Viktoria Vizin

The mezzo-soprano Viktoria Vizin, who was born in Kecskemét, Hungary, studied at the Liszt Conservatory in Szeged. She began her career by winning numerous voice competitions, including the Concorso di Canto Lirico Giuseppe di Stefano in Trapani and the Belvedere Competition in Vienna. In 1996 she made her stage debut as Rosina in Rossini’s Barbier in Cluj, Romania; she appeared for the first time at the Arena di Verona in 1997 and, in 1998, at the Wexford Festival in Ireland. Vizin made her debut at the Vienna Staatsoper as Cherubino (Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro) in 1999, and in 2000 came her first appearance at the Royal Opera House in London. Viktoria Vizin is especially known for her performances of Bizet’s Carmen at many acclaimed opera houses: she has performed this role at Covent Garden in London, Los Angeles Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. She has appeared as Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther at Scottish Opera and as Preziosilla in Verdi’s La forza del destino at the Flemish Opera in Antwerp and Ghent; other credits include Dulcinée in Massenet’s Don Quichotte at the Teatro lirico of Cagliari and Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at La Scala in Milan. Vizin enjoys a close relationship with the Budapest Staatsoper, where she has sung Judith in Béla Bartók’s one-act Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, the Composer in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos, and Phèdre in Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie. In the 2013-14 she will perform Venus in Wagner’s Tannhäuser there. Viktoria Vizin’s concert repertoire includes such works as Handel’s Messiah, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and Verdi’s Messa da Requiem.

May 2013