Elīna Garanča

Elīna Garanča was born in Riga in 1976 into a musical family. In 1996 she entered the Latvian Academy of Music in Riga. One of her most formative experiences came in 1998 while she was still a student: with only ten days´ notice, she performed the role of Giovanna Seymour in Anna Bolena and uncovered a deep affinity with the bel canto repertoire. After graduation she joined the Meiningen Staatstheater in Germany where she appeared in roles including Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier. In 1999 she also sang the role of Maddalena in Verdi´s Rigoletto at the Savonlinna Opera Festival and won the Mirjam Helin Singing Competition in Finland.

In 2000, she won the  Latvian Great Music Award and one year later she became a finalist of the BBC´s Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. In 2003, she made her debut at the Vienna State Opera: Lola in Cavalleria rusticana, and at Salzburg Festival as Annio in La clemenza di Tito. Since then she has been a repeated welcome guest in these venues as well as all major European opera stages. One year later, she sings Bellini´s Adalgisa (with Edita Gruberova as Norma) at Baden-Baden, Rossini´s Ceneren¬tola in Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. In 2006 she received the European Culture Prize during a gala at the Semper Opera in Dresden which was broadcast on German television. At the same year, she triumphs as Octavian at the Vienna State Opera and as Sesto in La clemenza di Tito at Vienna´s Theater an der Wien.

In 2007 Elīna Garanča appears in three gala concerts with Anna Netrebko, Ramón Vargas, Ludovic Tézier, and the SWR Symphony Orchestra under Marco Armiliato, the third of which is broadcast on German television to an audience of over two million and recorded live for audio and video release. Her first solo recording for Deutsche Grammophon, Aria cantilena, with highlights from some of her celebrated operatic roles is released to great critical acclaim (Echo Award 2007); the release is supported by a German tour with this repertoire together with the Munich Symphony Orchestra under Heiko Mathias Förster. Elīna Garanča is awarded the Three-Star Order by the Latvian State.

The year of 2008 begins with Garanča´s sensational Met debut as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia. She gives her role debut as Romeo in concert performances of Bellini´s I Capuleti e i Montecchi in Riga, Latvia and repeats the role in Vienna alongside Anna Netrebko, with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra under Fabio Luisi (Deutsche Grammophon, 2009). Last year belonged mainly to Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier at the Vienna State Opera, Romeo in Bellini´s I Capuleti e i Montecchi and Carmen at Covent Garden, Angelina in Rossini´s La Cenerentola at the Met, and Charlotte in Massenet´s Werther in Vienna and Baden-Baden with Rolando Villazón.