Biography

Thanks to a vocal range whose amplitude is particularly rare, Elīna Garanča quickly found her place in the world of lyric art and can thus tour the greatest operas in the world.

Born into a family of professional musicians, Elina Garanca studied piano and at the age of 20 entered the Latvian Academy of Music to learn singing. She continued her studies in Vienna, then in the United States, with a remarkable teacher, the soprano Virginia Zeani.
She began her career at the Riga Opera and then was hired in Germany in various troupes. It was in 2003 that she really began her international career at the Salzburg Festival where she was entrusted with the role of Annio in Mozart's La clemenza di Tito. From that moment on, she was offered more important contracts: the role of Dorabella in Cosi Fan Tutte, which she performed at the Vienna Opera.

At the same time, she became known in France, where Irina Brook directed her in a revival of Rossini's La Cenerentola at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. A year later, she performed Patrice Chéreau's Cosi Fan Tutte in Aix-en-Provence and then at the Palais Garnier in Paris. In 2006, she was given the role of Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier, a performance that allowed her to make her debut on the stage of the Opéra Bastille. In 2007, she was seen at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées for Folksongs.

The year 2008 was a great year for mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča: she made her New York debut at the Metropolitan Opera in The Barber of Seville and was then engaged for the role of Adalgisa in Bellini's Norma at the Munich Opera.
For a large part of her career, Elīna Garanča sang Mozart and was very well-known for her roles in the composer's works. Quite by chance, in 2007 she had the opportunity to sing Carmen in Riga, a performance that brought her great success and distinctions, including, in Vienna, the title of Kammersängerin, awarded only in Austria and Germany to leading international opera singers.

In 2010, alongside Roberto Alagna in Bizet's Carmen, she formed an unforgettable duo that received much praise, leading people to say that Elīna Garanča was "the Carmen of her generation".

Elīna Garanča's ease in singing great operatic roles on stage, to which she knows how to give breadth, always captivates the public.