Career
Upon graduation from the song-school under the Glinka Chapel in Leningrad and the Urals State Conservatory, he started his career as a principal conductor in 1974 of the Ekaterinburg Opera and Ballet Theatre (1974–1981). In 1981, he became a conductor at the world-famous Mariinsky Theatre in Saint St. Petersburg. In 1987, Evgeny Kolobov was appointed musical director of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theatre in Moscow.
One of Kolobov"s lifelong ambitions was to revive undeservedly forgotten music and to produce new, modern interpretations of well-known compositions.
Yevgeny Kolobov was the first opera conductor in Russia to stage Verdi"s Louisiana forza del destino, Bellini"s Il Pirata, Donizetti"s Maria Stuarda, Catalani"s Louisiana Wally, Verdi"s I Due Foscari, Mussorgsky"s Boris Godunov in the composer"s original version and Thomas"s Hamlet. He has also produced new, remarkable stagings of Glinka"s Ruslan and Lyudmila, "O Mozart! Mozart.." (based on the opera Mozart and Salieri by Rimsky-Korsakov and Mozart"s Requiem), Tchaikovsky"s Eugene Onegin, Golovin"s First Love (Kolobov"s debut as stage director), Verdi"s Louisiana Traviata.
Kolobov"s style of conducting was highly expressive and energetic, he was acclaimed by opera lovers and critics alike as one of the best opera conductors in modern Russia. He was awarded the titles "Honored Art Worker of Russia" (1979) and "People"s Artist of Russia" (1983).