Elīna Garanča was born into a musical family in Riga, Latvia. She studied at the Latvian Academy of Music with her mother. She won the Mirjam Helin Singing Competition in 1999 and was a finalist in the 2001 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition.
Ms Garanča appears regularly at the Vienna Staatsoper, Metropolitan Opera, ROH Covent Garden, Salzburg Festival, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Bayerisches Staatsoper Munich and Deutsche Oper Berlin and continues to perform in various concerts, festivals, and recitals all over the world.
Among other roles, she is particularly famed for her portrayal as Bizet’s Carmen which she has sung at both the Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Metropolitan Opera to critical acclaim; the NY Times named her “the finest Carmen in 25 years…”.
Recent highlights include a new production of Samson et Dalila at Staatsoper Berlin with Daniel Barenboim where Elīna stared as Dalila, as well as she returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Marguerite in La damnation de Faust. During the 2020/21 season Elīna will make her role debuts as Amneris in Verdi’s Aida at Opéra national de Paris and as Kundry in Wagner’s Parsifal at the Wiener Staatsoper. She will also star at various festivals and galas throughout Europe, America, South America and beyond.
Ms Garanča is an exclusive recording artist with Deutsche Grammophon. She has won four ECHO Klassik awards: ‘Singer of the Year’ in 2007, ‘Vocalist of the Year’ in 2010 and ‘Solo Recording of the Year’ for both her Romantique recording (2012) and Meditation (2015). Her most recent album Sol y Vida was released in May 2019 and has been unanimously praised by the critics. Gramphone said: “Garanča’s selection of flamboyant Mediterranean and Latin American songs is a predictably good fit for her ripe and beguiling timbre.”
Photogallery
+1 photo
