Violeta Urmana

Born in Lithuania, Violeta Urmana is one of today’s most acclaimed operatic singers, appearing in a wide repertoire. She began her career as a dramatic mezzo-soprano, when her interpretations of Kundry (Parsifal) and Princess Eboli (Don Carlos) soon led to worldwide fame.

She then became a dramatic soprano, appearing in roles such as Amelia (Un ballo in maschera), Elisabetta (Don Carlos), Leonora (La forza del destino), Lady Macbeth (Macbeth), Odabella (Attila), the titel roles in Aida, Tosca, Norma, Ariadne auf Naxos as well as Isolde (Tristan und Isolde), Brünnhilde (Siegfried) and Sieglinde (Die Walküre). In 2015, she returned to the mezzo-soprano repertoire.

She is a regular guest at the world’s leading concert halls and opera houses, including La Scala, Milan, the Berlin State Opera and Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Vienna State Opera, the Paris Opéra, the Metropolitan Opera, New York, the Liceu in Barcelona, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and the Bayreuth, Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence and Edinburgh Festivals, as well as the BBC Proms.

Her recent projects include Azucena (Il trovatore) in Berlin, Milan, Naples, Amsterdam, Genoa and Verona, Amneris (Aida) in Milan, Boston, Vienna, Madrid, Hong Kong and New York, Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana) in New York, Naples and Beijing, Isolde in Berlin and Madrid, the Verdi Requiem in Barcelona, Frankfurt and Dortmund, Jocasta (Oedipus Rex) in Stockholm and Eboli in Valencia, as well as concerts in Boston, Madrid, Dortmund, Leipzig, Cologne, Essen, Berlin, Helsinki and Rotterdam.

Future plans include Klytaemnestra (Elektra) in Toulouse, Hamburg and Vienna, Duenna (Betrothal in a Monastery) in Amsterdam, Kostelnička (Jenůfa) in Vienna and Amneris in Hamburg.

Violeta Urmana has recorded a great number of her operatic roles and concert repertoire on both CD and DVD. She has received numerous awards, including the Royal Philharmonic Society Award, and been named Kammersängerin in Vienna, Commander Order of the Star of Italy in 2014 and a UNESCO Artist for Peace in 2016, as well as receiving the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas and an honorary doctorate from the University of Music and Theatre in Vilnius in her homeland.