Kristina Mkhitaryan

Russian soprano Kristina Mkhitaryan made her Royal Opera debut in the 2017/18 Season as Micaëla (Carmen), a role in which she returned in the 2018/19 Season. In the 2019/20 Season she sang Violetta Valéry (La traviata).

Mkhitaryan was born in Novorossyisk and graduated from the Galina Vishnevskaya Theatre Studio in Moscow in 2004. She went on to further studies with Ruzanna Lisician at the Gnesin Music College, and in the vocal faculty of the Russian Gnesin Academy of Music. She was a soloist of the Gnesin Opera Studio (2009–12) and a member of the Young Artist Opera Programme of the Bolshoi Theatre (2012–15). She has sung for the Metropolitan Opera, New York, Rome Opera, Hamburg State Opera, Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, Valencia, Grand-Théâtre de Genève, Bavarian State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Opera Australia, Bergen National Opera, ROH Oman, Royal Danish Opera, Norwegian National Opera and the Bolshoi. In summer 2017 she made her Glyndebourne Festival debut as Violetta Valéry. Other repertory includes Eritea (Eliogabalo), Armida (Rinaldo), Hébé/Émilie/Zima (Les Indes galantes), Norina (Don Pasquale), Giulietta (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Medora (Il corsaro), Gilda (Rigoletto), Léïla (Les Pêcheurs de perles), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi), Liù (Turandot) and Marfa (The Tsar’s Bride). 

Mkhitaryan’s awards include First Prize at the Queen Sonja International Competition in Oslo (2013), Third Prize at the Neue Stimmen Competition (2013) and Second Prize in Operalia (2017).