Violetta Urmana

Soprano

Soprano / Mezzo-soprano

Violeta Urmana was first acknowledged as a mezzo-soprano and became world famous for her interpretation of roles such as Kundry in Wagner’s Parsifal and Eboli in Verdi’s Don Carlo. Besides many other parts she sang these two roles in nearly all important opera houses and with conductors like Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Betrand de Billy, Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Chailly, James Conlon, Marek Janowski, James Levine, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Sir Simon Rattle, Donald Runnicles, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Christian Thielemann, Franz Welser-Mцst ...

Her debut in the part of Sieglinde in Wagner’s Die Walkьre at the Bayreuth Festival was a first step towards soprano repertoire, in December 2002 she opened the season of Teatro alla Scala in Milan in the title role of Iphigйnie en Aulide conducted by Riccardo Muti.

Since then she made several highly successful debuts as a soprano: Maddalena in Giordano’s Andrea Chйnier in Vienna, Lady in Verdi’s Macbeth in Sevilla, Isolde in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in Rome with Accademia di Santa Cecilia, the title role of Ponchielli’sLa Gioconda and Leonora in Verdi’s La Forza del Destino in London. 2005 she debuted in the title roles of Tosca in Florence, ofAriadne auf Naxos at the New York Metropolitan Opera and of La Wally at the Vienna Konzerthaus. She had a huge success in her debuts in the title role of Norma in Dresden, as Elisabetta in Verdi’s Don Carlo in Turin, as Aida at Teatro alla Scala in Milan as Amelia in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera in Florence, 2008 with her first fully staged Tristan und Isolde with Paris Opera in Tokyo and Kobe and in the title role of Gluck’s Iphigйnie en Tauride in Valencia. In 2010 she made her highly acclaimed debut in the part of Odabella in Verdi’s Attila conducted by Riccardo Muti at the Met, 2012 she added the title role of Cherubin’s Medea in Valencia under Zubin Mehta to her repertoire.

In 2013 she made her debut as Brьnnhilde in a concert performance of Siegfried in Berlin conducted by Marek Janowski.

As a concert and recital singer Violeta Urmana performs a large repertoire from Johann Sebastian Bach to Alban Berg in all important music centres in Europe, the United States and Japan. In 2012 she performed for the first time the part of ‘Tove in Schцnberg’s Gurre-Lieder at the Vienna Musikverein unter Zubin Mehta.

Violeta Urmana has recorded the title role of La Gioconda conducted by Marcello Viotti, excerpts from Tristan und Isolde and fromGцtterdдmmerung conducted by Antonio Pappano, Azucena in Verdi’s Il Trovatore conducted by Riccardo Muti, Cuniza in Verdi’sOberto conducted by Sir Neville Marriner, Beethoven’s 9^th symphony conducted by Claudio Abbado, Berlioz’ La mort de Clйopвtreconducted by Bertrand de Billy, Zemlinsky’s Maeterlinck-Lieder and Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol conducted by James Conlon, Mahler’s 2^nd symphony conducted by Kazushi Ono, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and Rьckert-Lieder conducted by Pierre Boulez, a song recital as well as a Puccini recital conducted by Alberto Veronesi.

Many of her opera productions have been documented on DVD, in Tony Palmer's film The Search for the Holy Grail she took the role of Kundry.

In 2002 in London she received the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Award for singers.

In December 2009 she was awarded the title Kammersдngerin at Vienna State Opera.

Among future projects of Violeta Urmana are La Gioconda in Paris, Cavalleria rusticana in St. Petersburg, Tristan und Isolde in London, Madrid and Paris, Amneris in Aida at the Arena di Verona and in New York, Tosca in Vienna, Eboli in Don Carlo in Vienna and Berlin as well as many concerts throughout Europe.