Russian soprano Olesya Golovneva, who has already been named "Best Singer of the Year" for her performances as Anna Bolena and Luisa Miller, was nominated for the German theater award FAUST for her interpretation of Rusalka at the Cologne Opera.
At the invitation of Vienna Volksoper, the soprano will take on the role of Mimi in La Bohème at the beginning of the 2023-24 season and will sing Jolanthe again at this house later in the season. At Palau de les Arts Valencia she is awaited with great anticipation in her signature role of Rusalka, for which she has been celebrated at houses such as Madrid, Dresden, Cologne and Wiesbaden. Staatstheater Wiesbaden presents the soprano in the new production of Turandot under the direction of Yoel Gamzou, and she returns to the Deutsche Oper Berlin in Christian Spuck’s grandiose staged version of Verdi's Messa da Requiem.
Among the important engagements of the past seasons are her role debut as Katia Kabanova at Staatsoper Hamburg, Valentine opposite to Juan Diego Florez in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots at Deutsche Oper Berlin, which brought her international attention; her triumphant debut as Rusalka at Teatro Real Madrid; her role debuts in the leading soprano parts of Puccini’s Trittico at Staatstheater Wiesbaden as well as her debut as stage director of Rusalka at this very house; Desdemona in Otello next to Roberto Saccà at the Frankfurt Opera and next to Gregory Kunde at the Wiesbaden State Theater; Tatjana in Eugen Onegin in productions of Staatsoper Hamburg, the Finnish National Opera Helsinki, the Cologne Opera and the Wiesbaden State Theater, where she also appeared as Vitellia in Clemenza di Tito. The artist is particularly attached to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein and has enjoyed great success here as Maria Stuarda, Gilda, Elisabetta, Luisa Miller, Donna Anna and Traviata. There is also a regular collaboration with the Cologne Opera, which presented the soprano as Natascha in War and Peace, as Anna Bolena, Lucia, Tatjana and Vitellia. The Traviata is undoubtedly one of her most successful roles to date, which she sang in Dresden, Munich, Prague, at the Wiesbaden May Festival, in Düsseldorf, Cologne, Bonn and Antibes. Other important Verdi roles include Luisa Miller, which she debuted at the Malmö Opera, Simone-Amelia for her house debut at Opéra de Marseille and Gilda, which she sang at the Zurich Opera and at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. At Malmo Opera the artist sang her first Mimi in La Bohème and could repeat her success in this very role at the Frankfurt Opera, where she was successful as Rusalka and Don Carlo-Elisabetta as well.
Olesya Golovneva was most recently heard in concert with Beethoven’s Symphony Nr. 9 in Lausanne, Rachmaninov's Die Glocken at Konzerthaus Dortmund, in Dvoraks Te Deum in Utrecht and Amsterdam, at WDR with Andrés Orozco-Estrada and in the Wiener Musikverein with Franz Welser-Möst conducting. The artist's recordings include Iolanta with Dmitri Kitajenko on CD and Luisa Miller as well as La Boheme as DVD from the Malmö Opera.
Olesya Golovneva was born in Pskov/Russia and completed her studies in St. Petersburg and at the University of Music in Vienna with Prof. Robert Holl with distinction. She is a winner of the N. Rimskyj-Korsakow competition and the International Vocal Competition- S' Hertogenbosch.