Russian bass Maxim Mikhailov died on Wednesday at the age of 56. Born in Moscow in an opera family – his grandfather Maxim Mikhailov was one of the best ever Russian basses – Mikhailov won the Glinka Vocal Competition in 1987 and became a member of the Bolshoi Theatre in his hometown.
In 1994, he was invited to perform the role of Boris Godunov at the Easter Festival in Salzburg under Claudio Abbado, and subsequently sang at the Royal Opera House in London, at La Monnaie in Brussels, at the Opera de Paris, at the Barcelona’s Liceu, at La Scala in Milan and many other opera houses with such conductors as Antonio Pappano, Mikhail Jurowski, James Conlon and Vladimir Jurowski.
