Julia Sitkovetsky
British/American Julia Sitkovetsky is a dramatic coloratura soprano with a flourishing, exciting international career. Her repertoire ranges from baroque and classical, such as the title role Händel’s Alcina and Mozart roles like ‘Donna Anna’, ‘Konstanze’ and ‘The Queen of the Night’, to bel canto roles like ‘Elvira’ in Bellini’s I Puritani and Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata, to more contemporary repertoire including Hans Werner Henze, Jonathan Dove and George Benjamin. She is also a dedicated concert and recital artist, having released two song albums to great acclaim and performed at venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Snape Maltings, Fundación Juan March and many others.
Julia’s signature role of ‘The Queen of the Night’ in Die Zauberflöte features many times in her 2022/2023 season. She will make her house debuts with the role at the Hamburgische Staatsoper and Welsh National Opera, as well as singing the role again at the Semperoper Dresden and Deutsche Oper am Rhein. She will also return to the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra as the soprano soloist in ‘Ein Deutsches Requiem’ by Brahms and will also perform in their recital series. Future seasons include several role debuts and her house debuts with Grange Park Opera and Oper Leipzig.
In the 2021/22 season, Julia returned to the Semperoper Dresden and Deutsche Oper am Rhein in their productions of Die Zauberflöte as ‘The Queen of the Night’, and performed this role at the Komische Oper Berlin (house debut). She released her album of songs by Edward Elgar with pianist Christopher Glynn and Chandos Records in Autumn 2021 to great acclaim, and she performed Shostakovich songs with her father Dmitry Sitkovetsky at the Internationale Shostakovich Festival in Dresden in summer 2021 and the Petworth Festival in the UK in July 2022.
In the 2020/2021 season, Julia sang ‘ The Queen of the Night’ in Die Zauberflöte at the Semperoper Dresden. She would have debuted the roles of ‘Elvira’ in Bellini’s I Puritani and ‘Morgana’ in Handel’s Alcina at Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and should have sung ‘The Queen of the Night’ in Barrie Kosky’s production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte and ‘Waldvogel’ in Wagner’s Siegfried at Deutsche Oper am Rhein, but they were cancelled due to Covid-19.
In the 2019/20 season, Julia made her house debut at the Semperoper Dresden with the role of ‘The Queen of the Night’ in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. She returned to Deutsche Oper am Rhein to reprise her roles of Le Feu/La Princesse/Le Rossignol’ in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges and ‘Waldvogel’ in Siegfried in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. She gave recitals with Roger Vignoles at the Wigmore Hall and Snape Maltings, as well as celebrated the release of their CD of Rachmaninov songs with Hyperion Records in May 2020.
In the 2018/19 season, Julia made her role and house debut as ‘Le Feu/La Princesse/Le Rossignol’ in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, and later ‘Waldovgel’ in Wagner’s Siegfried at Deutsche Oper am Rhein; she returned to Staatsoper Hannover with the role of ‘Maria’ in Manfred Trojahn’s Was ihr wollt; and made her role and house debut as ‘The Queen of the Night’ in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at Scottish Opera.
In previous seasons, Julia made her role and house debut as ‘Gilda’ in Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Landestheater Linz, Austria, and she performed the role of ‘Ida’ in Henze’s Der Junge Lord and ‘Louise’ in Henze’s Die Englische Katze at the Staatsoper Hannover. She also performed the role of ‘Fernando Cortez’ in Vivaldi’s Motezuma at Theater Ulm.
Julia was a 2019 Paris Opera Competition finalist, she won the Prix Spécial du Centre Lyrique Clermont-Auvergne at the International Clermont Ferrand Competition 2017; First Prize in the 2014 Dean and Chadlington Competition; a 2018 Susan Chilcott Award Finalist; a Semifinalist in the Hans Gabor Belvedere Competition 2018 and a 2014 Young Classical Artists Trust Finalist at the Wigmore Hall.
Julia made her professional operatic debut at the age of 16 at Glyndebourne and English National Opera, understudying ‘Flora’ in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw. She trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 2012-2014, after which she continued her studies at the English National Opera OperaWorks Programme and Verbier Festival Academy in 2015.