Mirjam Tola

Mirjam Tola is an Albanian operatic soprano and voice teacher. She is also an Austrian citizen.

Life

Born in Tirana in 1972,^[1] Tola studied singing at the University of Arts Tirana^[2] with Suzana Frashëri [pl]^[3] from 1991 and graduated with distinction in 1994. In Tirana she had her opera debut in the female title role in Bastien und Bastienne.^[4] From 1997 she studied at the Salzburg Mozarteum^[2] with Boris Bakov [de]^[3] and Alessandro Misciasci. She was a finalist in several international singing competitions, such as the Verdi Competition in Busseto, the Puccini Competition Licia Albanese^[2] in New York and the Zachary Competition^[5] in Los Angeles in 2001. At the Vienna State Opera she was awarded a sponsorship prize at the Eberhard Waechter Medal [de] ceremony.^[6]

From 2004 to 2006 Tola was engaged at the Ljubljana Opera House. Guest appearances took her to the Berlin State Opera, and from 2007 to the Teatro Verdi in Trieste^[2] and the Kleines Festspielhaus^[2][4] in Salzburg. In 2008 Tola made her Hamburg debut in her signature role, the title role in Tosca^[7], and from 2010 to 2012 she was engaged as an ensemble member at the Hamburg State Opera, where she subsequently continued to appear as a guest.^[8] Further engagements took her to the Staatstheater Meiningen, the Wuppertal Opera House,^[2][9] the Staatstheater Kassel,^[10] the Essen Aalto Theater, the Teatro Grande in Brescia, the Teatro Ponchielli in Cremona, the Teatro Fraschini in Pavia^[3] and the Arena in Verona.^[11]

Tola has worked with conductors such as Anton Guadagno, Nello Santi, Simone Young, Karen Kamensek, Massimo Zanetti, Will Humburg, Peter Schneider, Markus Poschner and Matthias Foremny [de].^[2]

She has also performed at New York's Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, among other venues.^[2][3] Her concert repertoire includes, for example, the soprano parts in Beethoven's 9th Symphony and in sacred works such as Verdi's Messa da Requiem, Mozart's Coronation Mass and Schubert's Lazarus.^[3]

Tola also acts as a jury member, for example at the Albanian classical music competition Virtuozet in 2018.^[12]

Repertoire (selection)

• Puccini: title role in Tosca, title role in Suor Angelica, Mimi and Musetta in La Bohème, Cio-Cio-San in Madama Butterfly,^[13] Liù in Turandot^[14]
• Verdi: Desdemona in Otello, Elisabeth in Don Carlos, Leonora^[11] in Il trovatore, Amelia in Un ballo in maschera, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth^[15]
• Mozart: Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro,^[8] Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Bastienne in Bastien und Bastienne
• Giordano: Maddalena in Andrea Chénier
• Bellini: Adalgisa in Norma
• Leoncavallo: Nedda in Pagliacci
• Tchaikovsky: Tatjana in Eugene Onegin^[9]
• Brecht/Weill: Anna in The Seven Deadly Sins^[2][3]
• Prokofiev: Fata Morgana in The Love for Three Oranges
• Bizet: Micaëla in Carmen
• Rossini: Zaida in Il turco in Italia