Shalva Mukeria

Shalva Mukeria was born in Georgia-Tbilisi into a family of musicians, where he studied clarinet at the Tbilisi Conservatory, later moving to Odessa, where he completed his singing studies at the A.V. Nezhdanova Academy of Music.

After the Gala Concert at the Teatro Regio in Parma in 1998, Maestro Zubin Metha selected him to sing the part of Elvino in La Sonnambula with Mariella Devia at the Opera Maggio Musica in Florence in 1999 and 2000 conducted by Maestro Daniel Oren. He then had other initial engagements such as Alfredo La Traviata and Rodolfo Boheme at the Royal Danish Opera Copenhagen, Edgardo at the Opera Bastille in Paris, Rodolfo at the Helsinki Opera and Elvino in Pavia, Como, Cremona and Opera Leipzig.

In 2004 he made his US debut in a new production of La Sonnambula at the Santa Fe Opera with Natalie Dessay as Amina conducted by Maestro Evelino Pido.

As a member of the Vienna Staatsoper, between 2005 and 2007, he sang the Italienischer Singer in Der Rosenkavalier Richard Strauss, Arturo in I Puritani with Edita Gruberova, Edgardo Lucia di Lammermoor, La Traviata with Renato Bruson.

In 2006 he sang Duca di Mantova in Bilbao and La Sonnambula at the Santander Festival.

In 2007 he made his debut at La Scala in the role of Tonio in La fille du régiment, followed in 2011 by his debut at La Scala as Ernesto in Don Pasquale and in 2013 as Les Troyens directed by Antonio Pappano and staged by David McVicar.

In 2010 Placido Domingo selected him to sing the part of Persy in Anna Bolena with Sondra Radvanovsky at Washington National Opera in 2012 (Kennedy Center).

In 2011 he performed Anna Bolena with Vienna Staatsopera in a successful tour of Japan in Tokyo Bunka Kaikan with Edita Gruberova.

In recent seasons he has appeared as Duca de Mantova in Tokyo National Opera, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor in Opera de Tours, Treviso and Trieste, Duca de Mantova in Rigoletto at Staatsopera Berlin, Arturo in I Puritani at La Monnaie, Brussels and in Palermo, Amsterdam and Toulon; Rigoletto and La Sonnambula in Salerno conducted by Daniel Oren; as well as in several concerts at Opera Garnier in Paris, Royal opera House in London, Royal Albert Hall in London, Teatro Maggio Musícale in Florence, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, La Coruña and La Monnaie.

Other recent performances include Rigoletto in Tokyo and Florence; I Puritani at the Opera of Cagliari, Pamplona, Savonlinna and Essen; Leicester in Maria Stuarda at the Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Maria Stuarda at the Wielki Theatre in Warsaw; La Sonnambula La Traviata and La fille du regiment in Salerno; Corismano de Zaira by Bellini at the Montpellier Festival and recorded on CD; La Sonnambula at the Gran Teatro La Fenice in Venice recorded on DVD; La Traviata, Lucia di Lammermoor at the Gran Teatro La Fenice in Venice; Anna Bolena (Percy) at the Maggio Musicale, with Mariela Devia, Ernesto (Don Pasquale) at La Scala; La Traviata, I Puritani, Montecchi and Capuleti at the Teatro Bellini in Catania; Rigoletto in Genoa under the baton of Fabio Luisi; Tebaldo in Montecchi and Capuleti in Arena di Verona and Venice; Verdi Concerts with Teatro La Fenice in Japan conducted by Myung-Whun Chung; I Puritani in Santiago, Chile.

His engagements for the 2019/2020 season include Tebaldo from Montecchi and Capuleti at Arena di Verona, Edgardo from Lucia di Lammermoor, Elvino from La Sonnambula in Florence, Alfredo from La Traviata at Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Tonio from La Fille du Regiment in Trieste, Palermo and Oman, Arturo from I Puritani and Massenet’s Werther in Palermo, Rigoletto and La Traviata at Shanghai Grand Opera house.

Recently he has been invited to give masterclasses at the Conservatory of Music in Tbilisi, Moscow, Odessa, Queen Sofia School of Music in Kiev and the Rossinian Academy in Pesaro.