Biography

The most significant events of the 2024/25 season are Yulia Matochkina’s performances at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich Opera (Eboli in “Don Carlos”, Santuzza in “Cavalleria Rusticana”, Ulrica in “Un Ballo in Maschera”, Azucena in “Il Trovatore”), the Verbier Festival (Santuzza), The Royal Opera (Azucena in “Il Trovatore”), Las Palmas (Carmen), Berlin’s Deutsche Oper (Amneris), premieres at the Mariinsky Theatre – Salammbo in Mussorgsky’s opera of the same name and Brangäne in “Tristan und Isolde”. A debut at the Chicago Lyric Opera as Santuzzi is planned.

The past two seasons have been remarkable for numerous performances on the world’s leading stages, including at the Berlin Deutsche Oper in the roles of Ortrud (“Lohengrin”) and Amneris (“Aida”), at the Dresden Semperoper (Eboli), at the Bayerische Oper (Venus in “Tannhäuser”, Azucena, Ulrica), at the Zurich Opera (“Il Trovatore” and Requiem of Verdi), at the Tokyo Spring Festival (Amneris), at the Tenerife Opera (Dalila), at the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia (Ortrud), at the Metropolitan Opera and Covent Garden (Eboli), at the Paris Opera (Marfa in “Khovanshchina”), at La Scala, the Amsterdam National Opera, the Rome Opera and in Baltimore, at the Verbier Festival with G. Gatti, in Tokyo and in Chicago with R. Muti; Arena di Verona in the title role of Carmen, and in the Verdi opera gala concert with Placido Domingo, at the Hamburg Opera (Federica in “Luisa Miller”).

At the Mariinsky Theatre, the singer’s repertoire includes more than three dozen roles, including Carmen, Amneris, Eboli, Kundry in Parsifal, Venus in “Tannhäuser”, Marguerite in “The Damnation of Faust”, Dalila in “Les Troyens”, Santuzza, Joan in “The Maid of Orleans”, Marfa in “Khovanshchina”, Lyubasha in “The Tsar’s Bride”, Ortrud, etc. She performs solo parts in Mozart’s Requiem, Verdi’s Requiem, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Mahler’s Second and Eighth Symphonies, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Berlioz’s dramatic symphony “Romeo et Juliette”, Prokofiev’s cantata “Alexander Nevsky” and oratorio “Ivan the Terrible”, Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass, Stabat Mater Rossini, Schoenberg’s “Pierrot Lunaire”.

She performs solo chamber programs at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre.

She also performs leading roles at the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, the Los Angeles Opera, the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Salzburg and Edinburgh festivals, the Baden-Baden Festival, the BBC Proms in London, the Valery Gergiev Festivals in Mikkeli (Finland) and Rotterdam, and the Berlioz Festival in La Côte-Saint-André. She has toured with the Mariinsky Theatre in Austria, Finland, Sweden, Great Britain, France, Japan, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, China, the USA, and Spain.

A regular participant of the Moscow Easter Festival and the “Stars of the White Nights”.

Graduate of the Petrozavodsk State Conservatory named after A.K. Glazunov. Soloist of the Academy of Young Opera Singers of the Mariinsky Theatre since 2009, leading soloist of the Mariinsky Opera since 2015.

The artist gained international recognition after winning The International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2015. She is also a laureate of the IX International Competition of Young Opera Singers named after N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov in Tikhvin (2015, 1st prize), the Vocalists’ Competition of the Sobinovsky Music Festival (Saratov, 2013, 1st prize).

“These concert takes might lack the theatricality or pageantry of a staged performance, but by putting the soloists and orchestra front and center onstage, they allow audiences to zero in on the music and singing in a way that is often not possible in an opera house.

And, oh, what singers and musicians. In this context, the CSO was instantly transformed into one of the world's top opera orchestras, and Muti's reputation allowed him to assemble nothing short of a dream cast. /…/

The revelation of the evening was mezzo-soprano Yulia Matochkina who was was nothing short of electrifying as Ulrica, the fortune-teller who foretells Ricardo's demise. With earthy low notes and vocal punch, she deliciously conjured all the menace and malevolence of this mysterious character”.

"Best among the featured singers were the mezzo-soprano Yulia Matochkina, commanding as the soothsayer Ulrica, and the soprano Damiana Mizzi, sprightly but silky as the page Oscar, a rare Verdian trouser role."

"Und ein Ohrenschmaus: Grandios die russische Mezzosopranistin Yulia Matochkina, eine der führenden Solistinnen des renommierten Mariinski-Theaters in Sankt Petersburg in der Titelrolle der „Carmen“. Mühelos erreicht sie – ebenso wie ihre Sängerkolleginnen und -Kollegen – die hintersten Sitze auf den von der Rampe mehrere Hundert Meter entfernten Steinstufen: unverfälschter Natur-Sound, wie immer ohne Mikrofon- und Lautsprecherverstärkung. Die Stimme der Matochkina trägt nicht nur durch den gewaltigen Raum, sie verzaubert in ihrem tiefen, warmen, geschmeidigen Timbre; präzis und doch sehr menschlich, leidenschaftlich und dann wieder (in der Gebirgs- und in der Schlussszene) von unerbittlicher, steinerner Härte."

“La prestation offerte par la sensible et admirable Yulia Matochkina suffira cependant à nous offrir de formidables moments de plénitude absolue, tant elle séduit en arborant cette belle voix ronde et entière, ce timbre subtil et fruité, cette formidable capacité de nuancer et de colorer son chant sans « en avoir l'air » ce qui est le sommet avoir l'air » ce qui est le sommet de l'art du bon chanteur. Freddie de Tommaso a dompté son instrument qui était parfois un peu rude pour le legato verdien qu'il aborde désormais avec beaucoup plus de sûreté et son Ingemisco a l'allant suffisant pour dominer une partition difficile tout en gardant la rondeur et la douceur nécessaire. Malheureusement le timbre n'est pas toujours aussi beau et il n'est pas le dernier à faire vaciller la tonalité durant les ensembles, ce qui donne un Lacrymosa, l'air final de la lonque sequence”.