Maria Guleghina

Maria Agasovna Guleghina (née Meytardjan (Russian: Мейтарджян); born 9 August 1959) is a Soviet-born operatic soprano singer, particularly associated with the Italian repertory.

Maria Guleghina was born in Odesa, Ukrainian SSR, to an Armenian father and a Ukrainian mother, where she studied voice at the Music Conservatory with Evgeny Nikolaevich Ivanov (under whose tutorship she remained even after graduation). Guleghina is a citizen of Luxembourg where she resides with her family.

Guleghina made her stage debut in 1985 as Yolantha at the State Opera in Minsk (Belarus) shortly before leaving USSR to pursue an international career.

Her international debut came in 1987 as Amelia (opposite Luciano Pavarotti's Riccardo) in a production of Un ballo in maschera at La Scala. Leading roles in I due Foscari, Manon Lescaut, and Tosca followed, and soon she was engaged to perform in Vienna, Munich, Hamburg, London, and other major European opera houses. She made her debut at the Paris Opera in 1995, in the killer-role of Abigaille in Nabucco.

Her American debut took place at the Metropolitan Opera in January 1991, where she sang Maddalena in Andrea Chénier. She has also appeared at the San Francisco Opera and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, adding the lead soprano roles in works such as Ernani, Simon Boccanegra, Cavalleria rusticana, Fedora. She later added other demanding roles such as Odabella in Attila (opera) and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (opera), to her ever-growing repertoire. She also debuted at Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1992 as Lisa in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades.