# Elīna Garanča

Elīna Garanča (born 16 September 1976) is a Latvian mezzo-soprano. She began to study singing in her hometown of Riga in 1996 and continued her studies in Vienna and in the United States. By 1999 she had won first place in the Mirjam Helin Singing Competition in Helsinki and had begun a career in Europe. Worldwide engagements followed her 2003 Salzburg Festival appearances.

## Early life and education

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, 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.

## Career in opera

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, and later worked at the Frankfurt Opera. In 1999, she won the Mirjam Helin Singing Competition in Helsinki, Finland.
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. 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". 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.
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. In 2018, she appeared in the Metropolitan Opera's performance of that opera.

## Personal life

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

## Awards and honours

* 1999: First Place: Mirjam Helin International Singing Competition (Finland)
* 2000: Latvian Great Music Award
* 2001: Finalist: Cardiff BBC Singer of the World Competition (UK)
* 2005: Nominated: Grammy Award for the recording of Bajazet
* 2006: MIDEM Classical Award: "Best Opera", recording of Vivaldi's Bajazet with Fabio Biondi, conductor; Patrizia Ciofi, David Daniels, Ildebrando D'Arcangelo, Vivica Genaux and Marijana Mijanovic.
* 2006: European Culture Prize in Music (Soloist Category) awarded by the Pro Europa / European Foundation for Culture (Switzerland/Germany)
* 2007: Echo Klassik Award: "Singer of the Year" for the solo CD "Aria Cantilena"
* 2007: Three-Star Order: awarded by the Latvian State
* 2009: Echo Klassik Award: "Singer of the Year"
* 2010: Musical America Award: "Vocalist of the Year"
* 2010: MIDEM Classical Award: "Singer of the Year"
* 2010: Latvian Great Music Award
* 2013: Austrian Kammersängerin
* 2013: Echo Klassik Award: "Best Solo Recording of the Year", (duets/opera/opera arias for Romantique, works by Berlioz, Donizetti, Gounod, Lalo, Saint-Saëns, Tchaikovsky and Vaccai). Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, cond. Yves Abel
* 2015: Echo Klassik Award: "Solo recording of the year"
* 2018: Rigan of the Year (Gada rīdzinieks)
* 2019: Latvian Excellence Award in Culture.

## Repertoire

Garanča's repertoire includes:
| Year (debut) | Composer | Opera | Role(s) | Location |
| | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | La clemenza di Tito | Annio | |
| | Pietro Mascagni | Cavalleria rusticana | Lola | |
| | Pietro Mascagni | Cavalleria rusticana | Santuzza | |
| | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Le nozze di Figaro | Cherubino | |
| | Richard Strauss | Der Rosenkavalier | Octavian | |
| | Jules Massenet | Werther | Charlotte | |
| | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Così fan tutte | Dorabella | |
| | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | La clemenza di Tito | Sesto | |
| | Gioachino Rossini | The Barber of Seville | Rosina | |
| | Gioachino Rossini | La Cenerentola | Angelina | |
| 2010 | Georges Bizet | Carmen | Carmen | Metropolitan Opera |
| | Vincenzo Bellini | I Capuleti e i Montecchi | Romeo | |
| 2011 | Gaetano Donizetti | Anna Bolena | Giovanna Seymour | Wiener Staatsoper |
| 2016 | Gaetano Donizetti | Roberto Devereux | Sara | Metropolitan Opera |
| | Gaetano Donizetti | La favorite | Léonor de Guzman | |
| | Hector Berlioz | Les Troyens | Didon | |
| | Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Don Giovanni | Donna Elvira | |
| | Jules Massenet | La Navarraise | Anita | |
| | Johann Strauss | Die Fledermaus | Orlofsky | |
| | Jacques Offenbach | Contes d'Hoffmann | Nicklausse | |
| | Vincenzo Bellini | Norma | Adalgisa | |
| | Giuseppe Verdi | Don Carlos | Eboli | |
| | Giuseppe Verdi | Falstaff | Meg Page | |
| | Hector Berlioz | La damnation de Faust | Marguerite | |
| 2018 | Camille Saint-Saëns | Samson et Dalila | Dalila | Vienna State Opera |
| 2021 | Richard Wagner | Parsifal | Kundry | Vienna State Opera |

## Recordings

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:
* I Capuleti e i Montecchi by Vincenzo Bellini
* Norma by Vincenzo Bellini
* Il barbiere di Siviglia by Gioachino Rossini
* Arie Favorite, Ondine
* Habanera, Deutsche Grammophon 2010 2894778776
* Aria Cantilena, Deutsche Grammophon
* Mozart: Opera and Concert Arias, EMI Classics
* Bel Canto, Deutsche Grammophon
* Romantique, Deutsche Grammophon
* The Opera Gala: Live from Baden-Baden ft. Anna Netrebko, Ramón Vargas, and Ludovic Tézier
* Elina: The Best of Elina Garanča, Deutsche Grammophon 2013 2894792241
* Revive: Elina Garanca and Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana and Roberto Abbado, Deutsche Grammophon 2016 2894795937
* Elina Garanca Meditation Karel Mark Chichon conducting Deutsche Radio Philharmonic and Latvian Radio Choir Deutsche Grammophon 2014 2894792071
* Elina Garanca Mozart Vivaldi Parliphone Records LTD A Warner Music Group Company Erato 2005 190295905996
* Elina Garanca Mozart Opera & Concert Arias Camerata Saltzburg Louis Langree Virgin Classics
* Elgar Barenboim Sea Pictures Elina Garanca Falstaff Staatskapelle Berlin Decca Classics 2020 2894850968
* Lieder Elīna Garanča, Malcolm Martineau, Robert Schumann Frauenliebe und Leben op. 42, Johannes Brahms, Heimweh II: “O wüsst’ ich doch den Weg zurück” op. 63 no. 8, Liebe und Frühling II: “Ich muss hinaus” op. 3 no. 3, Liebestreu op. 3 no. 1 · Mädchenlied op. 107 no. 5, O kühler Wald op. 72 no. 3 · Verzagen op. 72 no. 4, O liebliche Wangen op. 47 no. 4 · Geheimnis op. 71 no. 3, Wir wandelten op. 96 no. 2 · Alte Liebe op. 72 no. 1, Die Mainacht op. 43 no. 2 · Von ewiger Liebe op. 43 no. 1, November 6, 2020 Deutsche Grammophon 2020
DVD recordings include:
* Anna Bolena by Donizetti. Recording from Vienna State Opera
* La Cenerentola by Gioachino Rossini
* Carmen by Georges Bizet