Biography

Graduated from the Urals State Conservatoire in 2000. In the same year he won the Grand Prix at the International Competition for Singers in Kazakhstan. In 1997 – 1998, he was a soloist with Yekaterinburg State Opera. In 1998 – 2000 – a soloist with Moscow’s Novaya Opera, where he sang Loredano (“I Due Foscari”), Stromminger (“Wally”), Varlaam (“Boris Godunov”).

Since 2000 Dmitry has been a soloist of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Musical Theatre.

His repertoire at the Music Theatre includes the following parts: Hermann, Landgrave of Thuringia (“Tannhauser” by R. Wagner), Lindorf, Coppelius, Dapertutto, Miracle (“Les Contes d’Hoffmann” by J. Offenbach), Raimondo Bidebent (“Lucia di Lammermoor” by G. Donizetti), Prince Gremin (“Eugene Onegin” by P. Tchaikovsky), Ramfis (“Aida” by G. Verdi), Don Giovanni (“Don Giovanni” by W.A. Mozart), Prince Ivan Khovansky (“Khovanshchina” by M. Mussorgsky).

In 2003, he took part in the production of Tchaikovsky’s “Oprichnik” at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari (Italy, conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky, director Graham Vick). In 2005, he sang Rocco in a concert performance of “Fidelio” (conductor Thomas Sanderling), Gremin at L’Opera National du Rhin (Strasbourg) and Varlaam (“Boris Godunov” by M. Musorgsky) at Teatre du Capitole (Toulouse, France), wh ere he also gave a solo concert. In 2006, he sang Varlaam at the Opera de Monte-Carlo. At the Opera Municipal de Marseille he sang the King (“Aida”, 2007) and Don Basilio (“Il Barbiere di Siviglia”, 2008).
In 2008/09, he took part in the production of “Macbeth”, singing the role of Banco (Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre and Paris National Opera co-production, conductor Teodor Currentzis, director Dmitri Tcherniakov). In 2009, he sang Tomsky (“The Queen of Spades” by P. Thaikovsky) at the Opera de Monte-Carlo. In 2010 / 11, he sang Cardinal de Brongy (” La Juive” by F. Halevy) at the Mikhailovsky Theatre St.Petersburg and Israeil Opera (Tel-Aviv).

After his debut in February 2011 on the stage of the Royal Opera House in Madrid (performed the part of Marcel in “Les Huguenots” by Meyerbeer, conducted by Renato Palumbo) Dmitry Ulyanov began to work closely with the Teatro Real and other Spanish theaters, such as the Teatro De La Maestranza in Seville (The Grand Inquisitor in “Don Carlo” G. Verdi, Hunding in “Die Walküre” by Richard Wagner), Festival in La Coruna (Sparafucile in Verdi’s “Rigoletto” with Leo Nucci in the title role). In January 2012, Dmitry Ulyanov performed at the Teatro Real role of King Rene (“Iolanta” by P. Tchaikovsky) in a new production (directed by P. Sellars, conducted by T. Currentzis). The performance was broadcasted on the TV channel MEZZO and released on DVD. Also at the Teatro Real sang Pimen (“Boris Godunov” by Mussorgsky), Banco (“Macbeth” by G. Verdi). In 2013 he made his debut on the stage of the Opera Bilbao in the role of Procida in Verdi’s “I Vespri Siciliani”. Also sang the role of Sparafucile in the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville (conductor – Pedro Halfter, in the title role – Leo Nucci).
In the season of 2013 / 14 he continued to collaborate with Spanish Theaters. On the stage of Teatro Real sang the role of Basilio in “The Barber of Seville” by G. Rossini (conductor – Tomáš Hanus, director – Emilio Sagi) and participated in the performance of “Stabat Mater” by G. Rossini. Sang the role of Ramfis in “Aida” by G. Verdi (Teatro de la Maestranza, Seville, conductor – Pedro Halfter, director – Jose Antonio Gutierrez).

In the season 2014 / 15 he debuted at the famous Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu (Don Basilio in “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” by Gioachino Rossini (conductor – Giuseppe Finzi, director – Juan Font) and sang the role of Philip II in the new production of “Don Carlo” at the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia (conductor – G. Sagripanti, director – A. Noble). Also he performed such parts as Landgraf in “Tannhäuser” by Richard Wagner (Novosibirsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, director T. Kulyabin, conductor A. Rubikis), Cardinal de Broigny in “La Juive” by F. Halévy (Flemish Opera, Antwerp, Ghent, Belgium, conductors – Tomáš Netopil, Yannis Pouspourikas, director – Peter Konwitschny), King Rene in “Iolanta” by P. Tchaikovsky (Festival of Aix-en-Provence, conductor – Teodor Currentzis, director – Peter Sellars).

In the season 2015 / 16 he appeared as Dosifey at the Opera House in Basel (conductor – Kirill Karabyts, director – Vasily Barkhatov), Don Basilio in the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville (conductor – Giuseppe Finzi, director – Jose Luis Castro), King Rene in “Iolanta” by P. Tchaikovsky (Opéra National de Lyon, conductor – Martin Brabbins, director – Peter Sellars), General in “The Gambler” by S. Prokofiev (Opéra de Monte Carlo, conductor – Michail Tatarnikov, director – Jean-Louis Grinda).

In the season 2016 / 17 Dmitry Ulyanov debuted in such parts as Daland in “Der fliegende Holländer” (The Vlaamse Opera, conductor – Cornelius Meister, director – Tatjana Gürbaca), Khan Konchak and Vladimir Galitsky in “Prince Igor” (Dutch National Opera, сonductor – Stanislav Kochanovsky, director – Dmitry Tcherniakov),Tsar Dodon in “The Golden Cockerel” (Teatro Real Madrid, conductor – Ivor Bolton, director – Laurent Pelly).

