Bass-Baritone/Bass
Taras Shtonda is not only a principal soloist at the National Opera of Kiev and a "Honored Artist of Ukraine", but also a frequent guest on major opera and festival stages around the world.
Shtonda’s broad repertoire includes Filippo II (Don Carlo), Zaccaria (Nabucco) Ramphis and Il Re (Aida), Don Basilio (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Méphistophélès (Faust), Il Commendatore (Don Giovanni), Kotchubei (Mazepa), King Rene (Iolanta) and Prince Galitsky (Prince Igor) among many others.
Already in 2002, Shtonda debuted at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow as Dossifey and has sung leading roles there ever since, the latest being Boris Godunov in 2015 and Boris Izmaylov (Katerina Izmaylova) in 2017. Shtonda has also sung Dossifey (Khovanshchina) in Warsaw (2002), Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Mariinsky Theatre (2003) and Pimen in Boris Godunov at the Royal Opera House in London (2006). More recently, he was invited to sing Oroveso (Norma) at the Toulon Opera, Prince Gremin at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival, Faust (The Fiery Angel) at Opera de Lyon, Mephisto (Faust) in Budapest and Wotan in Wagner’s Die Walküre at the Mariinsky Theatre under Maestro Valery Gergiev. In summer 2015, Shtonda sang a highly acclaimed Pimen in Boris Godunov at the Savonlinna Opera Festival alongside Matti Salminen.
Some other highlights of his career include Boris Godunov at the Bolshoi theatre, Prince Gremin (Eugen Onegin) at the Oslo Opera House as well as at the Glyndebourne Festival, Mamyrov in Tchaikovsky‘s Enchantress at Vlaamse Opera Antwerp, Grande Inquisitore (Don Carlo) at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, as well as Four Villains (Les contes d’Hoffmann), Count Walther (Luisa Miller), Gurnemanz (Parsifal) and Nilakantha in Delibes' Lakmé at the Malmö Opera.
In 2017, Taras Shtonda made his debut as Hagen (Götterdämmerung) at Theater Kiel, and his most recent engagements include Hunding (Die Walküre) at Frankfurt Opera, Hagen at Oviedo Opera and Fafner (Rheingold/Siegfried) at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and Boris Godunov in Teatro Verdi, Trieste. His debut at Covent Garden in London as Grande Inquisitore (Don Carlos) this summer was cancelled due to the pandemic.
J.S. Bach "Matthäus Passion"
L. v. Beethoven "9th Symphony", "Missa solemnis"
G. Donizetti "Requiem"
A. Dvorak "Te Deum"
G. Fauré "Requiem"
G.F. Händel "Messiah"
L. Janacek "Glagolitic mass"
W.A. Mozart "Requiem"
G. Rossini "Stabat Mater"
C. Saint-Saens "Requiem"
D. Shostakovich "Symphonies 13 and 14"
G. Verdi "Requiem"
LIED
F. Schubert, R. Schumann (incl. "Dichterliebe"), J. Brahms, E. Grieg, J. Massenet, G. Fauré, M. Glinka, A. Dargomyzhsky, M. Moussorgsky (incl. "Songs and dances of Death"), N. Rimsky-Korsakov, P. Tchaikovsky, S. Rachmaninoff, D. Shostakovich (incl. "5 days"), G. Sviridov, old Russian romances and Ukrainian songs