Biography

Hungarian soprano Eva Marton has enjoyed a highly successful career on the world's leading operatic stages since the late '60s. With her powerful, attractive voice she has managed to score numerous successes in the Italian spinto roles of Verdi and Puccini, the heftier roles of Wagner and Richard Strauss, and the more delicate but equally demanding ones of Mozart. She has also performed songs by Mahler, Liszt, and Schoenberg, generally to critical acclaim. Marton was born in Budapest, Hungary, on June 18, 1943. She studied voice at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest and quickly ascended into the higher circles of the operatic world. Her major debut took place at the 1967 Margareten Island Festival (Budapest) as Kate Pinkerton in Puccini's Madama Butterfly. In 1968 she made a successful debut at the Hungarian State Opera in Rimsky-Korsakov's Le Coq d'Or as the Queen of Shemakha. During her five years (1968-1972) at the Hungarian State Opera she sang a variety of roles, including Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze de Figaro and Rodelinda in Handel's Rodelinda. In 1972, at the behest of conductor Christoph von Dohnányi, she debuted at the Frankfurt Opera as Countess Almaviva. While serving for five seasons in Frankfurt, she debuted at the Vienna State Opera as Tosca (1973) to critical acclaim. She scored another success in her debut at the Met in 1976 as Eva in Wagner's Die Meistersinger. In 1977, shortly after leaving the Frankfurt Opera, she joined the Hamburg State Opera where she received acclaim as the Empress in Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten. Her highly praised La Scala debut took place the following year when she sang Leonora in Verdi's Il Trovatore. In the 1980s and 1990s her further successes included several at the Salzburg Festival: Leonore in Beethoven's Fidelio (1982); Elektra in Strauss' Elektra (1989); and the Dyer's Wife in Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten. She debuted at Covent Garden during this period as Puccini's Turandot (1987) and returned there in 1994 as Elektra. Marton has a special affinity for the role of Turandot, having sung it on-stage nearly 200 times. Her Tosca performances at the Met in 1999 and her Kundry portrayal in Wagner's Parsifal in 2001 productions in Lisbon and Barcelona all met with notable success. Marton has appeared on numerous CD and DVD opera and song recordings on several major labels.