Biography
Guest of the National Theatre Opera.
Georgian mezzo-soprano Mzia Nioradze studied at the Conservatory of Tbilisi before she completed her studies at the Music Academy of Osimo in Italy. In 1991/1992 she became soloist of the Opera House of Paliashvili, Georgian Republic, where she sang Verdi’s Eboli (Don Carlos), Azucena (Il trovatore) and Maddalena (Rigoletto).
Mzia Nioradze was a finalist at the International Voice Competition Elena Obraztsova and Rimsky-Korsakov in St. Petersburg as well as at the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Competition in Vienna.
Since 1996, she is a guest artist at the St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theatre, where she made her debut in the title role of Bizet’s Carmen. She has performed all the leading Verdi roles as well as the mezzo and contralto roles of the Russian repertory. In 2000 she took part in the new production of Prokofiev’s War and Peace at Opéra National de Paris Bastille. In 2001 Mzia Nioradze made her United States debut as Konchakovna in a new production of Borodin’s Prince Igor at Houston Grand Opera conducted by Alexander Anissimov (stage director: Francesca Zambello), followed by Eboli in Essen, the Witch in Dvořák's Rusalka and Marina in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov in Opéra National de Lyon, and Dalila (Saint-Saëns: Samson et Dalila) in St. Petersburg conducted by Valery Gergiev.
She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in War and Peace singing Elena, Matriosha and Mavra Kuzminichna, and was also featured as Maddalena in Rigoletto and Amneris in Aida.
Her reperoire includes among other roles Federica (Verdi: Luisa Miller), Laura (Ponchielli: La Gioconda), Fricka (Das Rheingold and Die Walküre) and mezzosoprano in Verdi’s Requiem.
Update: October 2007