The Russian soprano Pelageya Kurennaya was a wispy and seductive Lolita. Vocally, she impressed with a confident high register, and her acting was convincing in every scene. Lying on the bed she lured her "counterpart" Humbert with great sophistication. She can be considered the ideal cast for the title role.

In her incredibly delicate and difficult lead role Pelageya Kurennaya stages the required teen charm as well as sufficient human tragedy in order to stifle any touch of voyeuristic joy.

Pelageya Kurennaya manages to convince as a twelve-year-old child, as well as a deeply hurt human due to the rape by her stepfather. Her assertive, variable soprano changes to a continuous headvoice after a rough disruption from child to woman, vibrating only the edges of the vocal folds. A thin tone emerges and expresses that as survival strategy she now keeps her body separate from head and soul.

PELAGEYA KURENNAYA, who is a Shchedrin specialist at St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theatre, is a real stroke of luck for this production. Due to her figure and youthful radiance she is a very convincing child-woman, whom the elderly professor of literature Humbert Humbert falls for, so that she does not need to impersonate Lolita - she is Lolita! An impressive, expressive and intriguing vocal and acting performance that takes the audience on a journey from the seduced / seducer at the beginning to the dying woman after giving birth to her child at the end of the opera.

Vocally, Pelageya Kurennaya's performance was impeccable, too. Fulfilling the composer's ideas, she was a young lyrical soprano with coloratura and a very attractive timbre of high recognition value. Accustomed to moving in pianissmo heights in her other Shchedrin roles (Zamarashka in "Christmas Tale", Flea in "The Lefthander"), she seemed to enjoy that the composer had written her role in a "more common" tessitura. According to her role she led a fragile soprano (many pianissimo heights), yet stable enough to get above the orchestra, and was vocally and charismatically an ideal Lolita.

Petr Sokolov hat Humberts Zerrissenheit höchst überzeugend gespielt und gesungen, er hat (vor Gericht und auf der Bühne) gar nicht erst versucht, den Publikumsliebling zu geben, weil er das von seiner Rolle her gar nicht sein konnte. Diese Rolle kam eher der Lolita zu, die den lasziv-verklemmten Spagat von Mädchen und Kindfrau spielerisch und gesanglich zu schaffen verstand – die russische Sängerin Pelageya Kurennaya hat das großartig mit zartem, trotzdem eindringlich starkem Gesang und betörendem Spiel gemeistert.

Petr Sokolov acted and sang Humbert's inner turmoil in a highly convincing manner, he did not even try to impersonate a favourite with the audience (in court and on stage), because he could not be that due to his role. The favourite´s role is rather granted to Lolita, who was able to theatrically and vocally manage the lasciviously uptight balancing act between girl and child-woman - the Russian singer Pelageya Kurennaya superbly mastered this with soft, yet insistently powerful vocals and beguiling acting.

Nuori venäläissopraano Pelageja Kurennaja on väläyttänyt hieno potentiaaliaan myös Mikkelin musiikkijuhlilla. Venäläinen ohjelmisto istuu hänelle toistaiseksi paremmin, mutta hienosti hän lauloi myös enkelimaisen loppulaulun, joka tulee säveltäjän esitysmerkintöjen mukaan esittää ”kauttaaltaan ilman parodiaa”. Tämän laulajan kehitystä kannattaa seurata.

The young Russian soprano Pelageya Kurennaya has also shown her great potential at the Mikkeli Music Festival. Russian repertoire suits her best so far but she also sang the angelic final song nicely, which according to the composer's performance notes, is presented "throughout without parody". It is worth watching the development of this singer.

Vor diesem Konzert trat die junge russiche Sopranistin Pelageya Kurennaya nach 2017 zum zweiten Mal mit einem Recital beim Mikkeli Musik-Festival auf, kongenial begleitet von Marita Viitasalo. Waren im vorigen Jahr noch viele Plätze frei geblieben, so war der Kammermusiksaal diesmal total gefüllt. Der Mundfunk, bei diesem Gast (nicht Mitglied) des Mariinsky-Theaters ein herausragendes Talent vor sich zu haben, hatte gute Arbeit geleistet, und die Erwartungen waren hoch. 

