Milijana Nikolic

Operatic mezzo-soprano

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Milijana Nikolic (or Nikolić; Serbian Cyrillic: Милијана Николић; born 1975) is an operatic mezzo-soprano.

Education

Nikolic was born in Sremska Mitrovica^{[N 1]} where she began singing in the choir Sirmium Cantorum. She graduated in 2001 from the University of Arts in Belgrade, tutored by Prof. Radmila Smiljanić.

Career

Her stage debut was at the National Theatre in Belgrade as Third Lady in Mozart's The Magic Flute; she then sang Tisbe in Rossini’s La Cenerentola. In 2001, Nikolic won a two-year scholarship for the Teatro alla Scala Academy for the Specialisation of Opera Singers which allowed her to complete her studies under Leyla Gencer, Luciana Serra, Giovanna Canetti, Luigi Alva and Teresa Berganza, and further develop her operatic ability under the batons of conductors including Gary Bertini and Riccardo Muti. At the academy, she covered Olga Borodina as Delilah in Saint-Saëns' Samson and Delilah, sang the Third Greek Lady in Gluck's Iphigénie en Aulide^[1] under Riccardo Muti at the Teatro degli Arcimboldi, Milan, Emma in Donizetti's Ugo, conte di Parigi,^[2] a role she had sung before at the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo and later sang again at the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania. At La Scala, she sang the principal role of Cuniza in Verdi's Oberto, a production where her later husband Rosario La Spina sang Riccardo; this production then travelled to the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa.

In 2006, Nikolic sang the role of Eboli in Verdi's