Olga Makarina
(United States/Russia)
Metropolitan Opera Soprano
Olga teaches in:
Course Focus:
- Bel Canto and Italian Operas
- "Behind the curtains" - the practical issues of Opera production everyone needs to know
- Stage Presentation
- The importantce of Body Language
Born in Archangel, Russia, Metropolitan Opera soprano Olga Makarina,
made her first New York appearances at New York City Opera as
Lucia di Lammermoor
and has performed there as Gilda in
Rigoletto
,
Konstanze in Mozart’s
Abduction
from the Seraglio
and Olympia in
Les Contes d’Hoffmann
. Other roles in Ms Makarina’s repertoire
include Ilia in
Idomeneo
(Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival),
Violetta in
La Traviata
(
Kirov Opera) and Eudoxie in
La Juive
(Opera Orchestra of New York)
. Ms Makarina has also appeared as
Zerbinetta in
Ariadne auf
Naxos
with the Minnesota Orchestra and in
Orff’s
Carmina Burana
as well.
Olga Makarina appeared twice at the Bard Festival’s
Franz Liszt Commemoration
in an opera gala
singing scenes from Meye
rbeer’s
Robert le Diable
and
Les Huguenots
as well as the final scene of
Norma
and then as soloist in the
Grand Messe
of Franz Liszt. In the fall of 2006, she took on the
demanding role of Elettra in Mozart’s
Idomeneo
at the Metropolitan Opera with James
Levine
conducting. She sang the role of Gilda in both the Met in the Parks and during the house season and
Elvira in
I puritani.
At Opera Pacific she was Adina in the Jonathan Miller production of
Donizetti’s
L’elisir d’amore
. In November 2007 she sang Be
llini’s
Norma
in a new production at
the National Theater Prague, the title role in Donizetti’s
Lucrezia Borgia
at the Slovak National
Opera in Bratislava, Adina in Palm Beach,
Lucia
in Warsaw and performed in recital with Yefim
Bronfman. She sang Marfa in
Rimsky
-
Korsakov’s
The
Tsar’s Bride
with Olga Borodina with Opera
Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall in October 2008 and returned to the Metropolitan for
Gilda, Manon, Thais and Lucia in the 2008
-
09 season. In 2009
-
10 she will be Antonia in
Les Contes
di’Hoffmann
and Violetta. During the 10
-
11 season she returned to the Met for Gilda, Lucia and
Antonia and recently added Mozart’s Donna Elvira and Vitellia plus the title roles of Anna Bolena
and Maria Stuarda of Donizetti to her Met assignments.
In 199
7, Olga Makarina returned to Russia to debut at the Kirov Opera as Lyudmila in Glinka’s
Ruslan and Lyudmila
.
In October 1999, she sang her first Pamina in Mozart’s
Die
Zauberflote
in
a series of special gala performances conducted by Eve Queler and the Ope
ra Orchestra of New
York at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Temple of Dendur. Her repertoire at the Metropolitan
Opera during recent seasons has included Gilda, Violetta, Eudoxie, Elvira, Rossignol and
Lucia.
She
also performed concerts and solo recitals
in Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan and sang the opening night
gala of the Cesky Krumlov Festival with the Brno Philharmonic in Czech Republic that was
televised in Eurovision.
In recent se
asons Ms Makarina returned to Palm Beach Opera as Elvira in
Puritani,
a role she also
sang in Spain at La Coruna and at the Metropolitan. She was the Princess in Respighi’s
Bella
Dormente
at Spoleto USA repeated with exquisite success at the Lincoln Center
Festival in 2005,
and opened the Rome Opera’s 2005
-
06 season in November as
Amina in
La Sonnambula
, returned
there in February 2006 as Gilda in
Rigoletto.
Rome’s
Messaggero
praised her ‘pure and beautiful
phrasing’ and
“melancholy expression,’. A success
ful debut at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires as
Mimi in
La boheme
came in April 2006; Mimi was also the role of her debut at Mexico City’s Teatro
Bellas Artes opposite tenor Fernando de la Mora. In 2008 she was Norma at the National Theater
in Prague and
Donizetti’s
Lucrezia Borgia
at the National Opera in Bratislava as well as Lucia at
Warsaw’s Grand Theater.
A CD of Italian Opera Arias featuring Ms Makarina was released By Romeo Records and was cited
by
Opera News
as ‘exquisite’ and
Fanfare
magazine as
‘a revelation of
bel canto
style.’ A second CD
dedicated to Mozart’s motet ‘Esultate Jubilate’, a concert aria and operatic arias from
Don Giovanni
,
Abduction
from
the
Seraglio
,
Die
Zauberflote
and Le
nozze di Figaro
was released in spring 2003 and a
rec
ital of songs by Liszt, Tchiakovsky, and Rachmaninov was released in May 2004.
More about Olga Makarina:
http://www.olgamakarina.com/
Click on "Registration" below to apply to Alion Baltic Festival online:
Registration