Soloists

Joanna Woś possesses an impeccably pure intonation voice with a very wide range (reaching effortlessly the high F), allowing the artist to brilliantly perform even the most challenging coloratura roles while maintaining a unique sound and a refined bel canto style. She is a laureate of prestigious vocal competitions and festivals, including the 1st prize at the International Vocal Competition in Bilbao and multiple recipient of the Golden Mask – a critics' award.

 

She made her debut in the title role of Gaetano Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor" at the Grand Theatre in Łódź. The success she achieved left no doubt that the artist possesses exceptional vocal talent. This fact determined the further development of her career; after completing her studies at the Academy of Music in Łódź, she permanently joined the Grand Theatre in Łódź as a soloist. Throughout her career on this stage, Joanna Woś has been accompanied by the enthusiasm of the audience and the acclaim of critics. In addition to the Łódź stage, Joanna Woś can be admired on the stages of the National Opera Grand Theatre in Warsaw, Krakow Opera, Grand Theatre in Poznań, Baltic Opera, National Philharmonic, and Krakow Philharmonic. She has also appeared on many world opera stages, including the Royal Festival Hall in London, Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Deutsche Oper in Berlin, Auditorium in Rome, Galina Vishnevskaya Center in Moscow, National Opera in Vilnius, National Opera in Zagreb, Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theatre, and other opera houses and concert halls worldwide. The artist has sung under the baton of many outstanding conductors, such as Antoni Wit, Jonas Aleksa, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Tadeusz Kozłowski, Jan Krenz, Jacek Kaspszyk, Friedrich Haider, Will Crutchfield, Marco Baldieri, Andrea Licata, Massimiliano Caldi, Gabriel Chmura. She has performed alongside distinguished singers, including baritones Renato Bruson and Artur Ruciński, tenors Salvatore Licitra, Salvatore Fisichella, Piotr Beczała, Arnold Rutkowski, Mariusz Kwiecień, and American soprano Gwendolyn Bradley.

 

Her repertoire includes not only strictly coloratura roles, such as the Queen of the Night in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "The Magic Flute," Rosina in Gioachino Rossini's "The Barber of Seville," Olympia in Jacques Offenbach's "The Tales of Hoffmann," and Anne Boleyn in G. Donizetti's opera, but also dramatic-lyrical roles like Violetta in Verdi's "La Traviata," Gilda in Verdi's "Rigoletto," Elvira in Bellini's "I Puritani," or Norina in Donizetti's "Don Pasquale." She also performs roles such as Oscar in Verdi's "Un ballo in maschera," Queen of Shemakha in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "The Golden Cockerel," Musetta in Puccini's "La Bohème," Countess in "The Marriage of Figaro," Fiordiligi in "Cosi fan tutte," Donna Anna in "Don Giovanni," Magda in Giacomo Puccini's "La Rondine," Eurydice in Christoph Willibald Gluck's "Orfeo ed Euridice," and the wife in Schnittke's "Life with an Idiot."

 

Joanna Woś also has a rich concert repertoire, including works such as Giovanni Battista Pergolesi and Rossini's "Stabat Mater," Mozart's Requiem, Exultate Jubilate, and masses, Charles Gounod's St. Cecilia Mass, Gabriel Fauré's Requiem, Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana," and Karol Szymanowski's "Stabat Mater." In 2008, she recorded a recital of arias from 18 operas by Prince Józef Michał Poniatowski with Kevin Kenner for Polish Radio.

 

In the following year, she recorded the album "Chopin's Songs" with Marek Drewnowski. In the National Opera in Warsaw, she performed in premieres including the roles of Magda in "La Rondine" (2003, directed by Marta Domingo), Queen of the Night in "The Magic Flute" (2006, directed by Achim Freyer), and the title roles in "Lucia di Lammermoor" (2008), "Lucrezia Borgia" (2009), "Orpheus and Eurydice" (2009), and "La Traviata" (2010). In April 2010, she recorded Henryk M. Górecki's Symphony No.

 

 3 with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall in London, conducted by Marin Alsop. In January 2011, she achieved great success in the title role of Maria Stuarda in Donizetti's opera at the Grand Theatre in Poznań. In March 2011, she played the character of Gilda (Rigoletto – G. Verdi) at the National Opera Grand Theatre in Warsaw. Her performance in the title role of G. Donizetti's "Anna Bolena" during the Opera Festival in St. Moritz received enthusiastic reviews. In 2012, she took on the role of Adina during the premiere of "L'elisir d'amore" at the Krakow Opera, and Violetta in the premiere of "La Traviata" at the Baltic Opera. In April 2013, she repeated her great success in G. Donizetti's opera "Anna Bolena," first performed at the Grand Theatre in Łódź. For her role in "Anna Bolena" and the part of Violetta in Verdi's "La Traviata," Joanna Woś was once again honored with the Golden Mask for outstanding dramatic-vocal roles.

