Yuri Alexandrov is one of the few directors sought-after both in Russia and abroad. His productions have been appreciated by the audiences in the United States, Italy, Turkey, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, France, Serbia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Yuri Alexandrov might be the only Russian opera director whose performances have been staged at the most prestigious venues in the world including Arena di Verona, Metropolitan Opera and La Scala.
His productions at the Mariinskiy Theatre always become major events in the cultural life of Saint Petersburg. Among them Gaetano Donizetti’s Il campanello di note and Don Pasquale; Christoph Gluck’s The Queen of May; Sergei Banevich’s The Story of Kai and Gerda, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro; Igor Stravinsky’s Mavra; Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida, Don Carlo and Otello, Sergei Prokofiev’s Semyon Kotko (Winner of the Golden Mask National Theatre Award 1999 in the categories ‘Best Opera Production’, ‘Best Opera Director’, ‘Best Opera Artist’ and ‘Best Opera Conductor’); Dmitri Shostakovich’s Nose (Winner of the Golden Sofit St. Petersburg Highest Theatrical Award 2004 in the category ‘Best Director’s Work’); Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Mazepa (Winner of the Golden Sofit St. Petersburg Highest Theatrical Award 2007 in the category ‘Best Opera Production’); Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Tsar’s Bride, and other.
Originally, the St. Petersburg Opera intended to be an art laboratory but then became a professional opera company. Today the theatre is well known both in Russia and abroad.
Within 35 seasons, the theatre has formed as a single creative organism with a unique, original program. The opera company includes talented soloists and musicians. Many of them are honored artists of Russia, laureates and diploma winners of international and all-Russian competitions. The repertoire includes all genres of opera art – from comic opera and classical operetta to musical drama, as well as works of contemporary authors.
In different years many productions were staged at the St. Petersburg Opera. These are: Pietro Il Grande Zar Di Tutte Le Russie by Gaetano Donizetti, Jeu de Robin et Marion by Adam de la Halle, Le Faucon by Dmitri Bortnyansky, Die Weiße Rose by Udo Zimmermann, Gamblers-1942 and From the Jewish Folk Poetry by Dmitri Shostakovich, Adrianna Lecouvreur by Francesco Cilea, Die Entführung aus dem Serail by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, The Rape of Lucretia by Benjamin Britten, and October ..17 by Vano Muradeli. Many of these works have been staged in Russia for the first time ever.
The production of the opera Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo was awarded the Golden Sofit St. Petersburg Highest Theatrical Award in the nomination ‘Best Opera Performance of the 2009/2010 Season’. This performance was also recognized as the winner of the Golden Mask National Theatre Award in two nominations – ‘Best Performance in an Opera House’ and ‘Best Director's Work’.
In the 2011/2012 season, the production of the opera Betrothal in a Monastery by Sergei Prokofiev was awarded the Golden Sofit Award as the ‘Best Performance in an Opera House’.
In the 2013/14 season, another production Not Only Love by Rodion Shchedrin was nominated and won the the St. Petersburg Golden Sofit Award in the nomination ‘Best Opera Performance’.
Over the years, the Golden Sofit and the Golden Mask awards in the nominations 'Best Opera Performance' and 'Best Director’s Work' were awarded to the productions such as The Lay of Love and Death of Cornet Christopher Rilke by Siegfried Matthus, White Nights of Fyodor Dostoevsky by Yuri Butsko, The Gamblers by Dmitry Shostakovich, Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss, The Queen of Spades by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi, Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini, Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni and Faust by Charles Gounod.
Despite the creative demand in his native “St. Petersburg Opera” and in many well-known musical theatres, Alexandrov also displayed outstanding organizational skills. At the request of the government of Kazakhstan, he took an active participation in the creation of the National Opera and Ballet named after Kulyash Baiseitova in Astana, and became a stage director of outstanding opera performances, such as: La Traviata, Rigoletto, Aida by Giuseppe Verdi; Madama Butterfly, Tosca by Giacomo Puccini; Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Tchaikovsky and other.
Yuri Alexandrov was the first foreigner to receive the State Prize of Kazakhstan and the Dostyk Order.
Overall, Yuri Alexandrov has staged more than 250 performances in opera houses in Russia and abroad. In Moscow: Khovanshchina by Modest Mussorgsky (Bolshoi Theater), L’elisir d’amore by Gaetano Donizetti (The Kolobov Novaya Opera Theatre of Moscow). In Turkey: Werther by Jules Massenet, Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin, Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Viva la mamma by Gaetano Donizetti. In Italy: Cherevichki at the Teatro alla Scala and Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Turandot by Giacomo Puccini at Arena di Verona. The latter is an unprecedented case in the theatrical world: for the first time in history, an Italian opera house entrusted the production of an opera by an Italian composer to a Russian director. In the USA: The Queen of Spades and Mazepa by Pyotr Tchaikovsky at the Metropolitan Opera. In Belarus: Les contes d'Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach. In Latvia: L’elisir d’amore by Gaetano Donizetti. In Lithuania: Don Giovanni by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In Kazakhstan: Turandot by Giacomo Puccini, Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti, Abylai Khan by Erkegali Rakhmadiev. In Serbia: La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi and Pagliacci by Ruggero Leoncavallo. In Poland: Boris Godunov by Modest Mussorgsky, Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Die Entführung aus dem Serail by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In Estonia: The Tsar's Bride by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.