Hibla Gerzmava
Hibla Gerzmava, Abkhazian operatic soprano
Hibla Gerzmava (Abkhaz: Хьыбла Леварса иҧҳа Герзмаа), (born January 6, 1970), is an Abkhazian operatic soprano.
Gerzmava was born in Pitsunda, Abkhazia. She studied at the Moscow Conservatory and won the Grand Prix of the Tenth Tchaikovsky Competition. She is a member of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre, Moscow, where her repertory includes Lucia di Lammermoor, Donna Anna, Cherubini’s Medea, the four heroines (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Violetta (La traviata) and Mimì. Her other operatic appearances include Liù, Donna Anna, Desdemona (Otello), Antonia (Les Contes d’Hoffmann) and Mimì for the Metropolitan Opera, New York, Mimì for Bavarian State Opera, Violetta for the Bolshoi Theatre, Donna Anna for Vienna State Opera, Anna Bolena for La Scala, Milan, Vitellia (La clemenza di Tito) for Paris Opéra and Vienna State Opera and Elisabeth de Valois (Don Carlos) for Paris Opéra.
She has also performed at the stages of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, the Théâtre des Champs Elysées and the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Teatro Comunale di Firenze in Florence, the Sofia Opera and at the Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo.
The repertoire Hibla sings at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theatre includes such parts as Adina (L’elisir d’amore by Donizetti), Mimi (La bohème by Puccini), Violetta (La traviata by Verdi), Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor by Donizetti), Antonia/Olympia/Giulietta (Les contes d’Hoffmann by Offenbach).
In 2010, her performance of Lucia in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor brought her the highest Russian theatrical award — the Golden Mask, as well as Casta Diva Critics Award and the Moscow Government Award for achievement and contribution to the world of arts and culture.
Hibla Gerzmava has appeared with recitals in Sweden, France, Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Spain, Greece, the USA, Japan and Turkey. In 2002 and 2003, she took part in the Ludwigsburg Festival in Germany where she sang Eva in Die Schöpfung (The Creation) by Haydn and the Angel in the Rappresentatione di anima e di corpo by Emilio de Cavalieri.
Hibla Gerzmava is often invited to take part in oratorio concerts. She has sung soprano parts in Mozart’s Requiem, Great Mass in C minor, Coronation Mass, Vesperae solennes de confessore, in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Verdi’s Requiem.
In March 2008, Hibla Gerzmava made her Covent Garden debut as Tatiana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and appeared there again in 2009 as Mimi in Puccini’s La bohème, coming back to the Royal Opera House in January 2012 as Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. She sung the part of Mimi for her debuts at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma in Rome in May-June 2011.
In September-October 2010, Hibla made her Metropolitan Opera debut in the parts of Stella and Antonia in Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann, and in November-December 2011 she went back there to sing Mimi in Franco Zeffirelli’s production of La bohème.
She made her triumphal debut on the stage of Palais Garnier at the Opéra National de Paris as Vitellia in Willy Decker’s production of Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito in September-October 2011. She also sung at the BBC Proms Opening Night in July 2011 in Janáček’s Glagolithic Mass conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek and took part in the Mariinsky Theatre’s tour to Japan in February 2011, performing the part of Liù in Puccini’s Turandot at the NHK Hall in Tokyo.
In 2013, Hibla Gerzmava will further appear in Simon Boccanegra at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in Turandot at Metropolitan Opera and in La Clemenza di Tito at the Wiener Staatsoper.