OPERA HEADLINERS OF THE YEAR                                                                                            From the Desk of Lyn Walker, Ian Failey, Ronald Bloom Ehprem Gourion, Ben Zorab, Judy Goldsmith 

"Salvatore Sciarrino: Chamber Music" Sciarrino: Piano Trio No. 2. Le voci sottovetro. Tre notturni brillanti. Infinito nero. New Juilliard Ensemble
Joel Sachs (conductor). Paul Recital Hall, Juilliard School of Music, New York City. Presented under the auspices of the Lincoln Center Festival . 

Photo: Annette Stricker.

VIOLETA URMANA

The Lithuanian mezzo-soprano Violeta Urmana won several voice competitions before in 1993-1994. She made her debuts in Munich, at the Bayreuth Festival and at La Scala di Milano (‘Fricka’/„Die Walküre“ conducted by Riccardo Muti). Within short time, Violeta Urmana sang leading roles at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, at the Opéra-Bastille in Paris and at the Liceu in Barcelona. 1996 she made her debuts in Vienna (‘Eboli’), Berlin, Hamburg (‘Eboli’) and at the Chorégies d’Orange (‘Preziosilla’/”La Forza del Destino”), 1997 followed her debuts in Amsterdam with her first ‘Kundry (“Parsifal”), Bologna (‘Santuzza’/”Cavalleria rusticana”) as well as at the Ravello Festival (“Parsifal” 2nd act with Placido Domingo) and Pesaro Rossini Festival (“Giovanna d’Arco”). 1998 she sang for the first time at the festivals of Aix-en Provence (‘Judith’/”Duke Bluebeard’s Castle”) and Edinburgh (’Eboli’) and made her highly acclaimed debut at the San Francisco Opera (’Brangäne’/”Tristan und Isolde”). 1999 she made her debut at the Zurich Opera (‘Kundry’), 2000 in Sevilla (‘Adalgisa’/ ”Norma”) and in Florence (‘Santuzza’).

Photo: Violeta Urmana.

In March 2001 she made her highly acclaimed  Carnegie Hall and Metropolitan Opera (‘Kundry’) debuts, in December her most successful London Covent Garden debut (‘Kundry’). 2002 she sang ‘Kundry’ at the Salzburg Easter Festival. Among her operatic plans are “Iphigénie en Aulide” in Milano (December 2002), “La Favorita” (February 2003) and “André Chénier” (May 2003) in Vienna, “Parsifal” in  New York (April 2003) and Barcelona (2005), “Die Walküre” in Bayreuth (summer 2003), “Macbeth” in Sevilla (2004), “Tristan und Isolde” in Rome (2004), “Don Carlo” in San Francisco (fall 2003), Amsterdam (2004), Florence (2004) and New York (2005), concert performances of “La Gioconda” in London (2004), “La Forza del Destino (‘Leonora’!) in London (2004) and Munich (2005) ... After many concerts and song recitals all over Europe, in Japan and the U.S.A., concert and recital plans include appearances in Vienna, Salzburg, London, Cologne, Paris, Barcelona ... Violeta Urmana is working with conductors as Claudio Abbado, Gary Bertini, Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Chailly, James Conlon, Valery Gergiev, James Levine, Fabio Luisi, Sir Neville Marriner, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Antonio Pappano, Georges Prêtre, Sir Simon Rattle, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Pinchas Steinberg, Christian Thielemann, Marcello Viotti, Franz Welser-Möst ...She recorded Verdi’s „Oberto“ with Sir Neville Marriner for Philips, Zemlinsky‘s „Maetterlinck Lieder“ and Stravinsky’s „Rossignol“ with James Conlon for EMI, “Das Lied von der Erde” with Pierre Boulez for DGG as well as parts of “Tristan und Isolde” and “Götterdämmerung” with Antonio Pappano and the title role of “La Gioconda” with Marcello Viotti for EMI. She is ‘Kundry’ in Toni Palmer’s film" The Search for the Holy Grail“ with Placido Domingo.

Violeta Urmana: She is stronger than destiny.

From mezzo to soprano, from Lithuania to Covent Garden, the only way is up for Violeta Urmana.                                                                              La Forza del Destino', Royal Opera House, London WC2 (020-7304 4000; www.royalopera.org) to 6 November. Broadcast on Radio 3 on 6 November.