Und alle Erwartungen wurden vollauf erfüllt, was nicht zuletzt an der idealen Partnerschaft von Solistin und Piano-Partnerin lag. Dies ist ein junger lyrischer Sopran mit einem sehr aparten Timbre von hohem Wiedererkennungswert, einer sattelfesten Technik ihres vollkommen homogen geführten Materials und großer Ausdrucksstärke, garniert mit der Fähigkeit, mit dem Publikum unmittelbar zu kommunizieren. Kurennaya sang im ersten Teil Romanzen von Tchaikovsky und Rachmaninov, zudem Lieder von Strauss (bei „Morgen“ mit erstaunlich gutem Deutsch!!!), Poulenc, Verdi und Rossini, während der der Oper gewidmete zweite Teil u.a. mit Rusalkas Lied an den Mond und Mimis und Violettas brillant vorgetragenen Arien schon auf ihr zukünftiges Fach hindeutete. 

Soprano Pelageya Kurrenaya has a beautiful, golden-hued instrument.

"And we have the wonderful young lyric soprano Pelageya Kurennaya in The Bells. She comes from a Cossack village in southern Russia and is now a member of the Mariinsky ensemble in St Petersburg. Remember the name. Few people know her yet but she will be a star!"

Another diva of this evening – Pelageya Kurennaya. Pelageya graduated last year from the St. Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory und was immediately invited to the Mariinsky Theatre.

It is the star that is burning on the eyes. A young fragile girl with a physique not only for opera singers, extracts sounds of impressive depth. She sings easily one of the most complex opera roles – Bellini’s Norma, followed by likewise admirable Rossini in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia. Her final contribution to this festival’s final concert – Giuditta’s “Meine Lippen, sie küssen so heiß” in perfect German was greeted with enthusiastic applause, not only because her attractive dancing. 

"Golden sound and burning heart". When the first performance of the Russian soprano PELAGEYA KURENNAYA in the Finnish Kuopio is advertised with this slogan, this naturally raises expectations, and it is a proof of this young artist´s rank that she (almost) met them. With Gliére's Concert for Soprano and Orchestra and Mozart's concert aria "Bella mia fiamma .... Resta, o cara " she had chosen a challenging program, especially as she performed both pieces for the first time. In order to begin with one exception: In Gliére´s piece it was particularly audible in the second part, which is intended for a coloratura soprano, that she did not have it completely "in her throat" yet. She would have benefited from a lighter tone setting and the various staccati were not yet completely precise, too.

But already the first entry in the slow, lyrical part suggested that she has an extraordinarily beautiful and interesting since relatively dark timbred voice whose potential - if I am not mistaken – is best suited for lyrical roles. This impression was completely confirmed in Mozart's difficult concert aria, which already now reached an astonishing perfection. The lyrical part was marvelously arranged with long slurs, while the more embellished second part revealed a technical certainty which was still missing in Glière´s piece. It would be desirable to meet this current guest singer at the St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theater again soon.

A beautiful season opener, which was given a unique character by the performance of the Russian soprano.

Two days later (July 9), Pelageya Kurennaya performed in a recital at the chamber music hall, and none of the listeners would have guessed that this was her very first recital. A well-balanced program with Mozart songs and Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff romances in the first part, as well as opera arias of Mozart ("Idomeneo"), Charpentier ("Louise") , Gounod (“Roméo et Juliette”), Rimsky-Korsakow ("The Czar's Bride") and Bellini ("La sonnambula") after the intermission. Her presentation of the Mozart songs (by the way, in perfect German !!!) made me wish to hear her in all the lyrical roles of this composer, but above all as Susanna, which should be ideally suited for her. With her first encore, Oskar Merikanto's lullaby "Pai, pai, paitaressu”, she moved her Finnish audience to tears  and at the same time proved her great talent for languages as she twisted the listeners around her finger with Delibes' "Les Filles des Cadix". Not just a great singer but despite her youth already now a remarkable personality of great charisma.

What I thought I had already heard in "Tanya-Katya" came to light in the opera arias: a truly lyrical-round voice of highly interesting timbre, which - though more lyrical soprano with coloratura than pure coloratura soprano – combined with her agility, with which she presented arias such as Juliette or Amina, captivated the audience. It will be interesting to follow the path of this promising young soprano, who I will surely soon - if I am not mistaken – meet again on the world´s greatest stages in pivotal roles.

