Russian soprano Olesya Golovneva, already named "Best Singer of the Year" for her performances as Anna Bolena and Luisa Miller , has been nominated for the German Theatre Prize FAUST for her interpretation of Rusalka at Cologne Opera. Her enthusiastically received performance as Silvana in Respighi's La Fiamma , with which she opened the previous season at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, is now available on DVD.

In the 2026/27 season, Olesya Golovneva will make three significant role debuts: She will appear as Cio-Cio-San in Puccini's Madama Butterfly at Deutsche Oper am Rhein, before making her role debut as Lady Macbeth in Verdi's Macbeth in a new production by Barrie Kosky in Rome, conducted by Juraj Valčuha. Another role debut will take her to Stuttgart State Opera, where she will sing the role of Polina in Prokofiev's The Gambler for the first time. She will also return to the stage of Frankfurt Opera as Turandot.

Among the important engagements of recent seasons are Tatiana in Christof Loy's production of Eugene Onegin at the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo, as well as Turandot at the Cologne Opera and the Oper Frankfurt , her celebrated role debuts as Silvana ( La Fiamma ) at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Loy-Rizzi), as Salome at the Grand Théâtre de Genève (Mundruzco-Saraste), as Turandot at the Staatstheater Wiesbaden (Kerck-Gamzou) and as Katya Kabanova at the Hamburg State Opera, as well as Valentine alongside Juan Diego Flórez in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots and the soprano part in Christian Spuck's choreography of Verdi's Requiem at the Deutsche Oper Berlin; her triumphant house debut as Rusalka at the Teatro Real Madrid and at the Palau de les Arts Valencia, as well as her directorial debut with this opera at the Wiesbaden State Theatre, and her debut in the major soprano roles of Puccini's Trittico at the same house; in addition, Desdemona in Otello alongside Roberto Saccà at the Oper Frankfurt She has sung alongside Gregory Kunde at the Wiesbaden State Theatre; Tatiana in Eugene Onegin in productions by the Hamburg State Opera, the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki, the Cologne Opera, and the Wiesbaden State Theatre, where she also sang Vitellia in La clemenza di Tito . The artist has a particularly close relationship with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, where she has enjoyed great success as Maria Stuarda, Gilda, Elisabetta, Luisa Miller , Donna Anna, and La Traviata . She also collaborates regularly with the Cologne Opera, which has presented the soprano as Natasha in War and Peace , as well as Anna Bolena, Lucia, Tatiana, and Vitellia. She has sung La Traviata in Dresden, Munich, Prague, at the Wiesbaden May Festival, in Düsseldorf, Cologne, Bonn, and Antibes. Other important Verdi roles include Luisa Miller , which she debuted at Malmö Opera; Simone -Amelia, with which she debuted at the Opéra de Marseille; and Gilda, which she performed at, among other venues, the Zurich Opera House and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Also at Malmö Opera, the artist sang her first Mimì in La bohème and was able to replicate her success in the role at the... Oper Frankfurt repeat, in which she was also successful as Rusalka and Don Carlo - Elisabetta.
Olesya Golovneva's most recent concert performances include Rachmaninoff's The Bells at the Dortmund Concert Hall, Beethoven's 9th Symphony in Lausanne, Dvorak's Te Deum in Utrecht and Amsterdam, WDR with Andrés Orozco-Estrada, and the Vienna Musikverein under Franz Welser-Möst.
Available recordings of the artist currently include Iolanta with Dmitri Kitajenko on CD and Luisa Miller and La bohème on DVD from Malmö Opera.
Born in Pskov, Russia, Olesya Golovneva completed her studies in St. Petersburg and at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, where she graduated with distinction under Prof. Robert Holl in Art Song and Oratorio. She is a prizewinner of the Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov Competition and the International Vocal Competition 's-Hertogenbosch.
2026/27
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