Olga Savova

Irina Bogacheva's class at the St Petersburg Conservatoire produced Olga Savova, who took her diploma there in 1994 and joined the Mariinsky Opera two years later. A mezzo-soprano born in Leningrad, she has since sung more than fifty roles for the company, ranging from the Russian repertoire — Boris Godunov, Eugene Onegin — to the Verdi, Wagner and Strauss of Don Carlo, Aida, Die Walküre and Salome. She travels with the Mariinsky and on her own account, and has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden and La Scala; she can be heard on the company's recordings of Prokofiev's Semyon Kotko and The Story of a Real Man under Valery Gergiev. She was made an Honoured Artist of Russia in 2008. In Bulgaria she has sung with the State Opera Rousse, and appeared in the company's concert at Solothurn on 30 June 2009.