Ilseyar Khayrullova

Ensemble: (Current) Staatstheater Kassel, (Former) Vienna State Opera

Freelancer: Operklosterneuburg Festival, Enescu Festival Bucharest, Tonhalle Zurich, Theater Freiburg, Theater Winterthur

Ilseyar Khayrullova is a mezzo-soprano from Tatarstan, Russia. She graduated with distinction from the St. Petersburg State Conservatory “N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov” and was a laureate of the International Competition “Playing Slonimsky” in St. Petersburg.

From 2013 to 2018, Ms. Khayrullova was a member of the ensemble at the Vienna State Opera, where she appeared in a wide range of repertoire. Her roles included Fenena (Nabucco), Olga (Eugene Onegin), Bersi (Andrea Chénier), and the Schoolboy (Lulu). In a new production of Péter Eötvös’s Tri Sestri, conducted by the composer, she performed one of the title roles to critical recognition.

As a guest artist, Ms. Khayrullova has appeared at the Operklosterneuburg Festival as Maddalena in Rigoletto, and at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest in Lulu. She has sung Olga in Eugene Onegin at Theater Freiburg and Theater Winterthur, and performed Hermann Suter’s Le Laudi at the Tonhalle Zurich with the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich under Peter Kennel. Her discography includes recordings with the San Francisco Classical Recording Company / Pentatone: as Wowkle in La Fanciulla del West under Lawrence Foster (2021), and as Flora in La Traviata with the Dresden Philharmonic conducted by Daniel Oren.

Since the 2022/23 season, she has been a permanent ensemble member at the Staatstheater Kassel. Her roles there have included Fricka (Das Rheingold), Preziosilla (La forza del destino), and the title role in Carmen (2023/24). Planned roles for the 2024/25 season include Marguerite (La damnation de Faust), Varvara (Káťa Kabanová), the Alto solo in Bruckner’s Te Deum, and a revival of Carmen.

In 2023, she was awarded the Irma Jansa Singing Prize. She has collaborated with conductors such as Marco Armiliato, Philippe Auguin, Jiří Bělohlávek, Semyon Bychkov, Myung-Whun Chung, Daniel Oren, Ádám Fischer, Mikko Franck, and Franz Welser-Möst. Stage directors she has worked with include Sven-Eric Bechtolf, Willy Decker, Valentin Schwarz, and Peter Stein.