also performed in other European cities), the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, the Munich, Hamburg and Berlin state operas, La Scala Milan, the Metropolitan Opera New York and Arena di Verona. He is also much in demand for concert work, recent engagements have included appearances in the Carnegie Hall in New York and the Royal Albert Hall and Wigmore Hall in London. Conductors with whom he has worked include Mstislav Rostropovitch, Claudio Abbado, Plácido Domingo, Bertrand de Billy, Lorin Maazel and Daniel Oren.