Sanja Anastasia – dramatic mezzo-soprano

Sanja Anastasia was born in Serbia and studied music at the Music School in Belgrade. By the age of eighteen, she was already engaged at the National Theater Belgrade and thereafter at the Serbian National Theater in Novi Sad, where she performed, among smaller roles, major mezzo-soprano roles, including Cherubino in Mozart’s “Le Nozze di Figaro” and Fenena in Verdi’s “Nabucco”. In 1998, she moved to Austria and completed her vocal training, first at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Graz, later at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna. She has been a prize-winner and finalist in numerous singing competitions, such as the International Competition “Vincenzo Bellini” in Italy (2004), and the Competition of the Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg (2007).

Her early engagements in Austria brought the young artist to the Festival Styriarte in Graz, where she performed in Handel’s “Agrippina” and to the Teatro di Cagno in Bari as Ruggiero in Handels “Alcina”.  At the Theater im Palais (Graz), she returned to the role of Cherubino, but also sang Bastienne in “Bastien und Bastienne”, Niklausse in “Les Contes d’Hoffmann” and Dorabella in “Così fan tutte”. In Vienna she appeared as Roméo (“I Capuletti e i Montecchi”), Baba (“The Medium”) and Giovanna (“Anna Bolena”) at the Neue Studio Bühne, as Fox (“The Cunning little Vixen”) at the Schlosstheater Schönbrunn, and in several productions at the Volksoper Wien. Further guest engagements brought her to the Wernigerode Schlossfestspiele in Germany (Flora in “La Traviata), to the Žilina Musikfestival in Slovakia (Maddalena in “Rigoletto”), to the Cape Town Opera in South Africa (as Carmen) and she sang Marcellina in “Le Nozze di Figaro” on tour through Japan. In the 2007-08 season she sang another Maddalena, this time at the Ohrid Summer Festival in Macedonia, she made her debut as Isabella in Rossini’s “L’Italiana in Algeri” with the Macedonian Opera in Skopje, sang Santuzza with the Slovenian National Theater Maribor under the baton of Karen Kamensek and her first Amneris at the Austrian Opera Festival Gars am Kamp. In 2008-09 she was heard as Amneris and Herodias (“Salome”) at the Theater Aachen in Germany, as Carmen with the National Theater Košice (Slovakia) and the National Opera Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina), made her debut at the Theater Erfurt in the title role of Tchaikowsky’s “Johanna d’Arc” under the baton of Maestro Valery Ryvkin and appeared again as Carmen, this time at the Musikfestival Steyr in Austria.

2009-10 began with her debut as Ulrica at the Mainfranken Theater Würzburg, and she sang Amneris in the tour production of the State Opera Prague in the Großes Festspielhaus Salzburg. This will be followed by appearances as Carmen in Spain under the auspices of Amics de l’Òpera de Sabadell.

Her numerous concert appearances have brought Sanja Anastasia from Serbia through Croatia and Slovenia up to Teatro dal Verme in Milan and to L’Opera de Nice. She sang Prokofiev’s cantata “Alexander Nevsky” with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra under Yuri Simonow at the Prague Autumn Festival, excerpts from “Carmen” and “Don Carlos” with the Brandenburgisches Orchester in gala concerts at Schloss Rheinsberg and recently Beethoven’s Ninth with the Slovenian Radio Symphony Orchestra.