Elīna Garanča Mezzo-soprano

Elīna Garanča was born in Riga. She won the Mirjam Helin Competition in 1999 and was a finalist in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in 2001. Her career took on an international dimension after appearing at the Salzburg Festival for the first time in 2003 in the role of Annio in La Clemenza di Tito. She is invited regularly to sing at some of the world’s most famous opera houses where she performs the great roles of Mozart as well as numerous roles in the bel canto and romantic repertoire. Since September 2005, she has recorded exclusively with Deutsche Grammophon. Her first solo album, Aria cantilena, received the distinguished Echo Klassik “Singer of the Year Award” in 2007 as did her next three albums, Romantique in 2012, Méditation in 2015 and Sol y Vida in 2019. In 2010 she was named “Musical America’s Vocalist of the Year” and also received the Echo Klassik Female Singer of the Year Award. She has given numerous recitals and concerts including Verdi’s Requiem at La Scala in Milan alongside Anja Harteros, Jonas Kaufmann and René Pape, with Daniel Barenboim conducting. She performs regularly at the Vienna Staatsoper, where, in 2013, she became one of the youngest singers to receive the title of “Kammersängerin”. Her roster of roles at that theatre include Carmen, Sesto, Giovanna Seymour (Anna Bolena), Charlotte and Oktavian (Der Rosenkavalier). She made her debut appearance at London’s Royal Opera House in the title role of Carmen—a role she also played in a new production at the New York Metropolitan Opera which was broadcast in cinemas around the world. Over the last few seasons, she has sung the roles of Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana) and Eboli (Don Carlos) at the Paris opera and Dalila (Samson et Dalila) at the New York Metropolitan Opera. She has appeared in La Favorite at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and in Der Rosenkavalier at the Metropolitan Opera. During the 2019-2020, she sang the roles of Dalila at the Berlin Staatsoper, Eboli (in the Italian version of Don Carlo) at the Bayerische Staatsoper and London’s Royal Opera House, Marguerite (La Damnation de Faust) at the New York Metropolitan Opera, and the Wesendonck Lieder at the Salzburg Festival under the direction of Christian Thielemann.