Wallis Giunta

Last season she made her debut at the Opéra de Lausanne as Dorabella Così fan tutte and sang the role of Mary Magdalene in John Adams The Gospel According to the Other Mary in Vienna; in concert she appeared at Montreal’s Maison Symphonique as Carmen, was a soloist in the acclaimed New Year concerts at Vienna Konzerthaus, starred as Anna in Weill Seven Deadly Sins alongside HK Gruber conducting the Ensemble Modern at Carnegie Hall as part of a USA and European tour, and appeared in recital with the Absalon Quartet at Tivoli Festival.

Recent operatic highlights for Giunta include Dodo in Breaking the Waves for the Edinburgh and Adelaide festivals, title role Carmen, Rosina Il barbiere di Siviglia and Octavian Der Rosenkavalier at Oper Leipzig, Mercédès Carmen for Oper Frankfurt, Sesto La Clemenza di Tito and Dorabella for the Canadian Opera Company, Rosina in Dallas and Olga The Merry Widow for the Metropolitan Opera; for the Volksoper Wien her many roles have included Hänsel Hänsel und Gretel, Cherubino Le nozze di Figaro and Angelina La Cenerentola. Elsewhere she has sung Idamante Idomeneo, Tigrane Radamisto, Bradamante Alcina, title role L’enfant et les sortilèges, Maria in Piazzola Maria de Buenos Aires and Dinah in Bernstein Trouble in Tahiti, appearing at Opera de Lyon, Opera Montpellier, Opera North, Seattle Opera, Royal Opera House Muscat and the Grange Festival.

On the concert platform, recent highlights include  Berio Folk Songs at the Komische Oper, Candide with the Hamburger Symphoniker conducted by Sir Jeffrey Tate, The Sound of Argentina and a critically acclaimed solo recital at the BBC Proms, Mozart Grosse Messe with the Gewandhaus Orchester and Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa. She has also performed with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, made a return appearance with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester in Mozart Die Schuldigkeit des Ersten Gebots, and sang in the Bernstein Centenary gala at Koerner Hall, Toronto. Giunta is a passionate champion of the music of Kurt Weill; especially Seven Deadly Sins, which she has performed with the Toronto Symphony, the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, the Oregon Music Festival, at Lincoln Centre,  Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, Dacamera Houston and in the British premiere of the new chamber version, livestreamed globally with Opera North in 2020.

Giunta is a recipient of a 2013 Novick Career Advancement Grant and the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Career Development Award, and has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts. She is a 2013 graduate of both the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, and the Juilliard School’s Artist Diploma in Opera Studies, and was a member of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio from 2009 to 2011.

2024/25 season / 552 words. Not to be altered without permission.