Elbenita Kajtazi

Kosovan soprano Elbenita Kajtazi is a graduate of the University of Prishtina. A regular guest at some of Europe’s leading opera houses, she won the audience prize and third prize at the first ever Glyndebourne Opera Cup in 2018 and first prize at both the Riccardo Zandonai Competition and the Spiros Argiris Competition in 2014. She began the 2020/21 season by making her debut at the Opéra National de Bordeaux as Violetta (La traviata).

Elbenita Kajtazi was one of the youngest members of the Young Artists Programme at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where her roles included Frasquita (Carmen), Gianetta (L’elisir d’amore), Papagena and Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Anna (Nabucco), the Young Shepherd (Tannhäuser), Bianca (La rondine), the Voice from Above (Don Carlos), Frantík and the Grasshopper (The Cunning Little Vixen), the First Elf (Die ägyptische Helena), the Fifth Maid (Elektra) and Countess Ceprano (Rigoletto).

Elbenita Kajtazi became a member of the ensemble at the Aalto Music Theatre in Essen during the 2016/17 season, where she appeared as Adina (L’elisir d’amore), Pamina, Violetta, Liù (Turandot), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Musetta (La bohème), Adele (Die Fledermaus) and Annina (Eine Nacht in Venedig).

She then joined the ensemble of the Hamburg State Opera during the 2018/19 season. Other appearances that season included Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier) at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago and a return to Essen as Gretel. Her roles in Hamburg during the 2019/20 season included Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro), Gretel, Nannetta (Falstaff) and Marzelline (Fidelio).

Elbenita Kajtazi made her Salzburg Festival debut in 2016 as a member of the Young Singers Project, appearing as Crobyle (Thaïs) with Plácido Domingo and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Other recent highlights include her successful debut at the Semperoper in Dresden as Pamina, as well as appearances at the Philharmonie in Essen in works such as Bach’s Magnificat and Haydn’s Die Schöpfung. She has also appeared as Käthchen (Werther) and the First Shepherdess in Meyerbeer’s Dinorah in concert performances at the Philharmonie in Berlin.