In the season 2017 / 18 Dmitry Ulyanov debuted at the Salzburg Festival as Boris Timofeevich in a new production of Shostakovich’s “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” (conductor – Mariss Jansons, director – Andreas Kriegenburg) and as General in a new production of Prokofiev’s “The Gambler” at the Vienna State Opera (conductor – Simone Young, director – Karoline Gruber).
In September 2017 made a long-awaited debut in the main role of Tsar Boris in the opera by Mussorgsky “Boris Godunov” on the historical stage of the Bolshoi theatre. Then also on the stage of Bolshoi theatre he sang the roles of Boris Timofeevich («Katerina Izmailova» by Shostakovich, conductor – Tugan Sokhiev) and Philip II («Don Carlos» by G. Verdi, conductor – Keri-Lynn Wilson). Within the framework of the Music festival of Vasily Ladyuk “Opera Live” made a debut in the main role of Attila in the concert version of G.Verdi ‘s opera “Attila”. And in February 2018 sang this role on the stage of Auditorium de Lyon (Lyon, France) in a concert version of “Attila” on the Verdi Festival. Also in February made a first appearance on the stage of Deutsche Oper Am Rhein performing Ramfis in opera of G. Verdi “Aida” (conductor – Wen-Pin Chien, director – Philipp Himmelmann). Performed the bas part in the the immortal Verdi’s “Requiem ” on the stage of Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory (The State Symphony orchestra of the Republic of Tatarstan, conductor – Alexander Sladkovsky).

In April 2018 made a debut on the stage of Teatro di San Carlo of Naples with the role of Boris Izmailov in the opera «Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District» (Stage director – Martin Kušej, conductor – Juraj Valèuha), then played the role of General on the stage of the Theatre Basel in the new production of S. Prokofiev’s opera “The Gambler” made by the director Vasily Barkhatov.

May 23 a solo concert dedicated a 20th anniversary of Dmitry Ulyanov’s operatic activity took place on the stage of Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre. The concert was also included in the series of symphony concerts of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre Symphony orchestra. The concert was performed works of M. Mussorgsky and D. Shostakovich – scenes from the opera “Boris Godunov” and symphonic-vocal poem “The Execution Of Stepan Razin” (Conductor – Felix Korobov, Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music Theatre Symphony orchestra, Choir of the Choir Arts Academy).

In the season 2018/2019 Dmitry Ulyanov performed the role of Don Basilio in a new production of Rossini’s opera “The Barber of Seville” (directed by Eugene Pisarev, conducted by Pier Giorgio Morandi) at the New Stage of the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia. December 2018 he performed at the opening ceremony of the year of the theatre in Russia  on the stage of the Russian state academic drama theatre  in Yaroslavl. And then Dmitry took part in a gala concert dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Music theater. In February 2019 Dmitry Ulyanov made his stage debut the stage of Concertgebouw Hall in Amsterdam. He presented to the audience Mussorgsky’s “Songs and dances of death” for the first time (Conductor – Xian Zhang). In April 2019 theatre-goers had been able to see and hear Dmitry as Boris Timofeevich on the stage of the Opera Bastille in Paris (Director – Krzysztof Warlikowski, conductor – Ingo Metzmacher).
The decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 29.04.2019 № 199 “On awarding state awards of the Russian Federation” was published on the 4th of May 2019, and it says that Dmitry Ulyanov was awarded the title of “Honored artist of the Russian Federation”.
The season 2018/2019 ended with the debut on the stage of the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing with J. Offenbach “Les Contes D’Hoffmann”, where Dmitry Ulyanov performed parties of 4 villains (Lindorf, Coppelius, Dapertutto, Dr. Miracle). Stage directors were Francesca Zambello (original), Stephen Groegler (revival), conductor – Pinchas Steinberg.

The season 2019-2020 Dmitry opened by performing two different roles on two different stages, in two different productions of the same Verdi’s opera “Don Carlos”: at the beginning of September 2019 he sang the role of Grand Inquisitor at the Vienna State Opera (director – Daniele Abbado, conductor – Jonathan Darlington), and then on the stage of the Teatro Real in Madrid he performed the role of king Philip II (conductors – Nikola Luisotti, Diego Garcia Rodriguez, Director – David McVicar). In late November and December 2019 Dmitry took part in a new production of  Borodin’s opera “Prince Igor” on the stage of the Opéra Bastille in Paris (Conductor – Philippe Jordan, director – Barrie Kosky). There he performed the part of the reveller and troublemaker Prince Galitsky.

In February 2020 Dmitry Ulyanov performed the role of the Varangian guest in Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “Sadko” staged by Dmitry Chernyakov on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia. And on On March 6 and 8 Dmitry Ulyanov performed Gremin from Tchaikovsky’s opera “Eugeny Onegin” at the Grand Concert Hall of the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon (director – Christiina Helin, conductor- Lorenzo Viotti).

After a rather long hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, in May 2021 Dmitry appeared at the Opéra de Lyon as Tsar Dodon from Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Golden Cockerel” (directed by Barry Kosky and conducted by Daniel Rustioni). The same production was also presented to audiences in Aix-en-Provence in July 2021.

In September 2021 he opened the new season 2021 – 2022 with a trip to the Grand Theater Geneve, Switzerland. There he performed the role of Kutuzov in a production of Prokofiev’s opera “War and Peace”(director Calixto Bieito, conductor – Alejo Perez). In the spring of 2022 Dimity returned to the stage of Madrid’s Teatro Real. At the end of March and beginning of April 2022 he performed the role of Faust from Prokofiev’s opera “The Fiery Angel” (directed by Calixto Bieito). The production was broadcast on the television channel and the website Arte.