Vida Miknevičiūtė

Biography

Lithuanian soprano Vida Miknevičiūtė made her highly acclaimed debut at the 2021 Salzburg Festival as Chrysothemis (Elektra) under the baton of Franz Welser-Möst. In the 2019/20 season, she made her house debut as Salome at the Vienna State Opera, as well as her role debut as Elsa in Calixto Bieto’s new production of Lohengrin at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin.

Vida Miknevičiūtė made her brilliant debut at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in the 2018/19 season as Chrysothemis under the baton of Daniel Barenboim and returned to the Staatsoper in the 2019/20 season as Helmwige (Die Walküre). She has also appeared as Natalie Princess of Orange (Der Prinz von Homburg) at Stuttgart State Opera, Elettra (Idomeneo) at Kassel State Theatre, Marguerite (Faust) and Lisa (Pique Dame) at Latvian National Opera Riga and again as Maria Boccanegra (Simon Boccanegra) at Mainz State Theatre. At the Victorian Opera in Melbourne she made her critically and publicly acclaimed debut as Salome.

Between 2011 and 2020, Vida Miknevičiūtė was a member of the ensemble of the Staatstheater Mainz, where she performed, among others Elettra (Idomeneo), Princess Natalie of Orange (Der Prinz von Homburg), Tatyana (Eugene Onegin), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Margherita (Mefistofele), Violetta Valéry (La traviata), as Eva (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Marguerite (Faust), Blanche (Dialogues des Carmélites), Mimì (La bohème) and Ursula (Mathis der Maler), as Elisabeth (Don Carlo), as Sieglinde in R. Wagner/Loriot The Ring in One Evening and as Maria Boccanegra (Simon Boccanegra). Guest engagements took her to the Staatstheater Kassel as the Empress (Die Frau ohne Schatten), Chrysothemis (Elektra) and Maddalena di Coigny (Andrea Chénier), to the Frankfurt Opera as Sylva Varescú (The Csárdás Princess) and to the Leipzig Opera as Irene (Rienzi). At the Latvian National Opera in Riga she made her debut as Elisabeth (Tannhäuser) and was heard there as Marguerite (Faust) and Senta in a new production of Richard Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer. She also appeared as Senta at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, and continues to be a welcome guest at the Hamburg State Opera, where she sang Freia (Rheingold) in a guest performance conducted by Simone Young in Brisbane, Australia.

Vida Miknevičiūtė received important musical influences and worked with renowned conductors such as Simone Young, Daniel Barenboim, Adam Fischer, Valery Gergiev, Alexander Joel, Eun Sun Kim, Peter Schneider, Kent Nagano, Gintaras Rinkevicius and Hermann Bäumer. To date, Vida Mikneviciute has appeared in productions by directors such as Lorenzo Fioroni, Katharina Thalbach, Johannes Schütz, Tilman Knabe, Harry Kupfer, Christof Nel, Tom Ryser and Vera Nemirova.

Concert appearances have taken the singer to the Tonhalle Zurich, the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Mikkeli Music Festival, the Teatro di San Carlo Napoli, the Bratislava Festival, the L’Auditori de Barcelona and the Auditorio Nacional Madrid as well as to her native Lithuania. She has performed the soprano parts of Mozart’s Requiem and Coronation Mass, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Mahler’s 4th Symphony, Dvořák’s Stabat Mater, Orff’s Carmina Burana and Verdi’s Requiem.

After attending a music high school, she did her master’s degree in singing at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in Kaunas. An Erasmus scholarship took the young soprano to the Leipzig University of Music “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” in 2003. Between 2005 and 2007, Vida Miknevičiūtė was a member of the International Opera Studio of the Zurich Opera House. At the same time, she received guest contracts with the Festival Aix-en-Provence and the Theater Basel. From 2008 to 2010, the soprano was engaged at the International Opera Studio of the Hamburg State Opera, where her roles included Hébé and Phani (Les Indes galantes), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Micaëla (Carmen), Wellgunde and Freia (Rheingold) and Helmwige (Walküre).

The singer has successfully participated in various competitions. Among others, she is the winner of the 1st Prize and 1st Audience Prize of the Robert Stolz Singing Competition “Viennese Operetta” in Hamburg and other competitions in Lithuania and Russia. She is also a fellow of the Barenberg-Bank scholarship for artistic development in Hamburg, and of the Concorso Riccardo Zandonai in Riva del Garda.