Alexei Steblianko

Steblianko studied in his home town – not only voice, but also accordion and choir conducting. He finished off his studies at the Rimskij-Korsakov Conservatory in Leningrad, from which he graduated in 1976. The same year, he made his debut at the Kirov/Mariinskij, where he was to spend his entire career (until 2017), albeit with guest appearances primarily in Germany (where the customary transliteration "Alexei Steblianko" seems to come from – standard transliteration would read Aleksej Stebljanko). He sang in Munich, Cologne, Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Essen, Bonn and Wiesbaden; but also in Spain (Madrid, Barcelona), in Brussels, Amsterdam, at La Scala, the Met (three performances) and at Covent Garden.

His very first role was Lenskij, but generally, he was drawn to the dramatic repertory, and his favorite role was German. He further sang Pierre Bezukhov, Otello, Florestan, Canio, Grigorij, Manrico, Vladimir Igorevich, José, Lohengrin, Radames, Golitsyn, Alvaro or Énée.

After his career, he became a voice teacher at Herzen University in St. Petersburg.

Reference 1, Reference 2, Reference 3

A surprise recording by Alexei Steblianko: Dragana Jugović del Monaco (once married to Mario Del Monaco's son Claudio, hence the name) was the star of the Belgrade Opera for many years, and actually quite a fine mezzosoprano... except when being heavily drunk... This is from a gala concert broadcast live by Serbian TV. She was hardly able to stand upright, but didn't mysteriously slip off the text. Steblianko does an amazingly unperturbed job, and goes on singing (and even really well) as if nothing was wrong with his partner. The applause (which is not overwhelming, though) may have been meant for Steblianko, who is actually good here. But I don't absolutely understand what the conductor did. And not just the conductor: there must have been a concert manager, a complete TV crew, lots of people who could have intervened, and backstage already. It's simply incredible that they all let her step out on the podium and go on as if nothing happened. They didn't stop the live broadcast; it was seen, and heard, completely on Serbian TV. One of the funniest recordings I ever came across.
If this would have happened at the Marseille Opéra, when it was still a great house, there would have been no more vegetables available for sale the next day.

Picture source

I wish to thank Georges Cardol for the recording (Otello).