About
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Spanish soprano Laura Alonso Padín was born in Villagarcía de Arosa (Galicia). Graduated in singing and violin, she furthered her studies at the Musikhochschule Karlsruhe in Germany, where she studied with Aldo Baldín, Anna Reynolds, Jean Cox, and Lieder with Hartmut Höll, thanks to the important German scholarship Alexander von Humboldt.
At the age of 21, she joined the Ensemble of the Aalto Theatre in Essen (Germany), where she performed Mimì in La Bohème, Gilda in Rigoletto, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Zdenka in Arabella, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte and Blanche in Dialogues des Carmélites, among others roles, and many concerts. She received the Award for the most outstanding artist of the above mentioned theatre (awarded by popular vote), which she performed again at the European City of Culture Ruhr 2010, at the Aalto Theater in Essen in a lyrical gala, where she received one of the European Union’s culture awards.
She received the Award for “Most Outstanding Artist” at the Aalto Theatre (awarded by popular acclaim). She represented the theatre at the RUHR.2010 – Kulturhauptstadt Europas (European City of Culture Event of 2010) and received the Culture Award of the European Union.
She is a regular guest at internationally renowned theatres and concert halls such as the Rishon Le Zion Auditorium (Israel), Lincoln Center in New York, Teatro Bellas Artes in Mexico, Philharmonie in Cologne, Berlin and Essen, Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, Konzerthaus in Berlin, Karlsruhe and Dortmund, Kuppel Saal in Hannover, Maestranza in Seville, Herodes Atticus in Athens, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Utrecht Auditorium, Los Angeles Auditorium (U.S.A.), Palau de Valencia and Barcelona, among many others.
As a winner of eminent prizes in international singing competitions, she won the First Prize and the Prize for the best soprano in the last Alfredo Kraus Competition, along with others in the Franco Corelli, Verviers and Jaume Aragall competitions.
She regularly sings with conductors such as Stefan Soltesz, Ion Marin, Philipp Jordan, Zoltan Peszko, Víctor Pablo Pérez, Heiko Matthias Förster, Antonello Allemandi, Frans Brüggen, Helmuth Rilling, Jiri Kôut, Karel Mark Chichon or E. Plasson, in important European theatres such as the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Staatsoper Berlin, Oper Leipzig, Oper Frankfurt, Staatstheater Darmstadt, Opéra National de Lorraine, Staatstheater Braunschweig, Théâter de Poissy, Illinois Opera, Komische Oper Berlin, Theater Freiburg, Theater Lübeck or Brno in the Czech Republic.
She has collaborated with stage masters such as A. Pilavachi, De Tomasi, Johannes Schaaf, Pontiggia, Berndt, Schlingensief or Hilsdorf and performed at the Festivals of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the Royaumont Festival, Bregenzer Festspiele, Verbier Festival, Expo Hannover, Innsbrucker Festwochen, Île-de France Festival, Santander Festival, Salzburg Festival, or at the Berlin Opera Week, among others.
Highlights of her career include her role as Giulia in La Scala di seta by Rossini, during a European tour with the Freiburger Barockorchester, conducted by Attilio Cremonesi; her performances in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Berlin Staatsoper or her debut at the Innsbruck Festival (Austria) in the role of Cleopatra in Antonio Sartorio’s opera Giulio Cesare, released on disc by the ORF label, which awarded her the deserved Diapason D’Or from the French critics.
Special mention should also be made of successes such as Magda in Puccini’s La Rondine, which she performed in Utrecht (Holland) with the T.R.O.S. and maestro Gómez Martínez at the baton, as well as the performances at the Salzburg Festival in the role of Sandrina in La Finta Giardiniera, on the occasion of the Mozart year and with the staging of Doris Dörrie, as well as a great concert of Spanish songs together with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra and the Chinese guitarist Xuefei Yang, at the Hamburg Laeiszhalle.
She has performed conducted by the maestro Alejandro Posada, with the Canarian tenor Celso Albelo in a great opera gala with duets and arias from the works: Lakmé, Rigoletto, Elisir d’Amore and Semiramide, together with the Sinfónica de Castilla y León in the first Opening of the Auditorio Miguel Delibes in Valladolid.
