Ekaterina Bakanova is one of today’s rising stars, performing some of the most demanding roles in the lyric repertoire and making important house debuts around the world.

In the past few years, she has steadily conquered such houses as the Royal Opera House, Semperoper Dresden, Wexford Opera Festival, Teatro La Fenice, and Teatro Regio di Torino. This week she will add another major theater to her outstanding resume.

Bakanova will make her house debut at the Gran Theatre del Liceu in her first performances as Leïla in “The Pearl Fishers.” Her debut at the Liceu is an important introduction to Spanish audiences, as the soprano has yet to appear in the Iberian country. It will also be the first of two major Spanish engagements. In the summer she sings at the Festival Castell Peralda in “La Traviata” showing audiences another facet of her work.

Bakanova has been praised by OperaWire for her previous work in “Il Bravo.” “Ekaterina Bakanova produced an absolutely sparkling performance in the role of Violetta,” said the review. “Her singing and acting were simply excellent, successfully bringing out the different aspects of the character, in which she was fully immersed. Her voice is wonderfully agile, able to spin out long enticing lines, exquisitely embellished.”

Barcelona audiences will be in for a revelation as Bakanova’s profile is likely to expand.

Recordings

While Bakanova does not have any commercial recording, the soprano has a recording of “La Rondine” from the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and numerous Youtube clips.

Here is the aforementioned “La Rondine.”

And here she is performing the Mad Scene from “Lucia di Lammermoor” at the Teatro Regio di Parma.