She graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory in 1990 and completed her post-graduate studies with professor Pisarenko in 1993. For several years she worked in Japan as a teacher in a musical college and as a soloist of the Tokyo Opera. She sang in Bizet’s Carmen, Rossini’s La Cenerentola and Il barbiere di Siviglia, Verdi’s La traviata and La forza del destino, and Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. Since 1994, Irina Romishevskaya has been a leading soloists of the Novaya Opera. She constantly takes part in the Novaya Opera tours in Russia and abroad.
The singer gives a lot of concerts. She performs recitals in Moscow and other Russian cities and towns, in Japan and Iceland. She sings with symphony orchestras in the best concert halls of Moscow, France, Japan, Germany and Italy. She participates in international festivals (Svyatoslav Richter’s December Nights in Moscow, Jurmala-classique). Irina works with prominent conductors such as Vladimir Spivakov, Alexander Rudin, Yuri Bashmet, Vasily Sinaisky, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Boris Tevlin, to mention but a few.
The singer’s concert repertoire includes western early music, works by Russian and foreign composers, modern pieces, sacred songs, romances, Russian, Welsh and Scottish folk songs, etc.
She was the first to perform the mezzo-soprano part in the premiere of Sidelnikov’s Death of the Poet oratorio-requiem (Moscow, September 29, 1999) and in the premiere of St Matthew Passion oratorio by Hilarion, the Bishop of Vienna and Austria (Moscow, March 27, 2007). She participated in the first performance in English of Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus oratorio on December 16, 2001.
The singer’s mastery is captured on CDs released by Relief, Deonika, and the Novaya Opera Theatre. Recordings with her performances were often broadcasted by the Orfeus Radio station, the TV Centre and Blagovest TV Channels.
Irina Romishevskaya is a teacher at the Solo Singing Department of the Moscow Conservatory. She gives singing master classes in Jurmala.
Awards and Honours:
- Honored Artist of Russia
- Prize-winner of For Devoted Service to Opera Art Award by the Evgeny Kolobov Foundation
- Prize-winner of the International Competition in Toulouse (Grand Prix, France, 1991)
- Prize-winner of the Hertogenbosch International Competition in Netherlands (1991)
- Prize-winner of Minion International Competition (3rd prize, Japan, 1990)
- Prize-winner of the Hertogenbosch International Competition in Netherlands (1st prize, 1990)
Roles performed at the Novaya Opera
Lel in Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden
Lyubasha in Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride
Naina in Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila
Olga, Nanny in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin
Pauline, Governess in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades
Adalgisa in Bellini's Norma
Lola in Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana
Afra in Catalani's La Wally
Maddalena in Verdi's Rigoletto
Tisbe in Rossini's La Cenerentola
Fenena in Verdi's Nabucco
La Ciesca in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi
Angel in Rubinstein's The Demon
Laura in Tchaikovsky's Iolanta
Innkeeper in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov
Anna in Donizetti's Maria Stuarda
Ines in Verdi's Il trovatore
Clairon in Strauss's Capriccio
Third Lady in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte
Flora in Verdi's La Traviata
Schoolteacher, Witch in Michael Nyman and Henry Purcell's DIDO
Mrs. Grose in Britten's The Turn of the Screw
Marcellina in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro
Chinese Dolls in Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. An Opera
Krystina in Weinberg's The Passenger
Gertrude in Gounod's Romeo et Juliette
Marthe Schwertlein in Gounod's Faust
Alisa in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor
Kate Pinkerton in Puccini's Madama Butterfly
Bianca in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia
Catherine in Boyarsky's Pushkin
Mercédès in Bizet's Carmen
Zofe in Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg
Dido and Sorceress in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas (in concert)
Wood-sprite in Dvorak's Rusalka (in concert)
Sofia in Verdi's I Lombardi alla prima crociata (in concert)
La comtesse di Coigny in Giordano’s Andrea Chénier (in concert)
Háta in Smetana's The Bartered Bride (in concert)
Mezzo-soprano parts:
Verdi’s Requiem
Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater
Parts in the productions:
Vincenzo Bellini (concert)
Music Is My Soul (concert)
Maria Callas (musical offering)
Ten Sopranos (gala concert)
Tribute to Evgeny Kolobov (concert)
Romances by Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Sergey Rachmaninov (concert)
Bravissimo! (opera mix)
Rossini (musical divertissement)
This is Opera! (dramatized performance)
Opera&Jazz (New Year's Eve Show)
O Mozart! Mozart… (Requiem)
Johann Strauss, the Waltz King (gala concert)
Discography:
Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Eugene Onegin (DVD) — Olga
“Bravissimo!” (DVD)
Pyotr Tchaikovsky. Eugene Onegin (CD) — Olga
