Aleksandr Maslennikov-Swistounoff,

conductor and dramatic tenor, discovered his passion and vocation for the opera at a very early age. Encouraged by celebrated tenor Luciano Pavarotti after having studied Italian and musicology at the Sorbonne in Paris, he decides to move to Italy in order to perfect his musical training with tenors Paride Venturi in Bologna as well as Nicola Martinucci and Franca Ostini in Rome and Milan. But it was with the great Italian dramatic tenor Giuseppe Giacomini at Padua that Aleksandr Maslennikov-Swistounoff decided to perfection his art whilst deepening his repertoire with internationally renowned Russian and Italian musical masters.

 

In parallel to the opera productions in which he participates (Khovanchina, Boris Godounov, Queen of Spades, Fedora, Adriana Lecouvreur, Fanciulla del West, il Tabarro, Tosca, i Pagliacci, Otello, Francesca da Rimini, Carmen and Samson and Dalila), as well as collaborations with conductors Giuseppe Sinopoli and Claudio Abbado, Aleksandr Maslennikov-Swistounoff decides to start conducting himself, specialising in the operas of G. Verdi and G. Puccini, the verist composers of the new Italian school, as well as the grand Russian repertoire of P.I. Tchaikovsky and M. Mussorgsky, to which he is deeply attached.

 

In the upcoming seasons he shall be conducting Giacomo Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, il Tabarro and Tosca as well as Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s i Pagliacci.

 

Hoping to betteraid and instruct young and talented opera singers, one year ago Aleksandr Maslennikov-Swistounoff created the «Si Canta Puccini» non-profit association, Brussels’ first lyrical circle. Aleksandr Maslennikov-Swistounoff is in charge of its musical and artistic direction and regularly convenes musical conferences, master classes and lyrical workshops on the operas, the life and œuvre of Giacomo Puccini, through which he hopes to offer a different, more comprehensive approach to the master composer of la Bohème and Turandot