Her most ambitious recording project is the compact disc of unknown bel canto arias: “Col sorriso d’innocenza”, a work in collaboration with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Málaga, which was released in December 2006 and has received excellent reviews in the international opera press. In 2009 she performed the title role of Rosario in the German premiere of Granados’ Goyescas.
She made her debut at the prestigious Alice Tully Hall in New York, in what was the first Lincoln Center premiere of a Spanish opera: “Las horas vacías” by Ricardo Llorca, to great critical acclaim.
Alonso Padín has toured the main cities of Germany with the Chilean tenor Felipe Rojas accompanied by the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, singing zarzuela, and has performed with the Orchestra da camera di Firenze, with works by Vivaldi under the baton of maestro Guven Yaslicam in Florence. She has performed the altarpiece of Maese Pedro by Manuel de Falla in Tel Aviv, and the role of Donna Anna in the opera Don Giovanni in Chile, as well as several concerts with the Orquestra Sinfonica di Roma with Mahler’s 4th Symphony, which she has sung with the Sinfónica de Galicia and the Sinfónica de Bilbao.
She spends a large part of the year giving recitals in various countries around the world. Upcoming events include several concerts of Spanish music in the USA, Russia, Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, China, Latin America, at the Casa Verdi in Busetto, and in the Arab countries, many of them with the pianist Marcelo Amaral and soon with Hartmut Höll.
Alonso Padín has performed with the Egyptian Symphony, and in the most important concert halls in China. In 2014 she sang the role of Violetta in La Traviata at the Darmstadt Opera, and has again performed the role of Lucia di Lammermoor in Illinois, as well as the role of Konstanze in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, also in Illinois. Also in 2014, she made her debut at the Herkulessaal in Munich, and at the Smetana Hall in Prague, and performed again in Düsseldorf and Berlin with concerts of opera arias with orchestra.
She also performed at the Belgrade theatre as Gilda in Rigoletto, and as Violetta in La Traviata in Rousse, Bulgaria. In 2014 she was the soloist in the New Year’s concert of the prestigious Dallas Symphony Orchestra with Maestro Dohnányi.
She has been Rosina in Barbiere at the Tel Aviv Opera, Violetta at the Lviv Opera and in Rovereto in Italy in April 2017, and also in Chengdu in China, where she has sung the role of Carmen, after having sung it with great success in Taiyuan under the direction of maestro Michael Köhler. Lately she has had concerts with orchestra in cities in different countries such as Amsterdam, Moldova, Malta, Italy, USA, and Russia, and was Suor Angelica in Puccini’s opera in Panama.
She has sung Poulenc’s opera La Voix Humaine with the prestigious pianist James Baillieu in several venues in Spain. In 2017 she debuted Verdi’s Requiem in a large concert for refugees in Leipzig in Germany, together with the Leipzig Philharmonic.
In the summer of 2017 she sang opera arias and duets alongside the renowned Mexican tenor Héctor Sandoval with the Sinfónica de Castilla y León in the Little Opera Festival, with excellent reviews. She made her Carnegie Hall debut in December 2017 with a concert of Spanish songs, alongside the fabulous pianist of the Metropolitan Opera, Yelena Kurdina.
In July 2018/19 she played Violetta in La Traviata in Zhejiang in China, and in Spain; and had performances in the Brazilian city of Natal with the Orchestra do Rio Grande do Norte, opera performances in Cluj-Napoca, and at the prestigious Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.
In 2019 she sang again Violetta in La Traviata, Leonora (Il Trovatore), Aida, Tosca, Turandot (main role) and had many performances as Madama Butterfly, in Morelia (Mexico), in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia (Spain) and in many other cities in Spain. In October 2020, she was Puccini’s Turandot in many major cities in Mexico and in June 2021, Norma at the Hong Kong Opera.
Laura gives masterclasses in most of the countries where she gives recitals.
© Laura Alonso Padín | Errors and omissions excepted/excluded | February 2022
