María José Siri

Maria José Siri figures among today's leading sopranos in a repertoire comprising many of the 19th and 20th century Italian opera heroines, which she has performed at venues such as the Teatro alla Scala, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Deutsche Oper and Staatsoper Berlin, Semperoper Dresden, Staatsoper Hamburg, Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, Bolshoi Theatre Moscow, New National Opera Tokyo, the Arena di Verona and Bregenz Festival. Born in Uruguay, she began her vocal studies at the ENAL Montevideo, completing them at the Paris Conservatory and with Ileana Cotrubas in Nizza and  Vienna. Siri performed her first operatic roles on the stages of her native country and in Argentina, where she frequently performed at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. She made her career breakthrough in Europe in 2008 as Leonora in Il trovatore at the Teatro Carlo Felice of Genoa led by Bruno Bartoletti.

Ms Siri rose to international fame in the inauguration of the Teatro alla Scala's 2016/17 season, making her title role debut in Madama Butterfly under the baton of Riccardo Chailly. Other iconic Puccini characters in her repertoire include the title roles of Manon Lescaut, Tosca and Suor Angelica; Giorgetta in Il tabarro, Anna in Le villi, Mimì and Musetta in La bohème.

Her wide Verdi repertoire includes more than ten roles, from the early dramatic coloratura roles such as Abigaille in Nabucco, Lucrezia Contarini in I due Foscari or Odabella in Attila, to titles such as Il trovatore, Simon Boccanegra, Un ballo in maschera, La forza del destino, Don Carlo or Otello. She has sung Verdi's Messa da Requiem with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmoniker and Marek Janowski, the Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala led by Riccardo Chailly and that of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino conducted by Myung-Whun Chung. She graced many international stages in the title role of Aida, which she has performed more than 100 times, among them in four different productions at the Arena di Verona and in two stagings at Teatro alla Scala under the batons of Daniel Barenboim and Zubin Mehta.

Other characters of her repertoire include Norma (Macerata, Teatro San Carlo), Zandonai's Francesca da Rimini (Teatro alla Scala) and Maddalena in Andrea Chénier (Deutsche Oper Berlin, New National Theatre Tokyo, Bregenzer Festspiele).

Recently, Maria José Siri made her role debut as Santuzza in Cavalleria rusticana at the Arena di Verona, where she also performed in Aida and a gala concert with Plácido Domingo, sang the title role of Adriana Lecouvreur led by Daniel Harding at the Maggio Musicale in Florence and in Las Palmas, Leonora in La forza del destino in Liège, Tosca in Salerno, Giorgetta in Il tabarro in Verona, Manon Lescaut in Palermo and Abigaille in Nabucco in Florence (role debut) and Bari.

Maria José Siri made her debut at the Wiener Staatsoper in the 2012/13 season as Tosca and later returned as Maddalena in Andrea Chénier, Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly, Leonora in Il trovatore, and again as Tosca and this season as Elisabetta (Don Carlo) and Abigaille (Nabucco).