Gennady Bezzubenkon graduated from the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire in Saint Petersburg in 1979 and became a soloist at the Mariinsky Theatre in 1989. His repertoire includes all the great bass roles in the Russian repertoire as well as Banquo in Macbeth, Padre Guardino in La Forza del Destino, Ramphis in Aida, the Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlos, Ludovic and Montano in Otello, Timur in Turandot, Pope Clement VII in Benvenuto Cellini, the Commendatore in Don Giovanni, Bartolo in La Nozze di Figaro, Daland in Der Fliegende Holländer, Hermann in Tannhäuser, King Henry in Lohengrin, Donner and Fafner in Das Rheingold, Fafner in Siegfried and Gurnemanz in Parsifal. He has been on tour several times with the Mariinsky Theatre and has been invited to many of the world’s great opera houses: the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, La Scala Milan, Rome Opera, the Metropolitan Opera of New York, Los Angeles Opera as well as festivals such as Edinburgh and Savonlinna. He has worked with many renowned conductors such as Valery Gergiev, James Levine, Yury Temirkanov, Evgueny Svetlanov, Maris Janssons, Gintaras Rinkevicius, Kirill Petrenko, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Kasushi Ono, Christoph Eschenbach, Michael Güttler and Esa‑Pekka Salonen. He has performed the roles of Varlaam (Boris Godounov) at Nice Opera, the Doctor (The Nose by Shostakovitch) at the Festival of d’Aix-en-Provence and in Lyon, Gusli (The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya) at Amsterdam National Opera and at the Liceu in Barcelona, the police officer (Lady Macbeth of Mzensk) at the Rostropovitch Festival in Moscow, Ivan Soussanine (A Life for the Tsar) at the Radio France Festival in Montpellier, the Father (Pulcinella and Les Noces by Stravinsky) at the Capitole in Toulouse, The Cook (A Dog’s Heart by Raskatov), the Priest and the Old Convict (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk) at Lyon Opera. He has recently performed the roles of the Commendatore, Timur, Ivan Soussanine, the Sea King (Sadko), Koutouzov (War and Peace), Prince Youri (The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya ) and the Doctor (The Nose) at the Mariinsky Theatre. He was awarded the title Artist of the Russian People as well as the Golden Mask and the Gold Soffit pour his performance in the role of Gurnemanz. This is his Paris Opera debut.