The Russian mezzo-soprano Larisa Kostyuk completed her studies at the Gnessin Music Institute in 1993 and at the Moscow State University of Culture in 1997. She received two gold medals in opera at the First World Championship of Performing Arts in Los Angeles. Since 1995 she is a soloist at the Helikon Opera in Moscow and in the 1998–99 season was seen in the world premiere of the mono-opera “Eva” by Josef Bardanashvili. This production received the innovation prize from the Russian Golden Mask theater prize. Larisa Kostyuk has performed as a guest in Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Israel, Lebanon, China, the United States, and Canada. She has mastered a large number of mezzo-soprano roles in the international opera repertoire, including Carmen (“Carmen”, Bizet), Azucena (“Il trovatore”, Verdi), Countess Geschwitz (“Lulu”, Berg), Sesto (“La clemenza di Tito”, Mozart), Niklausse (“Les contes d’Hoffmann”, Offenbach), Misses Quickly (“Falstaff”, Verdi), Fenena (“Nabucco”, Verdi), Lyubasha (“The Czar’s Bride”, Rimsky-Korsakov), Marina Mnishek (“Boris Godunov”, Mussorgsky), and Olga (“Eugene Onegin”, Tchaikovsky).