Elīna Garanča

Elīna Garanča was born in the Latvian city of Riga into a musical family: her father was a choral director, and her mother Anita was a lieder singer,[1][2][3] a professor at the Latvian Academy of Music, an associate professor at the Latvian Academy of Culture, a vocal music teacher at the Latvian National Opera, and also a private voice tutor.[4][5]

She entered the Latvian Academy of Music in 1996 to study singing with Sergej Martinov. She continued her studies in Vienna with Irina Gavrilovich and in the United States with Virginia Zeani. Garanča began her professional career at the Meiningen Court Theatre, Meiningen, Germany in 1998,[6] and later worked at the Frankfurt Opera. In 1999, she won the Mirjam Helin Singing Competition in Helsinki, Finland.[7]

Garanča's international breakthrough came in 2003 at the Salzburg Festival when she sang Annio in a production of Mozart's La clemenza di Tito, conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Major engagements followed quickly, such as Charlotte in Werther, Dorabella in Così fan tutte at the Vienna State Opera (2004) and Dorabella in a Paris production directed by Patrice Chéreau (2005). In 2006, she returned to La clemenza di Tito, this time singing the part of Sesto. On 12 January 2008 Garanča made her company and house debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in the role of Rosina in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia.[8] Of her debut, Bernard Holland wrote in The New York Times: "Ms. Garanca is the real thing ... Modern singing techniques adapt with difficulty to Rossini's early-19th-century emphasis on speed, lightness and athletic articulation, and Ms. Garanca was the only one onstage sounding completely comfortable. The lyric passages sang out; the episodes of racecourse delivery were fully in hand".[9] Garanča sang the leading role of Georges Bizet's Carmen in the 2010 and 2015 productions of the Metropolitan Opera. In the opening concert of the 2011 Rheingau Musik Festival in the Eberbach Abbey she performed Alban Berg's Sieben frühe Lieder with the hr-Sinfonieorchester, conducted by Paavo Järvi.[10]

In May 2018 Garanča made her stage role debut as Dalila in Camille Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila at the Vienna State Opera conducted by Marco Armiliato.[11] In 2018, she appeared in the Metropolitan Opera's performance of that opera.[12]

Garanča is married to the conductor Karel Mark Chichon, and they have two daughters.[13] She is fluent in Latvian, French, German, Spanish, Russian, and English.

Garanča's repertoire includes:[5][26]

Her recordings include the Grammy Award winning Bajazet conducted by Fabio Biondi, in which she sang the role of Andronicus. In 2005, Garanča signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon.

Other audio recordings include:

DVD recordings include:

• Wirklich wichtig sind die Schuhe ("The shoes are really important"), Ecowin Verlag GmbH 2013, ISBN 978-3711000453; Garanča's first autobiography.
• Zwischen den Welten: Mein Weg auf die großen Opernbühnen (Between the Worlds: My way to the great opera stages), Ecowin Verlag GmbH 2019, ISBN 978-3711002334; Garanča's second autobiography.

• Official website
• Elīna Garanča on Operabase
• Elīna Garanča singing Mozart on YouTube