Inessa Galante

Inessa Galante as Lisa at the Royal Swedish Opera, 2009. ©Alexander Kenney Kungliga Operan.

Inessa Galante (in Latvian Inese Galante) (b. Riga) is a Latvian soprano opera singer. Galante is known for a great beauty of tone, nuanced pianissimos and sensitive command of dynamics and colour. Her performance of Ave Maria by Caccini, an aria by Vladimir Vavilov, from her "Debut" album 1995 started spreading worldwide interest in the piece.

Career

Galante was born in Riga to a musical family. She entered the Latvian Academy of Music in Riga in 1977. While still a student at the Academy she became a soloist of the Latvian National Opera. Parallel to her work in Riga she was engaged in opera productions of other theatres, particularly at the Kirov Opera (Mariinsky theatre) in St. Petersburg, Russia where she had a fruitful collaboration with conductor Valery Gergiev.

From 1991 until 1999 Galante was soloist at National Theatre Mannheim and Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf. Since then she has been touring and performing all over the world. The voice of Galante was heard at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, at Festival de Radio France et Montpellier and St. Denis Festival (USA), Barbican Hall, Gibson Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall and Kensington Palace, Newport Music Festival (USA), Royal Swedish Opera, Kremlin, Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow (where she had her debut as Adriana in F.Cilea's opera „Adriana Lecouvreur“ in the production of La Scala theatre). In 2001 Galante appeared in concert in Rotterdam together with José Carreras.

Galante has worked with such conductors as Yehudi Menuhin, Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta, Evelino Pidò, Myung-whun Chung, Miguel Ángel Gómez Martínez, Neeme Järvi, Carl Davis, John Mauceri, Stefan Soltesz, Eric Klaas, Antonio Pappano, Steven Mercurio, Alexander Vedernikov, Dmitri Kitayenko, Vassily Sinaisky, Alexander Rahbari, Lawrence Renes and Vladimir Fedoseyev.

Operatic Roles

The first major operatic role of Galante was Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata at her graduation exam at the Music Academy. Since that time Galante has performed this role more than 100 times on various stages of the world. Among Galante's roles are:

• Olympia (in Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann),
• Snegurochka (in Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden),
• Gilda (in Verdi's Rigoletto),
• Leonora (in Verdi's Il Trovatore),
• Aida (in Verdi's Aida),
• Adina (in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore)
• Lucia (in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor),
• Rosina (in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia),
• Corina (in Rossini's Il viaggio a Reims),
• Marguerite (in Gounod's Faust),
• Magda (in Puccini's La Rondine),
• Cio-Cio-San (in Puccini's Madama Butterfly),
• Mimi (in Puccini's La Boheme),
• Liu (in Puccini's Turandot),
• Lauretta (in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi),
• Micaela (in Bizet's Carmen),
• Adriana (in Cilèa's Adriana Lecouvreur)
• Vivetta (in Cilèa's L'arlesiana),
• Pamina (in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte),
• Elvira (in Mozart's Don Giovanni),
• Nedda (in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci),
• Beauty (in Oliver's The Beauty and Beast),
• Naiad (in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos),
• 3rd Norn (in Wagner's Götterdämmerung),
• Ortlinde (in Wagner's Die Walküre),
• Euridice (in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice),
• Giuditta (in Lehár's Giuditta),
• Iolanta (in Tchaikovsky's Iolanta),
• Lisa (in Tchaikovsky's Queen of Spades),
• Manon Lescaut (in Puccini's "Manon Lescaut")

In addition to performing in operas Galante frequently sings in concerts in Verdi's Requiem, Mozart's Requiem, in the works of Bruckner, Poulenc, Schubert, Brahms and other composers. In 2008 Galante performed Richard Strauss's The Four Last Songs for soprano and orchestra which was at the same time premiere of this work in Russia.

Galante is patroness of the international music festival Summertime. She has been awarded The Order of the Three Stars by the President of Latvian Republic.

Discography

Galante's album "Debut" was awarded Gold (1999) and Platinum (2001) disc in Holland after its sales exceeded 200,000; the disc Arietta was recognized by BBC to be the best in the nomination of classical music (2000). The disc of opera arias by Tchaikovsky (BMG, the Royal Opera orchestra, conductor Neeme Järvi) was considered to be exceptionally brilliant, marking out the scene of Tatyana's letter as the best interpretation of recent 20 years. The disc Arias from Verdi's late operas got the Gramophone editor choice (October, 2003). Classic CD described her Cavatina of Norma as "...a Norma to rival that of Callas...". She is described as one of the most notable followers of the legendary singer. Her concerts are recorded by Classic FM and BBC.

