Artist database

12 July 1951, Budapest

Famous opera singer, extremely memorable in dramatic soprano roles of Verdi and Puccini and as Judit of Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle.

She studied music at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music Budapest between 1970 and 1972 as pupil of Ferencné Révhegyi. She debuted as Frasquita (Bizet: Carmen) 1971 in the Hungarian State Opera House, where she was private singer from 1972 to 1979. She gained success in operas by Puccini, Verdi and Bellini, but she auspiciously introduced herself in contemporary Hungarian works, too. She took part in many international contests. In 1972 she won grand prize at the Kodály Singing Contest of the Hungarian Radio and in 1973 at the singing competition of Sofia, but she also received the prize of the best chamber singer there. In 1974 she came in second place at the Tchaikovsky Singing Contest (Moscow) - the first prize wasn't handed over.

From 1975 she started to perform abroad more frequently. She was invited to the Covent Garden (London), the Scala (Milano), the Staatsoper (Vienna), the Metropolitan (New York), the Paris Opera House, the Bolsoj (Moscow) and to Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich, Aix-en-Provence, Salzburg, Glasgow, Moscow, Prague and Sofia. She sang the role of Judit (Bartók: Bluebeard’s Castle) in the Carnegie Hall (New York) and in the Royal Albert Hall (London).

She performed with such famous artists as György Solti, George Pretre, John Pritchard, Sir Charles Mackerras, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Lamberto Gardelli, Kent Nagano, Nello Santi, James Conlon, Rafael Kubelik, Sir Edward Downes, Francesco Molinari Pradelli, Nicola Rescigno, Alberto Erede, Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, Renato Bruson, Alfredo Kraus, Agnes Baltsa, Piero Cappuccilli, Neil Shicoff and Robert Lloyd.

Throughout her career she sang main roles of around fifty operas - the most important ones are: Countess (Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro), Donna Ana (Mozart: Don Giovanni), Fiordiligi (Mozart: Cosí fan tutte), Norma (Bellini), Violetta (Verdi: Traviata), Lady Macbeth (Verdi: Macbeth), Giselda (Verdi: Il lombardi), Amelia (Verdi: Un ballo in maschera), Leonora (Verdi: Il trovatore), Desdemona (Verdi: Otello), Tosca (Puccini), Mimi (Puccini: La bohčme), Turandot (Puccini), Manon Lescaut (Puccini), Judit (Bartók: Bluebeard's Castle).

Recently she's been mainly performing at air and song evenings, but she's engaged in teaching, too. From 1996 to 2000 she taught at the Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music. She held master courses in Budapest and Jerusalem (1996), in London (1998), in Pécs (2004), in Szeged and Santiago de Chile (2005) and in Tokio (2006, 2007). She was invited to the jury of the Tchaikovsky Singing Contest in Moscow (1994) and of the Vina del Mar, Chile Singing Contest (2003), as well as of the Maria Callas Singing Contest in Brasil (2005).

She released more than thirty albums through Hungarian and international labels, these records equally include whole opera recordings and solo albums. She contributed to television recordings, playing in opera films like Leoncavallo's Bajazzo, Ferenc Farkas' The Magic Wardrobe and Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle.

She was honored with the Liszt Prize and the Mihály Székely Memorial Plaque (1976), the title Merited Artist (1978), the Middle Cross of Merit of Order of the Hungarian Republic (2007) and the title of Outstanding Artist (2017).