Marina Poplavskaya

[2] Born in Moscow and educated at the Ippolitov-Ivanov State Music Institute there with professor Peter Tarasov,[1] she sang in the children's chorus of the Bolshoi Theatre from the age of 10.

[2] At the Royal Opera she went on to greater success from 2007, when she performed as Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni, when as part of the young artists program she was an understudy cover in this production and had to step in for an ailing Anna Netrebko,[2] and Elisabeth de Valois in Nicholas Hytner's new production of Verdi's Don Carlo, which premiered in London in June 2008.

Richard Fairman, reviewing the performance of 10 August for Opera, wrote "... Marina Poplavskaya’s Desdemona properly fitted the bill, looking a mere slip of a girl and sounding lovely.

[3] In June 2011 Poplavskaya joined the tour at short notice to sing Elisabetta in Don Carlo, after Barbara Frittoli vacated the role in order to replace Netrebko as Mimì in Puccini's La bohème.

[10] Vivian Schweitzer, reviewing the performance for The New York Times, wrote that "Poplavskaya lacks the voluptuous sound of Anna Netrebko, who sang the role of Tatiana on opening night, but offered a more arresting portrayal dramatically.