LP

• Mendelssohn, Three motets for female voice and organ. Woman's Folk Сhorus "Amber" (Sieviešu tautas koris "Dzintars") Conductor Imants Cepītis, Aivars Kalējs Riga Cathedral organ, solistes Inessa Galante, Antra Bigača, Olga Žarikova, Ingūna Lazdiņa. Melodiya 1987
• Jewish folk songs - Inessa Galante & Jānis Sproģis & The Latvian SSR Chorus (Recorded live at the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory June 9 1987) Melodiya 1989
• Spiritual music ("Gariga muzika") music of Jāzeps Vītols. Melodiya, Latvia 1991
• Сhorus "Versija" - Ziemas svētkos / "Šai svētā naktī". Ritonis, Latvia, 1991

CD

• "Songs of Amber" - Songs of Women's Folk Chorus Dzintars (solo Inessa Galante) - 1990
• "Inese Galante. Soprano" - Latvian National Symphony Orchestra Conductor Aleksandrs Vilumanis 1995 (Gold and Platinum CD). Released as "Debut" on Campion.
• "Heroines" – Gounod, Cilea, Puccini - Campion Records 1995
• "Velreiz" ("again, encore") - Albinoni arias 1996
• Maks Goldins Eighteen Jewish Folk Songs & Rachmaninov - Romantic Songs - Campion 1996
• "Encore" - Johann Strauss, Weber (compilation) 1997
• "Musica Sacra" – From Riga Cathedral. Paula Licite Ave Maria etc. cond. Juris Klavins (compilation of live recordings 1989-1996) - Campion 1997
• "The Tchaikovsky Experience" – Sergei Leiferkus, Marina Shaguch, Alexander Fedin. Covent Garden Orchestra conducted by Neeme Järvi, BMG 1997
• "Latvian Sacral Music" - solisti Inessa Galante, Dita Kalniņa (soprano), Ingus Pētersons (tenor), Aivars Kalējs (organ), Dita Krenberga (flute), cond. Kaspars Putniņš - 1997
• "La Traviata" – Verdi. (2 CD's Live recorded. Latvian National Opera. 1989) - 1998
• "Arietta" – Baroque Arias, London Musici. Conducted by M. Stephenson (Best recording of the year 2000 –as reviewed by BBC, FM classics.) - 1999
• "Russian Recital" – at the Wigmore Hall. Roger Vignoles (piano). (BBC live recording 1999) - 2000
• "ABC (Adagio in C minor)" – Albinoni. Conducted by Alexander Vilumanis, „Soprano arias“ – Bach J.S., „Amarilli mia bella“ – Caccini. Conducted by Mark Stephenson (conductor) - 2001
• "The Galante Choice" - 2001
• "Galante forever ..." - 2001
• "Mass in C major ,Exultate, jubilate Ergo interest" – Mozart. Czechoslovakian Chamber Philharmonic. Conducted by D. Bostock - 2001
• "Verdi Galante. Arias from Verdi’s late works" – Latvian National Symphony Orchestra. Conducted by Terje Mikkelsen Campion - 2003
• "Confesso" - Inessa Galante & Henk van Twillert (baritone saxophone) - 2006
• "Requiem" - Mozart. conducted by Andres Mustonen - 2007
• "Stabat Mater" - Pergolesi. Stradella - Pieta Signore. Vivaldi Stabat mater. Inessa Galante, Sergejs Jēgers (alto) chamber ensemble conducted by Andris Veismanis - 2008
• “Ave Maria” Inessa Galante. Organ: Aivars Kalejs in Riga Cathedral - Release December 17. 2008
• "LA GALANTE THE SOUL OF RIGA" (2 CD's) Inessa Galante. Organ: Aivars Kalejs and Mattias Wager. Release 14-07-2011 Dom Riga

Not published live records

• "Iolanta" - Tchaikovsky. Live records. Paris Theatre Chatelet. 15.3.1996
• "L Arlesiana" - Cilea. Live records. Montpellier, Festival de Radio France 07.1996
• "Gianni Schicchi" - Puccini. Live records. Muziekcentrum Vredenburg, Utrecht. 25.04.1996
• "Madame Butterfly" - Puccini. - Live records. Latvian National Opera. 1999, 2000
• "Manon Lescaut" - Puccini. Live records. Royal Operahouse in Stockholm, Sweden. 13.02.2006, 07.02.2009

References

Listen to the complete opera Manon Lescaut with Inessa Galante. Music is extremely copyrighted © ÏnessaGalanteFan" ® Act 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swoCleM6Tes Act 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phHqkYuqGn8 Act 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3e7DsjRb9c Act 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9dpocOy-QM

Sources

Silvija Lice: "Inessa Galante", by Publishing House "Liktenstasti", Riga, 1999,ISBN 9984-611-29-9

External links

MY DREAM HAS COME TRUE - I met INESSA GALANTE in Amsterdam December 18. 2010 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00kkbohfH7A

http://www.youtube.com/user/InessaGalanteFan

• Her Web site

• Listen to the Giulio Caccini's Ave Maria sung by Inessa Galante