People’s Artist of Russia, Honoured Artist of the RSFSR, recipient of the State Prize of Russia, the Golden Sofit for his portrayal of Gurnemanz (Parsifal, 1997) and the Golden Mask, Russia’s highest theatre prize, for best male rôle in Wagner’s opera Parsifal (1998) and recipient of the Baltika prize (2002), the bass Gennady Bezzubenkov was born in Staraya Vitelevka, Ulyanovsk Region. He graduated from the Leningrad State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in 1979 and has been a Marïinsky Theatre soloist since 1989.  His repertoire includes over fifty rôles, ranging from Ivan Susanin, Varlaam, Pimen and Ivan Khovansky to the Commendatore, Don Alfonso, King Marke, Hunding and Gurnemanz. He has toured with the Marïinsky Opera Company to Germany, France, Scotland (the Edinburgh Festival), Israel, the United States (Metropolitan Opera), Finland, Italy, Spain, Austria, The Netherlands, Belgium, Japan, Portugal, Luxembourg and Turkey, and his audio and video recordings with the Mariinsky Theatre include War and Peace, Ruslan and Lyudmila, Iolanta, Sadko, The Fiery Angel and The Tsar’s Bride.