Maria Guleghina

An incisive dramatic soprano, Guleghina has achieved a busy career internationally, advancing rapidly at leading international operatic venues since her debut in 1987 at the State Opera of Minsk.

In 1987 she appeared in Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera with Luciano Pavarotti at La Scala, Milan. Her American debut was in 1990, at the Metropolitan in New York as Maddalena in Cilea's Andrea Chénier. She was invited back to the Met to sing the title role in Puccini's Tosca, opposite Plácido Domingo. Since then she has sung in the major houses of London, Vienna, Verona, Rome, Monte Carlo, San Francisco, Houston, Paris, Florence, Hamburg, Bonn, Berlin, Paris, Tokyo, Nagoya, Barcelona, and Naples.

She lists many of the major dramatic soprano roles in her repertory: Verdi roles -- Odabella (Atlilla), Abigaile (Nabucco), Aida, Amelia (Un ballo in maschera), Elvira (Ernani), Lady Macbeth (Macbetto), Lina (Stiffelio), Leonora (Il trovatore), Amelia Grimaldi (Simon Boccanegra), and Desdemona (Otello) are one of her mainstays, but she is also noted for the title roles of Norma (Bellini), Fedora (Giordano), Manon Lescaut (Puccini), as well as Tatyana (Tchaikovsky's Yevgeny Onegin), Margerita (Boïto's Mefistofele), and Santuzza (Cavalleria Rusticana).

She has appeared on recordings, including Verdi's little-known Oberto Conte di San Bonifacio, Rachmaninov's Aleko, Otello, Andrea Chénier, and in Il tabarro, part of a release of Puccini's complete Il Trittico.