Yuri Kissin was born in Perm (Russia). After starting his career in Israel, he moved to France and spent a couple of years at the Paris Opera Studio (formerly named Centre de Formation Lyrique). He was then invited back to take part in many productions both on the stages of the Opéra Bastille and the Palais Garnier: War and Peace, Tosca, Parsifal, « K » by Philippe Manoury, Don Carlos, Boris Godounov, Evgeny Onegin, La Traviata, Capriccio, Ariadne auf Naxos, Lulu, Dialogues des Carmélites, Madame Butterfly, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Salomé, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Ariane et Barbe Bleue, Rigoletto, Macbeth, Billy Budd, Francesca da Rimini, Gianni Schicchi, La Cerisaie and Khovantschina.

 

In the past seasons, he made his debut at the Sydney Opera (Leporello from Don Giovanni in 2023) and sang at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Montpellier, Toulouse, Rennes, Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand, Toulon, Dijon, Bordeaux, Limoges, Nancy, Nantes, Metz, Nice, and abroad in Madrid, Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem, Moscow, Perm, Amsterdam, Maribor, Monte-Carlo as well as at the Royal Opera House in Denmark and in Sweden. He sang in the Festivals of Aix-en-Provence, Lacoste, Antibes, Chartres, Sédières... He also sang with most of the prominent Parisian Orchestras. 

 

His repertoire includes such roles as Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro), Leporello and Masetto (Don Giovanni), Don Alfonso (Cosí fan tutte), Basilio and Bartolo (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Haly (L’Italiana in Algeri), Don Magnifico and Alidoro (La Cenerentola), Frère Laurent (Roméo et Juliette), Colline (La Bohème)… as well as many comprimari.

 

He sang Bartolo from Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Toulouse) and from Le Nozze di Figaro (Avignon, Tel-Aviv), Zaretsky from Evgeny Onegin (Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Toulouse), Johann from Werther (Bordeaux, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées), Haly from L'Italiana in Algeri, Hermann and Luther from Les Contes d'Hoffmann then Ferrando from Il Trovatore (Tel-Aviv), Monterone from Rigoletto (Jerusalem), Hermann and Schlémil from Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Monte-Carlo), Colline from La Bohème (Massy), Escamillo from Carmen (Haifa), Der Sprecher from Die Zauberflöte and Raimondo from Lucia di Lammermoor (Williamsburg), Truffaldino from Ariadne auf Naxos (Toulouse, Tel-Aviv), Varlaam from Boris Godunov (Toulouse, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées), Grenvil from La Traviata (Marseille), Sciarrone from Tosca (Dijon), le Second Commissaire / l'Officier from Dialogues des Carmélites (Théâtre des Champs Elysées), Benoît / Alcindoro from La Bohème (Avignon), Quinault from Adrianna Lecouvreur (Toulouse). In the concert field, he sang Albert from Les Folies Amoureuses by Castil-Blaze in Avignon and Leporello from Don Giovanni with the Sinfonietta Beer-Sheva.​

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For season 2025-2026, he is a regular performer at the Israeli Opera in Tel-Aviv where he takes part in such productions as Iolanta (cover as Bertrand), The Dybbuk by Yosef Bardanashvili (cover as Sender), Salome (Erste Nazarener) and Tosca (Il Sagrestano) and takes over Il Barone Douphol from La Traviata in Montpellier. Concert-wise, he sings in Der Kaiser von Atlantis (Der Tod and Der Lautsprecher) with the Ensemble Meitar and Don Pasquale with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.