Vesselina Kasarova

Vesselina Kasarova, a native of Stara Zagora in Bulgaria, began studying piano at the age of four and graduated from music high school. After receiving a degree as a pianist, she made the switch to a career in singing. While still a vocal student at the Sofia Academy, she began singing her first major roles with the State Opera of the Bulgarian capital. After winning the Gütersloh New Voices competition in 1989, she began an engagement with the Zurich Opera. Two years later, in 1991, she made her Salzburg Festival debut as Annio in La clemenza di Tito; shortly after came her first appearance at the Vienna State Opera as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia. She has since appeared with the world’s most eminent opera companies, including La Scala in Milan, the Royal Opera House in London, Geneva Opera, Barcelona Opera, Florence Opera, Berlin State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, as well as the great musical theater stages in Paris. She has performed with such conductors as Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Colin Davis, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, and Daniel Barenboim. She has become especially known as an interpreter of Mozart’s operas, bel canto, and the French repertoire. In the 2008-09 season she performed Bizet’s Carmen at the Vienna State Opera zu erleben and Rossini’s Matilda di Shabran at London’s Covent Garden and also appeared in a new production of Handel’s Agrippina in Zurich. Vesselina Kasarova also appears as a lieder recitalist and concert performer throughout Europe and the United States. She has recorded many operas and solo recitals, including complete recordings of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, Rossini’s Tancredi and L’italiana in Algeri, Bellini’s Capuleti e i Montecchi, Donizetti’s La Favorite, and Massenet’s Werther. She has received several ECHO Klassik awards. 

This concert marks Vesselina Kasarova’s LUCERNE FESTIVAL debut.