Agnes Baltsa |

Agnes Baltsa

She made her debut in 1968 (Frankfurt, part of Cherubino). She sang at the Vienna Opera from 1970, in 1974 she sang the part of Dorabella in “Everybody Does It So” on the stage of La Scala. Since 1976 in Covent Garden, she made a big tour of the USA with Karajan in the same year. She sang many times at the Salzburg Festival (1977, the part of Eboli in the opera Don Carlos; 1983, the part of Octavian in The Rosenkavalier; 1985, the part of Carmen). In 1979 she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Octavian. Great success accompanied Balts in 1985 at La Scala (Romeo in Bellini’s Capulets and Montagues). In 1996, she sang the title role in Giordano’s Fedora at the Vienna Opera. The singer’s repertoire is varied. Among the roles of Isabella in Rossini’s Italian Girl in Algiers, Rosina, Delilah, Orpheus in Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice, Olga and others.

The singing of Balts is distinguished by a special temperament and expression. Made a lot of recordings. Among them are the title roles in Carmen (Deutsche Grammophon, conducted by Levine), Samson and Delilah (Philips, conducted by Davies), one of the best versions of the opera The Italian Girl in Algiers (Isabella, conducted by Abbado, Deutsche Grammophon), the part of Romeo in “Capulets and Montagues” (conductor Muti, EMI).

E. Tsodokov, 1999