Violeta Urmana |

Violet Falls

Violeta Urmana was born in Lithuania. Initially, she performed as a mezzo-soprano and gained worldwide fame by singing the roles of Kundry in Wagner’s Parsifal and Eboli in Verdi’s Don Carlos. She performed these roles in almost all the major opera houses of the world under the direction of such conductors as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Bertrand de Billy, Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Chailly, James Conlon, James Levine, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Meta, Simon Rattle, Donald Runnicles, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Christian Thielemann and Franz Welser-Möst.

After her first performance at the Bayreuth Festival as Sieglinde (The Valkyrie), Violeta Urmana made her debut as a soprano at the opening of the season at La Scala, singing the part of Iphigenia (Iphigenia en Aulis, conducted by Riccardo Muti).

After that, the singer performed with great success in Vienna (Madeleine in André Chénier by Giordano), Seville (Lady Macbeth in Macbeth), Rome (Isolde in a concert performance of Tristan and Isolde), London (the main role in La Gioconda) Ponchielli and Leonora in The Force of Destiny), Florence and Los Angeles (the title role in Tosca), as well as at the New York Metropolitan Opera (Ariadne auf Naxos) and the Vienna Concert Hall (Valli).

In addition, the singer’s special achievements include performances as Aida (Aida, La Scala), Norma (Norma, Dresden), Elizabeth (Don Carlos, Turin) and Amelia (Un ballo in maschera, Florence ). In 2008, she participated in the full version of “Tristan und Isolde” in Tokyo and Kobe and sang the title role in “Iphigenia in Taurida” in Valencia.

Violeta Urmana has a wide concert repertoire, including works by many composers, from Bach to Berg, and performs in all major musical centers in Europe, Japan and the United States.

The singer’s discography includes recordings of the operas Gioconda (leading role, conductor – Marcello Viotti), Il trovatore (Azucena, conductor – Riccardo Muti), Oberto, Comte di San Bonifacio (Marten, conductor – Neville Marriner), The Death of Cleopatra “(conductor – Bertrand de Billy) and “The Nightingale” (conductor – James Conlon), as well as recordings of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (conductor – Claudio Abbado), Zemlinsky’s songs to the words of Maeterlinck, Mahler’s Second Symphony (conductor – Kazushi Ono), Mahler’s songs to the words of Ruckert and his “Songs of the Earth” (conductor – Pierre Boulez), fragments of the operas “Tristan and Isolde” and “Death of the Gods” (conductor – Antonio Pappano).

In addition, Violeta Urmana played the role of Kundry in Tony Palmer’s film In Search of the Holy Grail.

In 2002, the singer received the prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society award in London, and in 2009 Violeta Urmana was awarded the honorary title of “Kammersängerin” in Vienna.

Source: website of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic