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Elīna Garanča
Mezzo-Soprano (lyric)
Born September 16, 1976 in Riga, Latvia (50 years old)
Opera
Elīna Garanča is a Latvian mezzo-soprano. She began to study singing in her hometown of Riga in 1996 and continued her studies in Vienna and in the United States. By 1999 she had won first place in the Mirjam Helin Singing Competition in Helsinki and had begun a career in Europe. Worldwide engagements followed her 2003 Salzburg Festival appearances.
Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0
6 Signature Roles8 Principal Houses
Spotlight
Career Trajectory
From her student debut as Giovanna Seymour in Donizetti's Anna Bolena at the Latvian National Opera, Elīna Garanča ascended through the German regional opera system before achieving international breakthrough at the 2003 Salzburg Festival. Her career trajectory has been marked by increasingly prominent engagements at the world's leading houses—the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, and Bavarian State Opera—where her rich, velvety mezzo-soprano voice and commanding stage presence have made her the defining interpreter of the dramatic mezzo repertoire of her generation. Today, she stands as one of the most sought-after mezzi in the world, celebrated equally for her iconic Carmen and her depth in the Romantic and contemporary operatic canon.
Career Highlight
Named Kammersängerin by the Vienna State Opera (May 2013), one of the youngest recipients of this honor; New York Times hailed her Metropolitan Opera Carmen as 'the finest Carmen in 25 years,' with the production broadcast to over one thousand cinemas worldwide
Training & Education
Latvian Academy of Music (1996–); studied in Vienna with Irina Gavrilovich; studied in the United States with Virginia Zeani
Engagements
Verified past & upcoming performances
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Available Performances
Additional recordings will appear here as the catalog expands.