Biography
A native of Pskov (Russia) studied singing at the Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory in St. Petersburg and graduated there in June 2004 with highest honours.
Olesya Golovneva was a prize-winner in several voice competitions in St. Petersburg, including the Fifth Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Competition and the First International Competition for Chamber Music and was a laureate at the International Vocal Competition in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands. Her first roles in St. Petersburg were Barbarina and later on Susanna (Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro) and Violetta (Verdi: La traviata).
In the 2005/06 season she joined the ensemble of the Wiener Staatsoper, where she debuted with Königin der Nacht (Mozart: Die Zauberflöte). Further roles she sang there were Prinzessin (Nino Rota: Alladin und die Wunderlampe), Frasquita (Bizet: Carmen), Giannetta (Donizetti: L´elisir d´amore), Najade (Strauss: Ariadne auf Naxos), and Blumenmädchen (Wagner: Parsifal). In the 2007/08 season she made a successful debut as Violetta (La traviata) in Tokyo.
At the Dresdner Philharmonie she sang the part of Oxana in concert performances of Rimsky-Korsakov’s The night before Christmas under Michail Jurowski. She again performed as Königin der Nacht (Die Zauberflöte) at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Opera in Hanover. In a new production of Ariadne auf Naxos at the Leipzig Opera she gave a highly acclaimed debut in the part of Zerbinetta.
She is scheduled to sing Violetta in a new production of La traviata at the Semperoper Dresden in 2009/10 staged by Andreas Homoki and under the baton of Fabio Luisi. In the same season she will add two new roles to her repertoire, Olympia (Offenbach: Les Contes d´Hoffmann) and Gilda in a new Rigoletto production at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf.
Concert appearances will lead her for the first time to the Vlaamse Opera in Gent and to Lisbon, where she will sing Zerbinetta with the Gulbenkian Orchestra.www.olesya-golovneva.com