Biography

The Russian soprano Olesya Golovneva, already named "Best Singer of the Year" for her performances as Anna Bolena and Luisa Miller, was nominated for the German Theatre Prize FAUST for her interpretation of Rusalka at the Cologne Opera. Her enthusiastically celebrated performance as Silvana in Respighi's La Fiamma, with which she opened the previous season at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, is now available on DVD.

Golovneva opens the 2025/26 season in her signature role as Tatiana in Christof Loy's production of Eugene Onegin at the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo. In the revival of Franz Schreker's Der Schatzgräber at the Deutsche Oper Berlin she will appear as Els. Later in the season she is engaged to sing Turandot at both the Cologne Opera and the Frankfurt Opera.

Among the important engagements of past seasons are her role debuts as Turandot at Staatstheater Wiesbaden and as Katia Kabanova at Staatsoper Hamburg, Valentine opposite Juan Diego Flórez in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, and the soprano part in Christian Spuck's outstanding choreographic version of Verdi's Messa da Requiem at Deutsche Oper Berlin; her triumphant debut as Rusalka at Teatro Real Madrid and at Palau de les Arts Valencia; 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 alongside Roberto Saccà at the Frankfurt Opera and alongside Gregory Kunde at the Wiesbaden State Theater; Tatiana in Eugene 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 La Clemenza di Tito.

The artist has a particular bond with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, where she has enjoyed great success as Maria Stuarda, Gilda, Elisabetta, Luisa Miller, Donna Anna and Violetta. There is also a regular collaboration with the Cologne Opera, which has presented the soprano as Natasha in War and Peace, as Anna Bolena, Lucia, Tatiana and Vitellia. She has sung Violetta 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 Malmö Opera the artist sang her first Mimi in La Bohème and repeated her success in this role at the Frankfurt Opera, where she was also successful as Rusalka and Don Carlo's Elisabetta.

Olesya Golovneva was most recently heard in concert with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Lausanne, Rachmaninov's The Bells at Konzerthaus Dortmund, Dvořák's Te Deum in Utrecht and Amsterdam, at WDR with Andrés Orozco-Estrada, and in the Wiener Musikverein under Franz Welser-Möst. The artist's recordings include Iolanta with Dmitri Kitajenko on CD and Luisa Miller as well as La Bohème on 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. Rimsky-Korsakov Competition and the International Vocal Competition 's-Hertogenbosch.