Warner Classics & Jazz

Biography

Andrea Rost was born in Budapest. She graduated at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music as the pupil of Zsolt Bende. She was still a student with a scholarship from the Budapest Opera when she sang Juliette in Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette at the Budapest Opera House in 1989.

Two years later, in 1991, she became the soloist of the Staatsoper in Vienna, where she sang all her major roles; the conoisseur audience of Vienna could hear her sing magnificently the roles of Zerlina through Adina and Susanna to Lucia di Lammermoor and Violetta, as well as at a number of concerts.

She made a roaring international success at the première of Rigoletto at La Scala in 1994, where she had been invited by Riccardo Muti, and she has been a regular guest singer there ever since. She was already a celebrated star when in 1995 she sang Pamina at the première of Zauberflöte at the night of the season at La Scala to great acclaim. These roles were followed by Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, and Violetta in Verdi’s Traviata. Last time she performed in the role of Gilda at Teatro alla Scala.

At the Salzburg Festival, she has perfomed in several productions, including R. Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten (Voice of the Falcon, under Georg Solti), Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione de Poppea (Drusilla, under Nikolaus Harnoncourt), Verdi’s Traviata (Violetta, under Riccardo Mutti), and Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov (Xenia, under Claudio Abbado).
In L'Opéra Bastille de Paris she sang Susanna, Gilda, Lucia, and Antonia (in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann).

In the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden she made her debut as Susanna, then went on to sing Violetta with great success. She sang the title role of Donizetti’s Elisabeth at a concert performance, which was also a world première. Last time she performed as Lucia di Lammermoor.
In Teatro Real Madrid she sang the role of Blanche of Poulenc Les dialogues des Carmélites in 2006.

At the Maggio Musicale Firenze 2007 she was invited as Euridice of the Gluck’s Orfeo contucted by Riccardo Muti.

In the United States, she has performed at the Chicago Lyric Opera several times, singing Zerlina, Gilda, Violetta, and Giulietta (Bellini: I Capuletti e i Montecchi), in October 2005 she performed as Micaela and in January 2007 as Rosalinde.

She made her debut in the Metropolitan Opera, New York in 1996 as Adina in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore, later appearing there as Gilda, Lucia, and Violetta as well. Last time she sung Susanna at the Metropolitan.
She performed as Antonia at the Washington Opera, and appeared in Los Angeles in the same role. In March 2002, she sang Pamina in Los Angeles, last time she performed as Violetta at Washington.

She is often invited to sing at the New National Theatre in Tokyo moreover at international opera gala evenings. At the Budapest Opera, she often sings her favourite roles of Gilda, Lammermoori Lucia and Violetta.

She sings Mozart arias from Don Giovanni and Le Nozze di Figaro on her latest released CD album performing eight different roles, the DVD-version of this recording came out already.

She is the holder of the title „Artist of Merit”, in 1997, she won the Liszt Prize and in 2004, the Kossuth Prize.

June, 2007