Marina Rebeka


Marina Rebeka is a Latvian soprano, active on both opera and concert stage. Besides Violetta in Verdi's La traviata, she is also known for her roles in operas by Rossini and Mozart.

Biography

Rebeka was born in Riga. She began her musical studies at "Rīdze" elementary school and then studied at Jāzeps Mediņš Musical High School with Natālija Kozlova. She subsequently went to Italy, studying at the Conservatorio Arrigo Boito in Parma, Accademia Internazionale delle Arti in Rome, and the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia, where she graduated in 2007. During her studies, she also attended Grace Bumbry's masterclass at the International Summer Academy at Mozarteum University Salzburg, and Alberto Zedda's Accademia Rossiniana in Pesaro.
In 2007, she made her opera debut at the Theater Erfurt as Violetta in La traviata, a role which also performed later at the Vienna Volksoper and Finnish National Opera. In the same year, she portrayed Folleville and Madama Cortese in Il viaggio a Reims at the Rossini Opera Festival, where she returned the next year performing in Maometto II. Her other engagements include Agilea in Teseo, Britten's War Requiem, Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra. In 2009, she sang Adina in L'elisir d'amore at the Latvian National Opera, debuted at La Scala in Il viaggio a Reims, and performed Elettra in Mozart's Idomeneo at the Opéra national de Lorraine. Her international breakthrough came when she debuted at the Salzburg Festival in Rossini's Moïse et Pharaon conducted by Riccardo Muti.
Rebeka has been a regular guest at the world's most prestigious concert halls and opera houses, such as the Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall,, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Concertgebouw, Bavarian State Opera, Musikverein, and Zürich Opera House.
She collaborates with leading conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Antonio Pappano, Fabio Luisi, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Daniele Gatti, Marco Armiliato, Michele Mariotti, Thomas Hengelbrock, Paolo Carignani, Kent Nagano, and Ottavio Dantone.
As an active and widely noticed concert performer, she has given recitals at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, the Rudolfinum in Prague, St John's, Smith Square in London, La Scala in Milan, Großes Festspielhaus in Salzburg, Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona and Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, accompanied by such ensembles as the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Vienna Philharmonic, and the Filarmonica della Scala.
In the 2017/18 season she was named the first-ever artist-in-residence by the Münchner Rundfunkorchester. In 2018, she launched her record label "Prima Classic", aiming to give artists the freedom to record the repertoire they want instead of what's of the recording companies' interest.
She met Ukrainian tenor Dmytro Popov in 2009. They married in 2010 and their daughter, Katrīna, was born in 2011. She is currently married to Argentine sound engineer Edgardo Vertanessian, who also operates the studio of her record label.

Awards and honors

Rebeka has won prizes in the multiple competitions.
In 2009, she was awarded the "Outstanding Artistic Achievements" award in the annual Latvijas Gāze Awards from the Latvian National Opera. In 2016 she was appointed Commander of the Order of the Three Stars for her cultural achievements. She received the order on 6 December. In December 2017, she won a silver medal in Global Music Awards for her Rossini album "Amor fatale". In 2020, she was named "Artist of the Year" by the International Classical Music Awards.

CD and DVD Productions

Her first solo CD, "Mozart Arias" with Speranza Scappucci and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, was released by EMI in November 2013. Her next album, "Amor fatale" – Rossini arias with Marco Armiliato and the Münchner Rundfunkorchester - was released in the summer of 2017 by BR-Klassik.