Nino Machaidze

Nino Machaidze (; born 8 March 1983) is a Georgian operatic soprano. She performs in 19th-century Romantic repertoire, primarily in operas by Rossini and Verdi as well as French operas. Beginning her career at La Scala, she gained international attention after being cast as Juliette in Gounod's "Roméo et Juliette" at the 2008 Salzburg Festival, after which she earned the nickname "The Angelina Jolie of Opera" from the Austrian press.
Early life.
Nino Machaidze was born to a Georgian language teacher mother and an economist father and raised in Tbilisi. At the age of six she began piano and vocal lessons at a school affiliated with the Tbilisi State Conservatoire, which she later also attended. At 17, she also attended flute lessons, hoping to strengthen the diaphragm. Between 2000 and 2005, she had role engagements as Zerlina in "Don Giovanni", Gilda in "Rigoletto", Rosina in "The Barber of Seville", and Norina in "Don Pasquale" at the Georgian National Opera Theater.
In 2005, she was among the 9 applicants accepted into the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala after an intense competition. At the academy, she studied with Luciana Serra, Leyla Gencer, and Luigi Alva and also attended masterclasses of Renato Bruson and Mirella Freni. In 2006 she debuted at the theater as Najade in "Ariadne auf Naxos" and won first prize in the Leyla Gencer Voice Competition in Istanbul.
Career.
Machaidze proceeded to perform several roles in sequential seasons at La Scala: Silvia in "Ascanio in Alba", Marie in "La fille du régiment", Despina in "Così fan tutte", Lauretta in "Gianni Schicchi", and Musetta in "La bohème". She returned in 2010 for "L'elisir d'amore" and 2011 for "Roméo et Juliette". She also made guest appearances at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma (Marie), the Teatro Carlo Felice (Amina in "La sonnambula"), and the Teatro Regio di Parma (Gilda in "Rigoletto").
Being spotted by artistic director Jürgen Flimm as Lauretta led to her opportunity to play Juliette in the new production of Gounod's "Roméo et Juliette" opposite Rolando Villazón at the Salzburg Festival in 2008 when Anna Netrebko dropped out due to pregnancy. The performance turned out to be successful, therefore propelled her to international fame. She returned to Salzburg in 2010 for the same opera, sharing Juliette with Netrebko, and in 2012 for "La bohème" (Musetta) where Netrebko sang Mimì. Besides further performances in the role of Juliette, she also portrayed Elvira in "I puritani" opposite Juan Diego Flórez at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, and Lucia in "Lucia di Lammermoor". In July 2009, she was cast as Donna Fiorilla in a new production of "Il turco in Italia" at the Theater an der Wien. Later in the year, she made her Los Angeles Opera debut with Adina ("L'elisir d'amore"), and subsequently made her Bavarian State Opera debut repeating the role in the premiere of David Bösch's production. In 2010, she made her Liceu debut in "La fille du régiment" of Pelly's production, and made her Royal Opera, London debut with Juliette.
The year 2011 saw her Metropolitan Opera performances: "Rigoletto" (house debut in January and replacing Diana Damrau in May), and "La fille du régiment" (Pelly's production). She returned to Los Angeles for Fiorilla and, later in the year, for Juliette, which she also sang at the Verona Arena and BOZAR. In September 2011, she made her Hamburg State Opera debut singing Gilda and Lucia. In 2012, she sang Gilda at the Paris Opera and Teatro Pérez Galdós in Las Palmas. In 2013, she returned to the Teatro Carlo Felice (Gilda) and Liceu (Fiorilla), and made her Teatro Real debut with "L'elisir d'amore", in which she later made her Vienna State Opera debut in Otto Schenk's production. During the years, she added two French roles: Leïla in "Les pêcheurs de perles" (Teatro Filarmonico in Verona), a role she repeated at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, and the title role in "Thaïs", alongside Plácido Domingo (Teatro de la Maestranza). They would unite in concert performances of the same opera at the Liceu in 2017. 
Machaidze returned to the Los Angeles Opera for "Thaïs" in May 2014 and her first Violetta in "La traviata", which opened the 2014/15 season. In November 2014, she returned to Hamburg for the premiere of Andreas Homoki's new "Luisa Miller", her debut in the title role, and sang Violetta in the same season. The Luisa production would later revive in 2016 and 2018 with her. In 2015, she made several role debuts: Folleville in "Il viaggio a Reims" (Dutch National Opera), Micaëla in "Carmen" (La Scala), Ninetta in "La gazza ladra" (Rossini Opera Festival), and Inès in "L'Africaine" (Deutsche Oper Berlin), besides Fiorilla (Teatro Regio Turin) and Gilda (Toulouse). In February 2016, she debuted as Desdemona in Rossini's "Otello" in a new production at the Theater an der Wien, and as Mimì in "La bohème" conducted by Gustavo Dudamel in Los Angeles, which was followed by Violetta at the Verona Arena. Later in the year, she performed Juliette with the Opéra de Monte-Carlo at the Royal Opera House Muscat, and repeated Desdemona and Mimì respectively at the Teatro di San Carlo and the Grand Théâtre de Genève.
In 2017, after stepping in as Fiorilla at the Bergen National Opera, and reprising Folleville at the Royal Danish Theatre, she debuted at the San Francisco Opera for her last Gilda. She returned to the Rossini Opera Festival debuting as Pamira in "Le siège de Corinthe", followed by Leïla in Los Angeles. She made her first appearance in Korea in "La traviata" in December, and returned in the same season for Mimì at the Seoul Arts Center. In 2018, she debuted as Mathilde in "William Tell" at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo and Nedda in "Pagliacci" at the Grand Théâtre de Genève. She performed the Georgian national anthem "Tavisupleba" on the parade for the centenary of the Democratic Republic of Georgia. She debuted at the Zürich Opera House as Luisa Miller, followed by Violetta at the Teatro di San Carlo, and Rosina in "The Barber of Seville" at the Verona Arena and the Dutch National Opera.
In 2019, Machaidze was a guest performer at the Semperopernball and was featured in Audi Sommerkonzerte. She debuted as Antonia in "The Tales of Hoffmann" (Teatro di San Carlo, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe), and as the title role in "Manon" (Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Vienna State Opera). She performed in "Luisa Miller" at the Salzburg Festival alongside Domingo, stepped into Theater an der Wien's production of "Otello" at the Oper Frankfurt, and opened "La bohème" at the Teatru tal-Opera Aurora in Malta. In 2020, she performed Mimì at the New National Theatre Tokyo.
Personal life.
Machaidze has been residing in Milan, Italy since 2005. She married baritone Guido Loconsolo on 26 September 2011. They have two children: Alessandro (born 9 August 2013), and Elena (born 18 January 2021). She enjoys swimming but not jogging. She is active on social media and has over 100,000 followers on Facebook.
Recordings.
Machaidze has been a Sony artist since January 2011.