Marina Rebeka

Just two years after graduating from the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia, soprano Marina Rebeka gave a breakout performance that quickly led to engagements on many of the world's best-known opera stages.

Rebeka began her music studies in her native Latvia before continuing in Rome, where she completed her formal studies in 2007. Her professional debut was that same year, playing Contessa di Folleville and Madama Cortese in Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims. International audiences started to pay attention to Rebeka when she performed Britten's War Requiem with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in 2008. Yet, it was at the 2009 Salzburg Festival, where she really scored critical success with Riccardo Muti conducting Rossinis Moïse et Pharaon, in which Rebeka impressively played Anaï. This was soon followed by debuts at La Scala (Il viaggio a Reims); at the Deutsche Oper Belin under Roberto Abbado (Mozart's Don Giovanni); at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden (Verdi's La Traviata); in Valencia under Zubin Mehta (Bizet's Carmen); and in 2011, both at New York's Metropolitan Opera (Don Giovanni) and Carnegie Hall (Moïse et Pharaon). Her opera debuts continued for the next couple of years, while she also took on some recital performances and festival appearances.

In 2012, she returned to the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia to sing in Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle under Antonio Pappano. The recording of this, released in 2013 by EMI, was Rebeka's first. Only a few months later, her first solo recording -- Mozart: Arias -- was also released by EMI.

Audiences and critics have been impressed not just by the qualities of her voice, but also by her characterizations. ~ Patsy Morita