Soprano Maija Kovalevska returned to the Opera House to shine in Mimì in Puccini's La Boheme.
Latvian soprano Maija Kovalevska has sung the role of Mimì in Puccini’s La Boheme over fifty times, the first at the Met in New York under the direction of Italian master Franco Zeffirelli with Placido Domingo conducting. You can’t get a greater debut in opera than that. She is currently performing the role at the Sydney Opera House alongside home favourite Mexican-Australian tenor Diego Torre. Not to be missed.
Maija Kovalevska was introduced to opera by chance. Her mother took her to see Carmen in Riga when she was a young child. “After the performance I could not sleep all night. I said to myself “There is something heavenly in all of this. I want to be part of this world”.
After having studied flute and piano at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music in Riga, her dream was to learn languages and travel around the world, but she missed out on a scholarship and decided to study opera singing instead. “The voice is like a child, you have always to take care of it”, she says.
Maija Kovalevska is very active within the Latvian Community at home and abroad. In 2018 she took part in a World Tour performing for Latvian communities in Toronto, Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Boston, Washington, Cleveland, New York among others. She is an Honorary Professor and was awarded the most prestigious Order of the Three Stars by the Latvian Government for her cultural work.
“God gave us the gift of the voice, and it is our responsibility to share it with the public” she says speaking about her strong religious conviction. Maija Kovalevska says that she prays before every performance and that her faith helps her to be humble as “all this success can get to your head and make you lose yourself”.
Maija Kovalevska will be performing Mimì in Puccini’s La Boheme at the Opera House in Sydney until 28 March with an outstanding cast: Diego Torre as Rodolfo; Julie Lea Goodwin and Lorina Gore as Musetta; Luke Gabbedy as Marcellounder the baton of Australian conductor Dane Lam.
