Violeta Urmana
Born in Lithuania, KS Violeta Urmana is one of the foremost opera singers of our time. Her wide-ranging repertoire spans both opera and concert/song, with a particular affinity for the German and Italian repertoire.
She began her career with dramatic mezzo-soprano roles such as Azucena, Amneris, Didon, Santuzza, Fricka, Judith, Brangäne, Adalgisa and Fidès. After transitioning from mezzo-soprano to dramatic soprano, she spent more than a decade performing roles including Amelia in Un ballo in maschera, Elisabeth in Don Carlo, Leonora in La forza del destino, Lady Macbeth, Odabella in Attila, Isolde in Tristan und Isolde, La Gioconda, Medea, Aida, Tosca, Norma, La Wally, Ariadne, as well as Brünnhilde (Siegfried) and Sieglinde.
Since 2015, Violeta Urmana has returned to her original mezzo repertoire, enriching it with new roles. She is a regular guest at the world’s leading opera houses, including Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Staatsoper Unter den Linden and Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro Real in Madrid, the Vienna State Opera, Opéra national de Paris, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London. She has also appeared at the festivals in Bayreuth, Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence, Edinburgh, and at the BBC Proms.
Most recently, she has appeared in Il trovatore in Berlin, Milan, Naples, Amsterdam, Genoa and the Arena di Verona; in Aida in Milan, Boston, Vienna, Madrid, Hong Kong and at the Metropolitan Opera New York; in Cavalleria rusticana in New York, Naples and Beijing; in Tristan und Isolde in Berlin and Madrid; the Verdi Requiem in Barcelona, Frankfurt and Dortmund; in Oedipus Rex in Stockholm; in Don Carlo in Valencia; in Elektra in Toulouse, Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden and Munich; and in Salome in Madrid, among others.
Her numerous distinctions include the Royal Philharmonic Society Award in London, the title Österreichische Kammersängerin, and the Commander of the Order of the Star of Italy (2014). Since 2016, Violeta Urmana has been a UNESCO Artist for Peace. In 2012 she received an honorary doctorate from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in Vilnius. Her home country has also awarded her the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas and, more recently, the Grand Cross of the Order for Merits to Lithuania.
Her current and upcoming engagements include War and Peace in Munich, Elektra in Hamburg and Copenhagen, Salomein Hamburg, Suor Angelica and Götterdämmerung in Berlin, and Pique Dame in Munich and New York.
She made her debut at the Vienna State Opera in 1996 as Eboli and has since appeared there as Santuzza, Léonor (La Favorite), Adriano, Isolde, Azucena, Fidès, Kundry, Maddalena (Andrea Chénier), Leonora (La forza del destino), Fricka, Tosca and in the Verdi Requiem.