Aleksandra Kurzak

Polish soprano Aleksandra Kurzak made her Royal Opera debut in 2005 as Aspasia (Mitridate, re di Ponto) and has since sung Norina (Don Pasquale), Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Matilde (Matilde di Shabran), Fiorilla (Il turco in Italia), Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Gilda (Rigoletto), Lucia di Lammermoor, Liù (Turandot), Violetta Valéry (La traviata) and Nedda (Pagliacci). 

Kurzak was born into a musical family and studied violin and piano as a child. She later studied singing at the conservatories of Wroclaw and Hamburg and in 2009 received a PhD. She was a member of Hamburg State Opera 2001–7. Originally a specialist in lighter lyric and coloratura roles including, along with those listed above, Blonde (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Marie (La Fille du régiment), Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte) and Juliette (Roméo et Juliette), since 2016 she has expanded her repertory to include more Romantic repertory. Selected appearances since 2016 include Mimì (La bohème) in Berlin, Rachel (La Juive) for Bavarian State Opera, Violetta Valéry (La traviata), Desdemona (Otello), Alice Ford (Falstaff) and Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito) for Paris Opéra, Micaëla (Carmen) and Nedda for the Metropolitan Opera, New York and Luisa Miller for Opéra de Monte-Carlo. 

Kurzak’s awards include a Readers’ Award at the 2015 International Opera Awards. In 2018 the Polish Government awarded her with a Gold Medal for Merit to Culture. She was an exclusive recording artist for Decca 2010–16 and currently records exclusively for Sony Classical. She has also recorded for Deutsche Grammophon and Warner. Her recent recordings include the 2018 album Puccini in Love with Roberto Alagna.