Yuri Alexandrov studied piano and direction at the "Rimskij-Korsakov" Conservatory in his native city, Saint Petersburg.

In 1977 he became a permanent director at the Teatro Mariinskij where he staged Don Pasquale by Donizetti conducted by the very young Valery Gergiev. Included in his vast repertoire are the direction of The Fair by Sorocincy, of The Wedding by Mussorgskij, Mavra by Stravinskij and Don Giovanni by Mozart while for his Italian repertoire he staged Aida and Don Carlo by Verdi and Madama Butterfly by Puccini.

In 1987 he founded a Theatre, the St Petersburg Opera, for which he created more than twenty performances, among which Boris Godunov, Evgenij Onegin, Rigoletto and I Giocatori by Šostakovic. His productions won for him the "Zhalatoy Sofit" prize for the best performance of the year in Saint Petersburg.

His collaboration is frequently requested abroad: in Turkey, where he staged Otello, Lohengrin, Il Principe Igor at the Opera Theatre in Ankara, Evgenij Onegin, Werther by Massenet and Le Convenienze e inconvenienze teatrali by Donizetti in Smirne.

Subsequently he worked with the Opera Theatre in Minsk (Rigoletto, Il Principe Igor and Les Contes d'Hoffman), Samara, where he staged Maddalena by Prokofiev, Sverdlovsk with whom he collaborated for the direction of Il Trovatore, Il Campanello and Rita by Donizetti and finally Novosibirsk for Kálmán's operettas.

He then dedicated his time to the direction of cinema staging Mozart's La Finta giardiniera, Kashej l'immortale by Rimskij-Korsakov, Il Campanello and L'Heure Espagnole by Ravel.

In 1998 he won the "Maschera d'Oro" prize for the best performance of the year in Russia, dedicated to the poet Reiner Maria Rilke. Among his latest productions were Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Carlo at the Marinskij Theatre and Semyon Kotko by Prokofiev for the 1999 edition of the White Nights Festival in Saint Petersburg.

Recently he was very successful with the public and the critics with the direction of the opera Cherevichki by Tchaikovsky at the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari and he also directed Don Giovanni at the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona. In 2003 he will direct Turandot at the Arena di Verona.

October 2002