Russian soprano Elena Pankratova, born in Yekaterinburg, received a solid musical education in her hometown, first as a pianist, choral conductor, and music teacher. She graduated with distinction as an opera and concert singer and singing teacher at the Saint Petersburg State Conservatory Rimsky-Korsakov. Later, she studied with Renata Scotto, Ingrid Kremling, Giovanna Canetti, and Maria Chiara.

Her international breakthrough came in 2010 with her role as Die Färberin (Die Frau ohne Schatten) at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. She also sang this role successfully at La Scala in Milan (2012) and Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (2013), made her brilliant debut at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich (2013), Covent Garden London (2014), the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen (2015), the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin (2018), and the State Opera in Vienna (2023). She repeated this significant role in the 2024/25 season at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden and in Amsterdam.

Other engagements in the 2024/25 season include Turandot at the Vienna State Opera, Elektra at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, a Wagner Gala with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Domingo Hindoyan, and Tosca at the Castello di San Giusto in Trieste. In the current season, she appeared as Elektra with the Opéra Théâtre de Metz Métropole, as Isolde at the Liceu in Barcelona, and will sing Elektra at the San Francisco Opera.

Elena Pankratova, renowned for her exceptional vocal talents, has achieved international acclaim in the German and Italian dramatic repertoire. In 2016, she made her sensational debut as Kundry in Bayreuth’s Parsifal, a role she repeated in 2017, 2018, and 2019, with Deutsche Grammophon releasing the production on DVD and Blu-ray. She also performed Kundry at Dutch National Opera, Deutsche Oper, La Monnaie, the Wagner Days 22 Festival in Leipzig, Liceu in Barcelona, and Houston Grand Opera. In 2019, she sang both Kundry and Ortrud at Bayreuth.

Her outstanding interpretations earned her the Casta Diva opera prize as Best Singer of the Year 2018.

Recent successes include Ortrud at the Salzburg Easter Festival, Turandot in Philipp Stölzl’s new production at the Berlin State Opera, Färberin at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, and her role debut as Isolde at the Bavarian State Opera. In 2024, she sang Elektra in Tokyo and made her house debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York as Turandot.

Her repertoire also includes roles such as Brünnhilde (Siegfried), Odabella (Attila), Alice (Falstaff), Elisabeth & Venus (Tannhäuser), Abigaille, Sieglinde, Norma, Rosalinde, Amelia, Ariadne, Leonora (Fidelio, La Forza del Destino and Il Trovatore), Santuzza, Adriana Lecouvreur, Tove (Gurrelieder), and Saffi (The Gypsy Baron).

The soprano collaborates with conductors like Zubin Mehta, Kirill Petrenko, Christian Thielemann, Vladimir Jurowski, Valery Gergiev, Marek Janowski, Semyon Bychkov, Pinchas Steinberg, Kent Nagano, Andris Nelsons, Hartmut Haenchen, Charles Dutoit, Peter Schneider, Ralf Weikert, Asher Fisch, Alain Altinoglu, Ingo Metzmacher, Stefan Soltész, Paolo Carignani, Kazushi Ono, Michael Boder, Julia Jones, Philipp Auguin, Markus Stenz, Ira Levin, John Fiore, Susanna Mälkki, and directors like Robert Wilson, Tim Albery, Stefan Herheim, Carlus Padrissa, Paul Curran, Claus Guth, Yannis Kokkos, Romeo Castellucci, Uwe Eric Laufenberg, Andreas Homoki, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Olivier Py, Jossi Wieler, Yuval Sharon, and Philipp Stölzl.

Elena Pankratova’s CD recording of Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death (2014) was nominated for the German Record Critics’ Award. As a concert singer, she has performed Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater in Tokyo, Shostakovich’s 14th Symphony in Munich and Helsinki, Mahler’s 2nd and 8th Symphonies in Frankfurt, Turin, and Beijing, Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle in Frankfurt, Rossini’s Stabat Mater in Marseille, and Schönberg’s Gurrelieder in Tokyo.

She gives masterclasses and workshops in singing worldwide, including at London’s Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Verbier Festival and Academy, Bayreuth Festival, Bastille Opéra in Paris, and Berlin State Opera. In January 2021, she was a jury member at the International Tenor Viñas Singing Competition in Barcelona.

Since October 2015, Elena Pankratova has been a singing professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, sharing her expertise with aspiring young singers.