BIOGRAPHY

Anita Rachvelishvili is recognized internationally as one of the leading artists of our day. Her career was launched in a spectacular overnight coup de théâtre in 2009, when Daniel Barenboim invited her to open the La Scala season as the title role in a much-publicized new production of Carmen, with Jonas Kaufmann as Don José. This performance marked her debut in the role and was televised all over the world. Rachvelishvili rapidly began making a number of international debuts in this role: at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Berlin State Opera, Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera, Teatro Regio in Turin, Canadian Opera Company, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Semperoper Dresden, Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, and Arena di Verona. She has also been acclaimed at the Paris Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House – Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, and many other important houses. An exclusive Sony Classical artist, Rachvelishvili’s debut solo album was released in 2018 to great critical acclaim, and she was featured in a 2019 New York Times article titled "A Young Singer Takes the Opera World by Storm."

Anita Rachvelishvili will begin the 2020/21 season in Italy, first appearing in Verdi’s Requiem at the Teatro Regio in Parma and subsequently singing Amneris in Aida at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. She will then return to Amsterdam in Dmitry Cherbiakov's new production of Aida, after which she will appear as Carmen in Vienna, as Eboli in Don Carlos at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, at the Metropolitan Opera as Azucena in Il Trovatore, and at Covent Garden in their new staging of Aida. Rachvelishvili will also return to the Chicago Symphony to sing Brahms' Alto Rhapsody with Riccardo Muti. Recent engagements have included Aida, Samson et Dalila and Adrianna Lecouvreur at the Metropolitan Opera, Adriana Lecouvreur at the Salzburg Festival, Carmen in Paris, and her debut as Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana in Torino. She subsequently opened the 2019/20 season in Amsterdam as Santuzza. In the fall of 2019, she also appeared as Konchakovna in Prince Igor in Paris and returned to Berlin to sing Carmen at the State Opera, under Daniel Barenboim. Rachvelishvili made her debut as Eboli in Don Carlos in the fall of 2019 at the Paris Opera. In previous seasons, she debuted as Azucena at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, a role in which she was also heard at the Metropolitan Opera and in Paris. Rachvelishvili has also won special praise as Lyubasha in Rimsky Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride in Berlin and as Marfa in Mussorgsky’s Khovanschina.

Anita Rachvelishvili was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. She first studied piano at the Mukhran Machavariani School, eventually focusing her studies on singing at the Vano-Sarajishvili Conservatory with Manana Egadze. She received a stipend from the president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, and shortly thereafter won the Paata Burchuladze Prize. While still a student at the conservatory, she debuted at the Opera in Tblisi as Maddalena in Rigoletto and as Olga in Eugene Onegin, subsequently joining the ensemble of the theater. In 2007, she was invited to join the Accademia at the Teatro alla Scala. It was there that she came to the attention of Daniel Barenboim, which led to her performance as Carmen on December 7, 1999 at La Scala.

After making countless debuts at theaters throughout the world, Rachvelishvili has returned to these international houses each season. She has sung Amneris in Aida at the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, Teatro Regio in Turin, Arena di Verona, and for her debuts at both the Vienna State Opera and Paris Opera. After her first performances of Azucena in Il Trovatore at Covent Garden, she reprised the role at the Metropolitan Opera and Paris Opera. She sang her first Dalila in Samson et Dalila for her debut in Amsterdam in concert at the Concertgebouw, and subsequently appeared as Dalila in Paris, Monte Carlo and at the Metropolitan Opera. She also made her debut at the Dutch National Opera as Marfa in Chrstoph Loy's new production of Khovanschina.

Rachvelishvili began her collaboration with Riccardo Muti in Munich in Verdi's Requiem, after which she sang the same work under Maestro Muti at the Salzburg Festival. She also appeared with Muti in Aida in 2019 at the Chicago Symphony, where she returned in 2020 for Cavalleria Rusticana. She has sung Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky with the Staatskapelle Berlin, under Daniel Barenboim, and made her debut at the Barbican in London in a concert of Russian music with the orchestra of the Royal Opera House, under Sir Antonio Pappano. Rachvelishvili made her debut in Salzburg in Verdi's Requiem under Christian Thielemann, performing alongside Jonas Kaufmann, with whom she later appeared in several concerts throughout Germany.