Listen to my interview
mp3 – 14:05
The lyric soprano Ermonela Jaho was born in Albania and experienced the repressive regime of the Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha and the final seven years of communism after his death.
Ermonela’s escape was the opera. She saw a production of La Traviata (sung in Albanian)as 14/year old in 1988 and was sold. She set her mind on one day singing the role of Violetta. She has certainly achieved that. And some more. By now she’s sung the role well over 300 times and appeared in all the major opera houses.
It wasn’t an easy journey to the top and this podcast concentrates on how she managed to realise her dream, almost against the odds. Albania was not known for its opera singers, or singers in general. Ermonela Jaho and Dua Lipa have changed that image.
Ermonela Jaho is an exceptionally passionate performer. She really puts her soul into the music. She told me during the interview at Royal Opera House Covent Garden that ¨ [to realise] the beautiful dreams we have to suffer, we have to fight…… I think a tortured soul is very important for an artist. You have to have a tortured soul¨.
Ermonela Jaho has a busy schedule over the Autumn/Winter 2024/25 season and will appear in Les Contes d’Hoffmann at Covent Garden, Donizett’s Maria Stuarda in Hamburg, Manon Lescut in Munich and Otello in Bilbao. The full schedule you can find here
Ermonela has made a recital recording for Opera Rara and appeared in two of their releases of forgotten operas by well-known composers.
Opera Rara will in September 2025 release two discs with Ermonela’s recordings of Donizetti’s romanzas with conductor Carlo Rizzo on keyboards.
Here’s a little foretaste of the Donizetti project.