Violeta Urmana

Birthplace:
Marijampole, Lithuania

Studies:
Piano at the Juozas-Gruodis Conservatory in Kaunas, piano and singing at the Lithuanian Music and Theatre Academy in Vilnius

Master classes:
Master class at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich as well as Opernstudio of the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich

Prizes / Honors:
Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Singers (London), appointment as Austrian Kammersängerin (Vienna), Grand Duke Gedeminas of Lithuania (Lithuania), honorary degree of the Lithuanian Music and Theatre Academy (Vilnius), Commendatore dell'Ordine della Stella d'Italia (Italy), Commander’s Grand Cross of the Order of Merit to Lithuania, UNESCO Artist for Peace, et al.

Important parts:
Kundry (Parsifal), Eboli (Don Carlo), Amelia (Un ballo in maschera), Elisabetta (Don Carlo), Leonora (La forza del destino), Lady Macbeth (Macbeth), Odabella (Attila), Aida (Aida), La Gioconda (La Gioconda), Medea (Medea), Tosca (Tosca), Norma (Norma), Iphigénie (Iphigénie en Tauride,Iphigénie en Aulide), Ariadne (Ariadne auf Naxos), Brünnhilde (Siegfried), Sieglinde (Die Walküre), Isolde (Tristan und Isolde), Azucena (Il trovatore), Soprano/Mezzosoprano (Messa da Requiem), Klytämnestra (Elektra), Herodias (Salome), Jocaste (Oedipus rex), et al.

Stages:
Metropolitan Opera, Teatro Real Madrid, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Opéra national de Paris, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Wiener Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper,Staatsoper Hamburg, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Arena di Verona as well as appearances at festivals such as Bayreuther Festspiele, Salzburger Festspiele, Festival d‘Aix-en-Provence, Edinburgh International Festival and the BBC Proms

Cooperation with conductors:
Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Bertrand de Billy, Pierre Boulez, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, James Conlon, James Levine, Jesús López Cobos, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Sir Simon Rattle, Donald Runnicles, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Franz Welser-Möst, Christian Thielemann, et al.

Recordings :
Many CD and DVD recordings documenting her career: LA GIOCONDA, IL TROVATORE, OBERTO CONTE DI SAN BONIFACIO, UN BALLO IN MASCHERA, AIDA, LA FORZA DEL DESTINO, MACBETH, DON CARLO, ANDREA CHENIER, SIEGFRIED, PARSIFAL, CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA, VERDI'S REQUIEM (soprano and mezzo-soprano), DAS LIED VON DER ERDE and RÜCKERT-LIEDER by Mahler, MAETERLINCK-LIEDER by Zemlinsky, LA MORT DE CLÉOPÂTRE by Berlioz, BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE of Bartok, CD "Puccini rediscovered", Rossignol by Stravinsky, "Lieder" by R. Strauss, Berg, Liszt.
She also played the role of Kundry in Tony Palmer's film "The Search for the Holy Grail".

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