The young soprano Pelageya Kurennaya is a lyrical soprano with coloratura but it is already noticeable that her voice is  developing into the dramatic range. Her timbre is particularly interesting and her musicality is of the highest quality.

The brightest light in Shchedrin's composition was the soprano of Pelageya Kurennaya, an ambitious young singer who with her technically very well focussed voice, homogeneous in all registers, with a sonorous dark color in the depth, was the ideal interpreter for this piece.

As in Munich when I heard her for the first time in November 2015, Pelageya Kurennaya sang in Mikkeli (July 7) Rodion Shchedrin's Romance for Soprano and Strings entitled "Tanya-Katya" and these two names are also the only words of this 13 minute piece, which she performed so vocally convincingly as if this romance had a content. Except for Shchedrin's opera "Christmas Tale," in which she sings the leading role Zamarashka, at the Mariinsky Theatre she is mainly cast for young girl roles such as Barbarina or Flora ("Turn of the Screw"), in which she cannot show her true potential. She proved it herself in Shchedrin's piece: a beautifully timbred lyrical soprano voice of high recognition value. It is impressive, how totally homogeneously she led her precious material from never artificially depressed depths up to in piano as well as forte brilliant heights - technical perfection combined with great emotion.

As in April when I heard this opera for the first time, the young PELAGEYA KURENNAYA excelled as Zamarashka again and amazed and astonished the listener with the confidence and tone beauty with which she mastered the extremely difficult requirements of her role, everything notated in a very high range, at the same time hardly ever exceeding piano or pianissimo. This performance deserves even more respect as she had to artificially reduce her much richer, much darker voice to the requirements of this role. Nonetheless, my compliments, the great talent of this young lady could be perceived at any moment.

In my opinion, PELAGEYA KURENNAYA would have been the more appropriate cast for the Susanna, as in her second year (as a guest) at the Mariinsky the young singer has an excitingly beautiful, dark timbred voice, which made me as a friend of individually timbred voices listen attentively from the first tones of her Barbarina.

But I had not only come to see this new piece of Shchedrin, but above all to hear a young soprano who had fascinated me at a concert in Munich last November. Her name: PELAGEYA KURENNAYA, very young, in her 5th academic year at St. Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, and yet already chosen by Mariss Jansons and Valery Gergiev to sing under the former Prilepa in "Pique Dame" in Munich and under the latter Shchedrin´s Romance for Soprano and Strings entitled "Tanya-Katya" in the same Bavarian metropolis.

I heard this young lady with this piece in Munich and was spontaneously inspired by the beauty of her truly young voice, her high recognition value, her homogeneous tone production through all ranges, and her great expressiveness. But Zamarashka, a kind of Cinderella in Shchedrin's opera, is entirely different: mostly notated in high range, hardly ever exceeding piano or even pianissimo. Fortunately, my impression in Munich of a great talent was confirmed again in this role. Sooner or later she will sing lyrical roles such as Susanna (already sung by her at the Conservatory).

The role of Zamarashka was performed touchingly by the lyric coloratura Pelageya Kurennaya, a student of Petersburg Conservatory, class of Professor Tamara Novichenko, who had taught Anna Netrebko, Veronica Dzhioeva and Nadine Koutcher. With the help of her flexible and crystal sound she created such an ethereal and disembodied image that it seemed as if in this production she were sent by the heavenly department.

Here you can enjoy the discovery of a new star by the name of Pelageya Kurennaya - slim, petite, with a clear voice and an excellent understanding of the music of her role. Three different casts have prepared this production, but apparently especially Zamarashka- Kurennaya will be its trademark.

The undoubted success of the performance was the debut of a  young singer  from St. Petersburg, soprano Pelageya  Kurennaya. She touchingly put on the stage the image of the heroine Zamarashka, sincerely giving it humanity and warmth of heart.

For many singers this is a milestone work, especially for our  debutante Pelageya  Kurennaya, a wonderful young singer. She played this responsible role, which was entrusted with wringing, in my opinion brilliantly, musically, and artistically. This singer has a very beautiful timbre. (Valery Gergiev)