Maria Guleghina - "Russian Cinderella"

Many know it as a "Russian Cinderella". Singer Maria Guleghina today is considered one of the most famous world opera divas.

"The Vocal Miracle"

The magnificent Russian soprano, who has "Verdian music" in her blood, she became famous for her amazing performance of the Tosca and Aida parties in the works of the same name. The main roles in "Manon Lescaut" and "Norma", "Fedora" and in "Turandot" and "Nabucco." Her performance is decorated with more than one opera. Maria Guleghina sang Violetta's part in the famous La Traviata, Lisa from The Queen of Spades, Desdemona in Othello and many others. Marina Agasovna Meytarjyan, and this is how her maiden name sounded, in 1987 she was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the Belorussian SSR. And most recently - in 2013 - in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, she was given the title of People's.

Biography

Maria Agasovna was born on August 9, 1959 in Odessa in the family of an Armenian and a Ukrainian. She graduated from the local conservatory in the vocal class. Her teacher was A. Dzhamagortsyan. Maria Guleghina, whose biography is closely connected with Belarus, began her main activity on the stage in 1983, as a soloist of the Minsk Academic Theater. A year later she was invited to La Scala, where she made her debut in the opera "The Ball-Masquerade". Her partners were many celebrities, including Pavarotti, with whom she first performed at this world-famous scene under the direction of Maestro Gavazzeni.

The warm and strong voice that Maria Guleghina naturally received, her acting skills turned her into a welcome guest of many world theaters. It is interesting that the star of the world opera scene, who does not know equals in the performance of dramatic soprano parts, made her debut as an artist at the age of sixteen, but not a singer, but ... a dancer. She performed a gypsy party in the opera "Traviatta", which was put by students of the Odessa Conservatory. The fact is that Maria Guleghina graduated from the ballet school and only after that she tried her hand at the vocal. At first, she studied as a contralto, then as a mezzo-soprano and only then she showed herself as a dramatic soprano.

Professional career

In La Scala Guleghina took part in fourteen productions, including performances "Two Foscari" and "Tosca", "Theodora" and "Macbeth", "Queen of Spades" and "Manon Lescaut", as well as "Nabucco" "The Power of Destiny" in The production of Riccardo Muti, etc. After her debut at the Metropolitan Opera, where Maria Guleghina took part in the production of "André Chenier" together with Luciano Pavarotti in 1991, the singer performed more than one hundred and thirty times on this stage, including Performances "Aida", as well as "Norma" and "Adrienne Lecouvreur".

In the same 1991, "Russian Cinderella" debuted at the Vienna Opera in the production of "André Chenier". Here she sang the parties Lisa and Tosca, as well as Elvira in "Ernani", Aida and many others. Even before her appearance on stage at Covent Garden, where she performed in the "Fedora" with Placido Domingo, the opera diva took part in the Barbican Hall in the concert performance of the immortal work of Ernani along with the Royal Theater troupe. After this, an invitation was made to speak at Wigmore Hall.

In 1996, lovers of the opera could enjoy her voice on the Arena di Verona. Here, for the performance in the "Nabucco" role Abigail Maria Guleghina was awarded the Prize Zanatello. Later, she sang many times in this theater.

Personal life

Surprisingly, in this woman two images perfectly coexist. She manages to easily combine in her stormy and sometimes unpredictable life two great roles: a great singer and a talented mother. Her daughter - already an adult Natasha from her first marriage - today helps her mother in many matters. A ten-year-old son Ruslan gives her the opportunity to feel the joy of maternal love to the end. And Maria Guleghina never concealed that it was her children, and not the big fees and main roles that were and are the most important in her life. Such peaks in the beloved profession, which conquered the "Russian Cinderella", managed to reach only a few women. For almost thirty years of work she managed to sing in all the world famous theaters. Its arrival at any point is an event for this country.

The husbands of Maria Guleghina were very different. She was first married at the age of eighteen. As a result, Natasha was born. After that, she married with a famous pianist, whose name is still wearing. It was with him that in 1989, after she left the Soviet Union, she moved to Hamburg. In 2010, the diva was combined with a third marriage to a famous wrestler and coach of the Russian team.

Old grievance

In 1986, in Moscow, Guleghina took part in the Tchaikovsky Competition. Then she took only the third place, although she deserved a gold medal, which for quite certain reasons she was not awarded. Many, probably, would have arranged such a result, but not Maria, a fighter by nature. After so "unsuccessful" in her opinion performances and undeserved "condemnation" in Moscow, the opera diva left for Minsk, where for a time it was performed by leading parties at the Opera and Ballet Theater.

World Recognition

Maria Agasovna today regularly performs on world stages. Among her partners are such famous singers as Placido Domingo and Leo Nucci, Samuel Reimi and Jose Cura, Renato Bruison and many others. She was accompanied at different times by the orchestras, led by conductors Gianandrea Gavazzeni and Zubin Meta, Mutti, Levine, as well as Valery Gergiev and Claudio Abbado.

Guligina is a laureate of numerous awards and prizes. The singer was awarded the Golden Medals of Maria Zamboni and the festival in Osaka. She does a lot of social work. For her work Maria Agasovna was awarded the Order of St. Olga - this is the highest award awarded by the Russian Orthodox Church. She was presented to the singer by Patriarch Alexy II. In addition, Goulegin is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. She is also an honorary member of the PKK.