He is indisputably one of the world’s leading dramatic tenors, known for his unrivaled stentorious voice and extremely vivid characterizations of some of the most demanding roles.
From 1990 to 2012 he worked regularly with the Mariinsky Opera under Valery Gergiev. His first leading role with the company was the title role in Verdi’s Otello in 1991. In 1993, he debuted as Hermann in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, a role which he has reprised several times in both Russian and French, and of which he is considered the world’s leading exponent. He has also performed the title roles in Verdi’s Don Carlo and Rimsky- Korsakov’s Sadko, Radames in Verdi’s Aïda, Calaf in Puccini’s Turandot, Des Grieux in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca, Alexey in Prokofiev’s The Gambler, Sergey in Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Khovansky in Mussorgsky’s Khovanschina, Canio in Leoncavallo’s I Pagliacci.
He has performed at most of the world’s leading theaters, concert halls and festivals, and he has worked with such renowned conductors as Valery Gergiev, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Michel Plasson, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Mstislav Rostropovich and Michail Jurowski amongst many others.