Inva Mula |

Inva Mula

Inva Mula was born on June 27, 1963 in Tirana, Albania, her father Avni Mula is a famous Albanian singer and composer, her daughter’s name – Inva is a reverse reading of her father’s name. She studied vocal and piano in her hometown, first at a music school, then at the conservatory under the guidance of her mother, Nina Mula. In 1987, Inva won the “Singer of Albania” competition in Tirana, in 1988 – at the George Enescu International Competition in Bucharest. The debut on the opera stage took place in 1990 at the Opera and Ballet Theater in Tirana with the role of Leila in “Pearl Seekers” by J. Bizet. Soon Inva Mula left Albania and got a job as a singer in the choir of the Paris National Opera (Bastille Opera and Opera Garnier). In 1992, Inva Mula received first prize at the Butterfly Competition in Barcelona.

The main success, after which fame came to her, was a prize at the first Placido Domingo Operalia competition in Paris in 1993. The final gala concert of this competition was held at the Opéra Garnier, and a CD was released. Tenor Placido Domingo with the winners of the competition, including Inva Mula, repeated this program at the Bastille Opera, as well as in Brussels, Munich and Oslo. This tour attracted attention to her, and the singer began to be invited to perform at various opera houses around the world.

The range of roles of Inva Mula is wide enough, she sings Verdi’s Gilda in “Rigoletto”, Nanette in “Falstaff” and Violetta in “La Traviata”. Other roles include: Michaela in Carmen, Antonia in The Tales of Hoffmann, Musetta and Mimi in La bohème, Rosina in The Barber of Seville, Nedda in The Pagliacci, Magda and Lisette in The Swallow, and many others.

Inva Mula’s career continues successfully, she regularly performs at European and world opera houses, including La Scala in Milan, the Vienna State Opera, the Arena di Verona, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera, the Los Angeles Opera, as well as theaters in Tokyo, Barcelona, Toronto, Bilbao and others.

Inva Mula chose Paris as her home, and is now considered more of a French singer than an Albanian one. She constantly performs in French theaters in Toulouse, Marseille, Lyon and, of course, in Paris. In 2009/10 Inva Mula opened the Paris Opera season at the Opéra Bastille, starring in Charles Gounod’s rarely performed Mireille.

Inva Mula has released several albums as well as television and video recordings of her performances on DVD, including the operas La bohème, Falstaff and Rigoletto. A recording of the opera The Swallow with conductor Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra in 1997 won the Grammafon Award for “Best Recording of the Year”.

Until the mid-1990s, Inva Mula was married to Albanian singer and composer Pirro Tchako and at the beginning of her career used either her husband’s surname or the double surname Mula-Tchako, after the divorce she began to use only her first name – Inva Mula.

Inva Mula, outside the operatic stage, made a name for herself by voicing the role of Diva Plavalaguna (a tall blue-skinned alien with eight tentacles) in Jean-Luc Besson’s fantasy film The Fifth Element, starring Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich. The singer sang the aria “Oh fair sky!.. Sweet sound” (Oh, giusto cielo!.. Il dolce suono) from the opera “Lucia di Lammermoor” by Gaetano Donizetti and the song “Diva’s Dance”, in which, most likely, the voice was subjected to electronically processed to achieve a height impossible for a human, although the filmmakers claim the opposite. Director Luc Besson wanted the voice of his favorite singer, Maria Callas, to be used in the film, but the quality of the available recordings was not good enough to be used on the film’s soundtrack, and Inva Mula was brought in to provide the voice.