Biography
Guest of the National Theatre Opera.
Oriana Kurteshi was born in Tirana, Albania. After gaining a degree in singing and piano at the Arts Academy in her hometown she debuted at the Theatre of Tirana first as Mozart’s Zerlina (Don Giovanni) then as Despina (Così fan tutte) and Sofia (Rossini: Il Signor Bruschino). In the following years she sang in Tel Aviv (Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Mendelssohn’s Ein Sommernachtsstraum) and Klagenfurt as Barbarina (Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro).
In 2001 she debuted at Teatro alla Scala in Milan, performing Oscar (Verdi: Un ballo in maschera), conducted by Riccardo Muti, then performed at Venice’s Teatro la Fenice as Tebaldo (Verdi: Don Carlos) and Jano (Janáček: Jenůfa), conducted by Bruno Bartoletti.
Her repertoire includes Serpina (Pergolesi: La serva padrona), Verdi’s Gilda (Rigoletto) and Nannetta (Falstaff), Adina (Donizetti: L’elisir d’amore), Constance (Poulenc: Les dialogues des carmélites). She sang Mozart’s Papagena (Die Zauberflöte) at Stadttheater Klagenfurt and Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) at Teatro comunale di Treviso; Jemmy (Rossini: Guglielmo Tell) at the Ravenna Festival, conducted by Riccardo Muti; Oscar in Tel Aviv, conducted by Daniel Oren; Olga (Giordano: Fedora) at Teatro alla Scala; Elvira (Rossini: L’Italiana in Algeri) at Opéra National du Rhin, Strasbourg; and Yvette in Puccini’s La rondine at Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.
Update: November 2008