Violeta Urmana

Violeta Urmana
Born
Violeta Urmanavičiūtė

(1961-08-19) 19 August 1961 (age 63)
Kazlų Rūda, Lithuania
Occupationopera singer
Years active1993–present
SpouseAlfredo Nigro

Violeta Urmanavičiūtė-Urmana (born 19 August 1961) is a Lithuanian opera singer who has sung leading mezzo-soprano and soprano roles in the opera houses of Europe and North America.[1]

Life and career

Urmana was born in Kazlų Rūda, a small town in Lithuania's Marijampolė County. She studied piano and singing at the Lithuania Academy of Music and Theater in Vilnius and continued her vocal studies in Munich at Hochschule für Musik und Theater München with Josef Loibl. Between 1991 and 1993, she was a member the Bavarian State Opera's Opera Studio program for young singers where she studied under Astrid Varnay and would begin her stage career at the opera house.[1][2]

Urmana originally sang mezzo-soprano roles but from 2001 began singing dramatic soprano roles.[3] She sang Madeleine di Coigny in Andrea Chénier at the Vienna State Opera in 2003, Isolde in Tristan und Isolde in Rome in 2004 and Leonora in La forza del destino in London that same year.

She is married to the Italian opera singer, Alfredo Nigro. The couple met when she was singing the title role in Gluck's Iphigénie en Aulide at La Scala in 2002.[3]

Roles

Roles sung by Urmana in the course of her career include:[1]

Awards (selection)

Discography (selection)

DVDs (selection)

References

  1. ^ a b c Kutsch, Karl-Josef and Riemens, Leo (2004). "Urmana, Violeta". Großes Sängerlexikon, Vol. 4, p. 4821. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 359844088X (in German)
  2. ^ Varnay, Astrid and Arthur, Donald (2000). Fifty-five Years in Five Acts: My Life in Opera, pp. 329–330. University Press of New England. ISBN 1555534554
  3. ^ a b Ashley, Tim (14 February 2006). 'My voice decides what's good for me'. The Guardian. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
  4. ^ Vorarlberger Nachrichten (16 December 2012). "Violeta Urmana zur Kammersängerin ernannt". Retrieved 8 June 2018 (in German)
  5. ^ 15 min (15 March 2012). "Violetai Urmanai suteiktas Garbės daktaro vardas". Retrieved 8 June 2018 (in Lithuanian).
  6. ^ Presidenza della Repubblica Italiana (20 February 2014). "Urmana Dott.ssa Violeta". Retrieved 8 June 2018 (in Italian).
  7. ^ UNESCO September 2016 "Designation ceremony of Ms Violeta Urmana as a UNESCO Artist for Peace". Retrieved 8 June 2018.