We love to make comparisons. And not in an unpretentious way! Every aspiring football talent is called the next Johan Cruijff and a somewhat deserving soprano quickly becomes a future Maria Callas. Fortunately, this lady is spared that comparison, but even 31-year-old Nino Machaidze is not allowed to be just Nino.

“People always say that I am a new Anna Netrebko. I am not. Anna is a fantastic singer and I admire her and her voice very much, but I am not her! I am Nino Machaidze. And I keep repeating it endlessly: I am Nino Machaidze!”

Her extraordinarily beautiful appearance, with her toned body and sensual mouth, has also earned her the nickname ‘Angelina Jolie of opera’. It makes her laugh heartily. “It is of course a great compliment, because Angelina Jolie is a very attractive woman. So: thank you!”

She is fully aware that her appearance plays a not insignificant role in her career, because a beautiful voice alone doesn’t get you anywhere these days.GEORGIA

Nino Machaidze, born in 1983 in Tbilisi, is a proud Georgian.
“My mother was a great opera lover. I remember that even in the bad times, when there were problems with the electricity or when there was not enough food, we always went to the theatre. And it was always filled!”

“For as long as I can remember I have been singing. I think I was eight years old when I started singing arias. Unlike what is common in the West, in Georgia it is natural for children to start taking singing lessons at a very early age. It is something I really agree with.”

“I was eight when I started taking singing lessons in the Tbilisi music school. When I was seventeen, I started my studies at the conservatoire. I did my training in Georgia and my technique is also Georgian. My debut, at seventeen (Norina in Don Pasquale), was in Tbilisi. Even now, as I am travelling around the world, my whole singing basis is and remains Georgian. So: yes, you can say that everything in and for me remains linked to Georgia.”

She was 21 when she was accepted into the program for young singers at La Scala. After winning the Leyla Gencer Vocal Competition in 2006, she was offered the lead role in La fille du régiment.

Below, Nino Machaidze and Antonio Gandia in La Fille du Regiment:

JULIETTE

Her career went off like a rocket when she unexpectedly had to take over the role of Juliette in Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette in Salzburg from the pregnant Netrebko.

“I was at La Scala when the offer came. I sang Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi by Puccini and suddenly there was a lot of buzz: they wanted me in Salzburg. The funny thing is: I didn’t know anything about it, I was not even aware that this decision had been made. I was taken by surprise, because I did not know the role and I did not speak French. I had to learn everything in one month and my very first step was to find a French teacher”.

Below Machaidze as Juliette in Salzburg:

Wiecej TUTAJ