Aigul

Aigul Akhmetshina is a great storyteller. The mezzo-soprano’s gift registers whenever she sings. It’s equally clear when she recalls her upbringing in a remote village in the Republic of Bashkortostan and her all-too-rare journey from impoverished teenager to star of the world’s leading opera stages. Aigul’s eponymous debut album is built around her landmark roles, famous arias starting with Bizet’s Carmen, then Massenet’s Charlotte, Bellini’s Romeo and Rossini’s Cenerentola and Rosina. Aigul closes with Nightingale, an enchanting slice of Bashkort folk heritage. “My grandma used to sing it to me,” she tells Apple Music Classical. “It was one of her favourite songs. It needs freedom. Which leads us to Carmen. Carmen needs freedom!” Propelled by native talent, hard work and good fortune, the 19-year-old became the youngest ever member of the coveted Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at London’s Royal Opera House. By spring 2024, just eight years later, she had set the record as the youngest Carmen to appear at Covent Garden and New York’s Metropolitan Opera, shown deep understanding of the tragic Charlotte in Werther, made her Salzburg Festival debut in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi and confirmed her place among the front rank of Rossini interpreters. “I believe everyone has their time,” she comments. “It’s never late and never early. Everyone has, in some way, their own destiny. But you cannot predict how a singer’s career will go. It’s like this game of Russian roulette, when you never know if the bullet will get you.” Aigul admits there were times, not so long ago, when the possibility of singing for a living seemed remote. “I was always singing as a child. It’s just something I couldn’t control. The music was always there. I'm half Tatar, half Bashkort, so I learned our Bashkort folk songs, which need flexibility like bel canto coloratura.” The village choir trainer introduced Aigul to classical singing. “I knew I would go that way when I was 12, even though I’d never sung or even seen opera.” Two years later, she moved to Ufa, Bashkortostan’s capital, and studied singing there with Neilya Yusupova. Aigul’s progress was arrested after she failed the scholarship audition at Moscow’s Gnessin Academy of Music, then lost her voice in a car crash. “When I opened my mouth to sing after the accident, the first note sounded like a wounded animal. It was horrifying! And you understand that all the work you’ve done has gone.” Her teacher helped repair the damage and paid for Aigul to fly to Moscow for the New Opera World Competition. “I cracked the high note in Rossini’s ‘Una voce poco fa’. But I still got first prize.” David Gowland, artistic director of the Jette Parker programme, heard the teenage sensation and invited her to audition. Aigul’s village helped fund her airfare to London. “There were 365 others auditioning, which was absolutely crazy. I’d never stood on an opera stage before and here I was auditioning at Covent Garden.” She made the Jette Parker shortlist, passed a second audition and was soon on course for stardom. “My life story is very like Cinderella’s! Part of me thinks, ‘Oh, this is unbelievable.’ And another part thinks, ‘Well, I keep proving I can sustain this.’”