Kristine Opolais

Kristīne Opolais was born in Latvia in 1979. She studied voice at the Latvian Academy of Music and with Margreet Honig in Amsterdam.

Opolais was a soloist of the Latvian National Opera from 2003 until 2007, where she appeared as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, Mimì and Musetta in La bohème, Liù in Turandot, the title heroines in Madama Butterfly and Tosca, Tamara in A. Rubinstein's Demon, as well as in Yevgenii Onegin and Picovaya Dama. In 2007 she made her debut as Violetta in La Traviata.

She sang on tour with the Latvian National Opera at the Bergen Festival as Freia in Das Rheingold in 2006 and, most recently, in France as Lisa in Picovaya Dama.

In 2006, Kristīne Opolais made her debut as Tosca at the Staatsoper unter den Linden in Berlin, which led to a return invitation in 2007 and, notably, to a new production of S. Prokofiev's Igrok [The Gambler] under Daniel Barenboim in 2008. This co-production between Berlin and Milan also marked K. Opolais' La Scala debut in June 2008.

In 2007, K. Opolais made her United Kingdom debut with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra at the Manchester Bridgewater Hall. 2008 saw her opera debut in the United Kingdom with concert performances of La bohème with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons.

Successfully combining opera with concert repertoire, K. Opolais has performed G. Verdi's Requiem, Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder, Strauss' Vier letzte Lieder and Mahler's 4th Symphony. In August 2008 she made her debut with the Copenhagen Opera Orchestra performing the Wesendonck Lieder.

The 2008/2009 season will see, amongst other engagements, her debuts at the Vienna State Opera in La bohème, the Opéra de Lyon in Igrok and at Teatro Regio in Turin in Picovaya Dama under Gianandrea Noseda.

K. Opolais' upcoming engagements include debuts at the Festivals in Salzburg and Aix-en-Provence, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Santa Cecilia in Rome, as well as a return to La Scala.

Kristīne Opolais won the Paul Sakss Singers' Award in 2004, the Latvian Annual Theatre Award for Best Opera Artist and the Latvian Cultural Foundation Award in 2005. She was also awarded the Latvian Great Music Award in 2006 for her role as Lisa in Picovaya Dama, as well as in 2007.