 

In 2005, the artist was awarded the Silver Medal for Merit to Culture "Gloria Artis."

Roles at the Grand Theatre in Łódź:

• COSI FAN TUTTE / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Despina, directed by: Adam Hanuszkiewicz, premiere: October 5, 1986
• LA TRAVIATA / Giuseppe Verdi – Violetta Valery, directed by: Guy Coutance, premiere: March 7, 1987
• THE MERRY WIDOW / Franz Lehár – Valencienne, directed by: Pavel Smok, premiere: January 9, 1988
• THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Susanna, directed by: Adam Hanuszkiewicz, premiere: May 7, 1988
• DON GIOVANNI / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Zerlina, directed by: Marek Weiss-Grzesiński, premiere: March 23, 1991
• A MASKED BALL / Giuseppe Verdi – Oscar, directed by: Gray Veredon, premiere: March 20, 1993
• UBU REX / Krzysztof Penderecki – Boleslaus, directed by: Lech Majewski, premiere: November 6, 1993
• DON PASQUALE / Gaetano Donizetti – Norina, directed by: Włodzimierz Tarczewski, premiere: January 21, 1995
• RIGOLETTO / Giuseppe Verdi – Gilda, directed by: Guram Meliwa, premiere: April 22, 1995
• DON GIOVANNI / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Zerlina, directed by: Adam Hanuszkiewicz, premiere: February 22, 1998
• THE ELIXIR OF LOVE / Gaetano Donizetti – Adina, directed by: Robert Skolmowski, premiere: December 19, 1998
• DON PASQUALE / Gaetano Donizetti – Norina, directed by: Robert Skolmowski, premiere: June 27, 1999
• THE MAGIC FLUTE / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Queen of the Night, directed by: Robert Skolmowski, premiere: April 15, 2000
• THE BARBER OF SEVILLE / Gioacchino Rossini – Rosina, directed by: Detlef Heusinger, premiere: January 30, 2002
• I PURITANI / Vincenzo Bellini – Elvira, directed by: Gray Veredon, premiere: April 27, 2002
• RIGOLETTO / Giuseppe Verdi – Gilda, directed by: Marianne Berglof, premiere: May 29, 2004
• LUCREZIA BORGIA / Gaetano Donizetti – Donna Lucrezia Borgia, directed by: Maciej Prus, premiere: December 18, 2004
• LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR / Gaetano Donizetti – Lucia, directed by: Roman Kordziński, premiere: March 18, 2006
• THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Susanna, directed by: Wojciech Walasik, premiere: December 16, 2006
• THE BARBER OF SEVILLE / Gioacchino Rossini – Rosina, directed by: Henryk Baranowski, premiere: April 14, 2007
• THE COUNTLESS / Stanisław Moniuszko – Miss Ewa, directed by: Kazimierz Kowalski, premiere: September 29, 2007
• THE TALES OF HOFFMANN / Jacques Offenbach – Olympia, directed by: Giorgio Madia, premiere: December 15, 2007
• THE MAGIC FLUTE / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Queen of the Night, directed by: Waldemar Zawodziński, premiere: December 20, 2008
• MARIA STUARDA / Gaetano Donizetti – Maria Stuarda, directed by: Kaegi Dieter, premiere: October 15, 2011
• ANNA BOLENA / Gaetano Donizetti – Anna Bolena, directed by: Janina Niesobska, premiere: April 6, 2013
• LA TRAVIATA / Giuseppe Verdi – Violetta, directed by: Janina Niesobska, Waldemar Zawodziński, premiere: April 27, 2013
• THE BARBER OF SEVILLE / Gioacchino Rossini – Rosina, directed by: Natalia Babińska, premiere: January 11, 2014
• DON GIOVANNI / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Donna Anna, directed by: Maria Startova, premiere: November 21, 2015
• THE REVENGE OF THE BAT / Johann Strauss II – Rosalinda, directed by: Giorgio Madia, premiere: January 13, 2018
• A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE / André Previn – Blanche DuBois, directed by: Maciej Prus, premiere: May 12, 2018
• VIVA LA MAMMA! / Gaetano Donizetti - Corilla (Primadonna), directed by: Roberto Skolmowski, premiere: November 23, 2021
• HUMAN VOICE / Francis Poulenc - She, directed by: Michał Znaniecki, premiere: November 7, 2020