Elīna Garanča
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 a significant competition in Finland and had begun a career in Europe. Worldwide engagements followed her 2003 Salzburg Festival appearances.
Early life and education
Elīna Garanča was born in the Latvian city of Riga into a musical family: her father was a choral director, and her mother Anita was a lieder singer, a professor at the Latvian Academy of Music, an associate professor at the Latvian Academy of Culture, a vocal music teacher at the Latvian National Opera, and also a private voice tutor.Career in opera
She entered the Latvian Academy of Music in 1996 to study singing with Sergej Martinov. She continued her studies in Vienna with Irina Gavrilovici and in the United States with Virginia Zeani. Garanča began her professional career at the Meiningen Court Theatre, Meiningen, Germany in 1998, and later worked at the Frankfurt Opera. In 1999, she won the Mirjam Helin Singing Competition in Helsinki, Finland.Garanča's international breakthrough came in 2003 at the Salzburger Festspiele when she sang Annio in a production of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Major engagements followed quickly, such as Charlotte in Werther, Dorabella in Così fan tutte at the Vienna State Opera and Dorabella in a Paris production directed by Patrice Chéreau. In 2006, she returned to La clemenza di Tito, this time singing the part of Sesto. On 12 January 2008 Garanča made her company and house debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in the role of Rosina in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia. Of her debut, Bernard Holland wrote in The New York Times: "Ms. Garanca is the real thing... Modern singing techniques adapt with difficulty to Rossini's early-19th-century emphasis on speed, lightness and athletic articulation, and Ms. Garanca was the only one onstage sounding completely comfortable. The lyric passages sang out; the episodes of racecourse delivery were fully in hand". Garanča sang the leading role of Georges Bizet's Carmen in the 2010 production of the Metropolitan Opera. In the opening concert of the 2011 Rheingau Musik Festival in the Eberbach Abbey she performed Alban Berg's Sieben frühe Lieder with the hr-Sinfonieorchester, conducted by Paavo Järvi.
In May 2018 Garanča made her stage role debut as Dalila in Camille Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila at Wiener Staatsoper conducted by Marco Armiliato.
Awards and honours
- 1999: First Place: Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition
- 2000: Latvian Great Music Award
- 2001: Finalist: Cardiff BBC Singer of the World Competition
- 2005: Nominated: Grammy Award for the recording of Bajazet
- 2006: MIDEM Classical Award: "Best Opera", recording of Vivaldi's Bajazet with Fabio Biondi, conductor; Patrizia Ciofi, David Daniels, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, Vivica Genaux and Marijana Mijanovic.
- 2006: European Culture Prize in Music awarded by the Pro Europa / European Foundation for Culture
- 2007: Echo Klassik Award: "Singer of the Year" for the solo CD "Aria Cantilena"
- 2007: Three-Star Order: awarded by the Latvian State
- 2009: Echo Klassik Award: "Singer of the Year"
- 2010: Musical America Award: "Vocalist of the Year"
- 2010: MIDEM Classical Award: "Singer of the Year"
- 2010: Latvian Great Music Award
- 2013: Austrian Kammersängerin
- 2013: Echo Klassik Award: "Best Solo Recording of the Year",. Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, cond. Yves Abel
- 2015: Echo Klassik Award: "Solo recording of the year"
- 2018: Rigan of the Year
- 2019: Latvian Excellence Award in Culture.
Repertoire
Year | Composer | Opera | Role | Location |
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | La clemenza di Tito | Annio | ||
Pietro Mascagni | Cavalleria rusticana | Lola | ||
Pietro Mascagni | Cavalleria rusticana | Santuzza | ||
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Le nozze di Figaro | Cherubino | ||
Richard Strauss | Der Rosenkavalier | Octavian | ||
Jules Massenet | Werther | Charlotte | ||
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Così fan tutte | Dorabella | ||
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | La clemenza di Tito | Sesto | ||
Gioachino Rossini | The Barber of Seville | Rosina | ||
Gioachino Rossini | La Cenerentola | Angelina | ||
Georges Bizet | Carmen | Carmen | ||
Vincenzo Bellini | I Capuleti e i Montecchi | Romeo | ||
2011 | Gaetano Donizetti | Anna Bolena | Giovanna Seymour | Wiener Staatsoper |
2016 | Gaetano Donizetti | Roberto Devereux | Sara | Metropolitan Opera |
Gaetano Donizetti | La favorite | Léonor de Guzman | ||
Hector Berlioz | Les Troyens | Didon | ||
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Don Giovanni | Donna Elvira | ||
Jules Massenet | La Navarraise | Anita | ||
Johann Strauss | Die Fledermaus | Orlofsky | ||
Jacques Offenbach | Contes d'Hoffmann | Nicklausse | ||
Vincenzo Bellini | Norma | Adalgisa | ||
Giuseppe Verdi | Don Carlos | Eboli | ||
Giuseppe Verdi | Falstaff | Meg Page | ||
Hector Berlioz | La damnation de Faust | Marguerite | ||
Gaetano Donizetti | Anna Bolena | Giovanna Seymour | ||
2018 | Camille Saint-Saëns | Samson et Dalila | Dalila | Vienna State Opera |
Recordings
Her recordings include the Grammy Award winning Bajazet conducted by Fabio Biondi, in which she sang the role of Andronico. In 2005, Garanča signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon.Other audio recordings include:
- I Capuleti e i Montecchi by Vincenzo Bellini
- Norma by Vincenzo Bellini
- Il barbiere di Siviglia by Gioachino Rossini
- Arie Favorite, Ondine
- Habanera, Deutsche Grammophon
- Aria Cantilena, Deutsche Grammophon
- Mozart: Opera and Concert Arias, EMI Classics
- Bel Canto, Deutsche Grammophon
- Romantique, Deutsche Grammophon
- The Opera Gala: Live from Baden-Baden ft. Anna Netrebko, Ramón Vargas, and Ludovic Tézier
- Elina: The Best of Elina Garanča, Deutsche Grammophon
- Revive: Elina Garanca and Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana and Roberto Abbado, Deutsche Grammophon
- Anna Bolena by Donizetti. Recording from Vienna State Opera
- La cenerentola by Gioachino Rossini
- Carmen by Georges Bizet
Personal life