Biography

Aile Asszonyi is an Estonian dramatic soprano. She studied singing at the Estonian Academy of Music, the Opera Studio Amsterdam and the academy of Carlo Bergonzi in Italy. She was a finalist of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium receiving the “Prix des Donateurs du Concours Reine Elisabeth” and received several national opera awards in her native country, most recently the Estonian State Prize for Music 2023.

She started her career in the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and made her opera debut as Despina in Mozart’s Così fan tutte. Before changing to the dramatic repertoire, she sang roles such as Adina in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Maria in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda, Miss Jessel in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, Armida in Haydn’s Armida, Giovanna in Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco, Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Angelica in Puccini’s Suor Angelica, Rosalinde in Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus, Amelia in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata, Mimì in Puccini’s La bohème, Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust, Woman in Erkki-Sven Tüür’s Wallenberg, Manon in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, Liza in Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades and Aida in Verdi’s Aida.

Aile Asszonyi sang in various world premières, such as the title role in Zora D. and Kali in Dve glave i devoijka, both by Isidora Zebeljan. She also sang in the world première of Sofia Gubaidulina’s oratorio Über Liebe und Hass.

Currently her repertoire consists of roles such as Venus / Elisabeth (double-role) in Wagner’s Tannhäuser, Madre in Dallapiccola’s Il Prigioniero, Frau in Hindemith’s Mörder, Hoffnung der Frauen, Prothoe in Penthesilea by Othmar Schoeck, Senta in Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer, Abigaille in Verdi’s Nabucco, Ghita in Zemlinky’s Der Zwerg, third Norn / Gutrune in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, Fata Morgana in Prokofiev’s L’amour des trois oranges, Isolde in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, Turandot in Puccini’s Turandot and Elektra in Strauss’ Elektra.

She has worked with the conductors Jüri Alperten, Daniel Hoyem Cavazza, José Cura, Olari Elts, Mihhail Gerts, Risto Joost, Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Tõnu Kaljuste, Eri Klas, Mihkel Kütson, Paul Mägi, Premil Petrovic, David Porcelijn, Daniel Reuss, Gintaras Rinkevicius, Vello Pähn, Lauri Sirp, Bojan Sudjic, Leon Botstein, Tom Woods, Arvo Volmer, Andres Mustonen, Dirk Kaftan, Olari Elts, Rasmus Baumann, Srba Dinić, Sébastien Rouland, Alexander Prior, Lukas Beikircher, Enrico Calesso, Donald Runnicles, Sebastian Weigle, Pietari Inkinen and with the stage directors Stefan Herheim, Hans Nieuwenhuis, Nicola Raab, David Pountney, Marcel Sijm, Dmitry Bertman, Arne Mikk, Neeme Kuningas, Walter Sutcliffe, Ran A. Braun, Roman Hovenbitzer, Andrejs Zagars, Daniel Slater, Pamela Recinella, Rares Zaharia, Paul Esterházy, Enrico Lübbe, Alexandra Szemerédy / Magdolna Parditka, Tobias Kratzer, Giancarlo del Monaco, Johannes Reitmeier, Valentin Schwarz, Claus Guth, Michiel Dijkema and Peter Konwitschny.

She has performed regularly at the Estonian National Opera and she has performed at Teatro Siena, Kammeroper Wien, Novaya Opera Moscow, Theatre Vanemuine Tartu, Nargen Opera, Birgitta Opera Festival, Newport Music Festival USA, 69ª Settimana Musicale Senese, Music Biennale Zagreb, Belgrade Bemus Festival, Belarus State Opera, Latvian National Opera, Lithuanian National Opera, Opera Graz, Theater Regensburg, Grafenegg Festival, Theater Bonn, Staatsheater Oldenburg, Theater Koblenz, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatstheater Saarbrücken, Theater Erfurt, Dutch National Touring Opera, Theater Würzburg, Landestheater Innsbruck, Opéra Royal de Versailles, Oper Frankfurt, the Bayreuther Festspiele and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam.

Aile Asszonyi’s CD recording as Madre in Dallapiccola’s Il Prigioniero was well received. This is a production of the Oper Graz / Grazer Philharmonisches Orchester with conductor Dirk Kaftan (Oehms Classics). In autumn 2022, Naxos released Der Ring des Nibelungen (Deutsche Oper Berlin) in a DVD / Blu-ray box set. Donald Runnicles is conducting, Stefan Herheim is staging.

Recently Aile Asszonyi made her long-awaited house-debut at Oper Frankfurt as Elektra in a new production of Richard Strauss’ Elektra. This summer she made her her house-debut at the Bayreuther Festspiele as Gutrune in Richard Wagners’ Götterdämmerung. At the Staatstheater Saarbrücken and at the Opéra Royal de Versailles she made her role-debut as Brünnhilde in Richard Wagners’ Die Walküre.

Aile Asszonyi is preparing her role-debuts as Brünnhilde (Siegfried and Götterdämmerung), Katerina Izmailova (Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk) and Die Färberin (Die Frau ohne Schatten). Other future roles include Elektra (Elektra), Turandot (Tudandot), Isolde (Tristan und Isolde), Gutrune (Götterdämmerung), Senta (Der fliegende Holländer). She will perform at Oper Frankfurt, Teater Vanemuine Tartu, Eesti Riiklik Sümfooniaorkester (ERSO), