Nina Rautio

Nina Rautio (born 21 September 1957) is a Russian operatic soprano.^[1] She received her training as a singer at the Conservatory of Leningrad 1981-87 and was first hired at the local opera house (Kirov Theater). Since 1987, she has been a member of the ensemble of the Bolshoi Theater Moscow.

Rautio attracted international attention when she performed in 1991 at the Metropolitan Opera New York and at the Edinburgh Festival with the Bolshoi ensemble. She sang these guest appearances to Tatyana in "Eugene Onegin" and Oksana in "The Christmas Night" by Rimsky-Korsakov. In 1992 her debut took place at La Scala in the title role of Puccini's "Manon Lescaut". In the same year she performed in Rome, the soprano solo in the Verdi Requiem, and at the Savonlinna Festival in Finland, Aida. At the World Exposition in Seville in 1992 was heard in a concert with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

In the 1992-93 season, Rautio appeared at La Scala as Elisabetta in Verdi's "Don Carlos" and at the Opéra Bastille in Paris as Lisa in "Pique Dame" by Tchaikovsky. At the Covent Garden Opera she was seen as Aida, Amelia in Verdi's "Un Ballo in maschera", as Desdemona in "Othello" by Verdi, and as Abigail in the "Nabucco". Further successes in 1993 at the Rome Opera as Aida and in 1994 at the Teatro Comunale Florence as Amelia in Verdi's "Simon Boccanegra". At the Festival of Orange she was heard in 1993 as Desdemona.

As a major concert singer, Rautio proved during performances at London's Festival Hall (Verdi Requiem), Pittsburgh (in works by Beethoven and Gustav Mahler) and at La Scala (in the Glagolitic Mass by Janáček). She sang Desdemona in Verdi's "Otello" in Florence, the Festival of Orange, and at the Covent Garden Opera. She performed Amelia in "Simon Boccanegra" at the Staatsoper Berlin and returned there in 1994-95 to sing Aida and Leonora in "La forza del destino". At the Vienna State Opera in 1996 she sang Lisa in "The Queen of Spades" and Maddalena in "Andrea Chénier" by Giordano with Luciano Pavarotti in the title role. She appeared as Aida in 1995 at the Metropolitan Opera New York and sang the role again in 1996 at the Arena di Verona.

Her recordings include the title role in "Manon Lescaut" by Puccini, Mathilde in "William Tell" by Rossini, and Verdi's Requiem, all with Sony. She also recorded discs of Puccini Arias and Tschaikovsky songs on BMG.

References

1. ^ Hall (2002) pp. 965-966

Sources

• Hall, Charles J.,Chronology of Western Classical Music, Taylor & Francis, 2002. ISBN 0415942160
• Metropolitan Opera, Rautio, Nina (Soprano), performance record on the MetOpera Database. Accessed 8 October 2009.
• Sylvester, Richard D., Tchaikovsky's complete songs: a companion with texts and translations, Indiana University Press, 2004. ISBN 0253216761

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Name	Rautio, Nina
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Date of birth	21 September 1957
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