Barihunk duo alternating Count Almaviva's at Bolshoi

Konstantin Shushakov (left) and Andrei Jilihovschi (right)

We have "Barihunk scouts" on three continents who keep us well apprised of singers and productions worldwide, but we rarely get messages from Russia even though we get a lot of traffic from the country. So we were pretty thrilled to receive a message from a fan in Moscow letting us know about the barihunk duo alternating Count Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro at the Bolshoi Theater. 

We originally featured Konstantin Shushakov back in 2011 when he took 2nd place at Operalia, but Andrei Jilihovschi is new to us. 

Shushakov was born in Udmurtia, Russia and began his vocal studies at Izhevsk Music College before moving on to the Russian Academy of Theatrical Art. He has been a regular at the Bolshoi Theatre since 2011, where he's been critically acclaimed as Papageno in Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Yeletsky in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades. In the 2012-13 season he made his debut in the title role of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at the Maribor Opera. Last season, he appeared as Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte at La Scala in Milan. 

Shushakov appears as the Count on September 16, 18 and 20. 

30-year-old Andrei Jilihovschi was born in Moldova and completed his studies in choral conducting at the Ştefan Neaga Music College in the capital city of Chisinau. During his time at school he also studied singing in the opera studio and then continued his studies at the Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatoire where he sang he title role in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin.

 

From 2010-2012, he was a soloist with the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg where he appeared as Belcore in Donizetti's L’elisir d’amore, Schaunard in Puccini's La Boheme, Robert in Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, the Prince in Asafiev’s Cinderella, Silvano in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, Baron Douphol in Verdi's La Traviata and Dancairo in Bizet's Carmen.

In October 2012 he joined the Bolshoi Theatre Young Artist Program and become a member of the Bolshoi ensemble two years later. He will be singing Dancaïro in Bizet's Carmen with the company from September 4-9.  Next year, he makes his debut at the Opéra National de Paris as Robert in Tchaikovsky's Iolanata.

He appears as the Count on September 17 and 19.