Biography
Soprano Marigona Qerkezi will make her debut at the National Theatre Opera in the 2025/26 season in the title role of Bellini’s Norma (concert performance at the State Opera). She was nominated by The International Opera Awards as a Rising Star and was selected in the Top Rising Stars by OperaWire in 2023. She made her professional debut in 2015 as the Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte) at the Royal Opera House Muscat in Oman – an appearance that marked the beginning of her successful international career. Marigona Qerkezi has performed as Lucia di Lammermoor in venues including Teatro Lirico in Cagliari, Theater Kiel, Teatro Verdi di Pisa, and Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari; as Madama Cortese (Il viaggio a Reims) at the Rossini Opera Festival, Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, and Opera Lombardia; as Gilda (Rigoletto) at Teatro Lirico in Cagliari; Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) at the New National Theater in Tokyo; Mathilda (Guillaume Tell) and Leonora (Il trovatore) at Opera Lombardia; Leonora (Il trovatore) and First Lady (Die Zauberflöte) at the National Theatre in Zagreb; Anna Bolena at the Lithuanian National Opera in Vilnius; Elvira (Ernani) at Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, Opera de Oviedo, and Theater St. Gallen; Leonora (Il trovatore) at the Verdi Festival in Parma; Lucrezia Contarini (I due Foscari) at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, and Teatro Comunale di Piacenza; Norma at Palm Beach Opera; Abigaille (Nabucco) at the Savonlinna Opera Festival; Manon Lescaut at Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari; and Norma at Frankfurt Opera, among many others. Marigona Qerkezi was born in Zagreb and raised in Ljubljana; her parents are from Kosovo. She studied flute and voice at the Academy of Arts in Pristina and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Staffordshire University in the United Kingdom.
Photo: Mário Amaral