NikolayDidenko

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Bass
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  • Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti

    Singapore Symphony Orchestra
    Mar 2022

    • Nikolay Didenko, a soloist in the hallowed tradition of Russian basses. A bear-like presence with a voice that could freeze blood within the veins, he gave a richly nuanced performance that vividly captured all the emotions expressed within the pithy of the words

  • Rimsky-Korsakov; The Golden Cockerel

    Dallas Opera
    Oct 2019

    • Nikolay Didenko’s bass provided a perfectly rounded King Dodon. Delivering the role in a padded fat suit and red onesie, he was affectionately bumbling, yet sang with a clean and robust tone that belied his child-like nature.

    • King Dodon rises on an oversize throne, where he sprawls much of the time in red thermal underwear hardly concealed by a kingly robe. Later appearing for war in grand armored attire, Nikolay Didenko gives the king a petulant persona and an aptly granular bass.

    • As that hopelessly inept ruler, Nikolay Didenko is anything but inept at characterization. Right from the beginning, he establishes the Tsar as the most dangerous type of fool, one who thinks he is impossibly smart and naturally superior to everyone else. Vocally, he delivers a tour de force in this workout of a role that dominates all three acts of the opera. In many ways, this complex assignment is reminiscent of the equally demanding part of the Baron Ochs in Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier, another silly old man drooling over a young woman. Didenko’s bumbling antics are hilarious. He makes the most of his hugely oversized golden throne that his he mews around on for most of the first act. He can barely climb into it, let alone look even vaguely regal. Any vestige of dignity he may have ever possessed is surrendered as he prances around in the red union suit that he wears under his kingly robe.

      • Theater Jones
      • 26 October 2019

  • Shostakovich: Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarroti

    Texas Music Festival, Houseton
    Jun 2018

    • Didenko sang with a fluency and mellowness that sometimes let the songs sound conversational–which made their messages all the more arresting when his voice finally welled up. In the first of three songs about love, “Morning”–about a sweetheart’s diaphanous dress–Didenko’s voice was as airy as the fabric he described. But his voice also could take on a somber gravity, even when it was quiet. And when it swelled, its fullness and vibrancy let the songs exude emotion and even anger without resorting to crudeness. The orchestra’s shadowy, sometimes shimmering tones complemented Didenko’s subtle strokes. And its fullness and impact enhanced the intensity of his singing.

  • Medtner

    Recording
    Feb 2018

    • L'accompagnement de Burnside est magistral. Les voix sont inégales, mais les contributions de Rodion Pogossov et de Nikolay Didenko sont bouleversantes.

      • Classica Magazine, "Les Disques du Mois"
      • 03 September 2018

  • Tchaikovsky, Eugene Onegin

    Frankfurt Opera
    Oct 2017

    • Among the other characters, bass Nikolay Didenko was outstanding in his Act three aria as Gremin in his Frankfurt debut."