Biography

Margarita Gritskova is a russian opera singer, mezzo-soprano.

She was born in Sankt Petersburg, studied piano and singing in her hometown and graduated 2010 at the State Academy of Music in the class of Irina Bogatschewa. A memorable event during her studies was the performance of Bizet’s Carmen at the Opera Theatre of the Academy of Music with Margarita in the leading role and Maestro Mariss Jansons conducting.

Already as a student, Margarita Gritskova won prizes at the Luciano Pavarotti-Competition in Modena ин 2008 and the Concurso Internacional de Canto Villa de Colmenar in Spain in 2009.

Immediately after graduating, she was engaged at the National Theater in Weimar, from where started her international career. She appeared in a wide repertoire from Ottone ("L’incoronazione di Popea" by Monteverdi) and Bradamante ("Alcina" by G.F.Händel), Cherubino ("Le nozze di Figaro" by W.A.Mozart) to Bizet’s Carmen.

October 2011 marks her first appearance in North America as Olga ("Eugen Onegin") at the Opera de Quebec in Canada.

Since 2012 Margarita Gritskova has been a member of the ensemble of the Vienna State Opera, where she became very soon an audience favorite.
Her appearance at the Vienna Opera Ball in February 2014, transmitted by many major TV channels, made her name known worldwide.
She sang all major roles for mezzosoprano in the Mozart and Rossini Repertoire ranging from - Cherubino, Idamante, Annio, Sesto, Dorabella, Bradamante, Rosina, Angelina ("Cenerentola"), Isabella ("L‘Italiana in Algeri"), as well as Olga ("Eugen Onegin"), Krista in the premiere of "Makropulos" (directed by Peter Stein) and Masha in the premiere production of "Three Sisters" by Peter Eotvos (directed by Yuval Sharon).
Subsequently Maestro Peter Eotvos devoted his romance to Margarita, written on Marina Tsvetaeva’s poem "Bitterness".

In January 2018 she sang her first Carmen in Vienna, with Piotr Beczala as Don José.

Margarita Gritskova represents the Vienna State Opera also on tours. She sang Cherubino at the Vienna State Opera’s guest performances in Japan in fall 2016 under Riccardo Muti and in April 2018 in Aix-en- Provence under Alain Altinoglu.

Margarita Gritskova appears already at renowned festivals, such as the Salzburg festival, the Festivale de Opera in Tenerifa, the Rossini Festival in Pesaro and the Schleswig-Holstein festival among others.

She sings at leading opera houses, such as the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre, the State Opera Hamburg, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, the State Opera Zurich, the Opera theaters in Oslo and in Valencia.

In the year 2018 Margarita was voted the best mezzo-soprano of the Opera season 17/18 in the Palau Les Arts Valencia.

Highlights of her career are concerts with world famous tenor José Carreras in Vienna, Moscow, St.Petersburg, Innsbruck, Oviedo, at Covent Garden in London in May 2017 and at Carnegie Hall in New York in September 2017.

Additionally Margarita Gritskova pays particular attention to chamber art, such love of art was cultivated in Margarita by an eminent chamber singer Nelly Lee.

She made her debut at Vienna’s Musikverein in 2015 with a song recital with pianist Thomas Lausmann.

Further recitals took her to the Rossini Festival in Bad Wildbad in 2015 with pianist and composer Eduard Kiprsky and to the Rossini Festival in Pesaro in 2017 with pianist and conductor Ivan Demidov.

In 2014 she appeared at premieres of the Rossini festival in Bad Wildbad as Ottone in «Adelaide in Borgogna» and in 2016 in the title role of Sigismondo (conductor Antonino Fogliani).
Recordings of both premieres released by Naxos-Records.


Together with pianist Maria Prinz, she works on different programs for song recitals, some of which they presented in concerts in Sofia (Bulgaria) and at the Russian cultural institute in Vienna in 2017.

In February 2018, both artists recorded a CD with works by Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov and Rachmaninoff, which was published by Naxos in March 2019.

For Naxos, they have also recorded two more CDs with songs by Prokofiev and Shostakovich in 2019.

For the Austrian crime movie "Der letzte Gipfel" (2021), director Julian Pölsler ("Die Wand") brought Margarita Gritskova in front of the camera for the role of the attractive Simone Eisel.

In addition to her role debut as Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus) at the Vienna State Opera, her engagements include Isabella at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.
In the summer of 2021, Margarita Gritskova made her role debut as Preziosilla (La forza del destino) at the Klosterneuburg Opera, to critical and audience acclaim, and will make her debut as Amneris (Aida) at the Nationaltheater Weimar in the 2021/22 season.
After her debut last season as Johanna Seymour (Anna Bolena) at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz in Munich, she returns to Munich with this role in the current season.

In the spring of 2022 she made her debut at the Bolshoi Theatre as Rosina (conductor Tugan Sokhiev), and in the summer she made her debut as Adalgisa at the Immling Festival in the premiere "Norma" by director Seollyeon Konwitschny-Lee.
Together with the well-known Austrian composer and pianist Albin Fries, she gave a very successful concert in Gran Canaria in autumn 2022, including song cycles that Fries had composed for her.

In December 2022 she made her debut with great success at the Royal Theatre in Melbourne (Australia) in the title role of «Cinderella» (conducted by Richard Mills, directed by Elizabeth Hill-Cooper), and then she sang at the San Carlo Theater in Naples Waltraute in Wagner’s «Walküre».

In the Opernwelt-Jahrbuch 2022 Margarita Gritskova was awarded as Amneris of the Weimar «Aida» production in the category Singer of the Year.

In June 2023, she took part in the annual Augsburg Festival in Mahler’s «Lied von der Erde» with Zurab Zurabishvili and pianist Alessandro Mishiashi.
And in July she had a huge success in the role of Eboli in «Don Carlo» at the Klosterneuburg Festival under the direction of Christoph Campestrini (directed by Günther Groissböck).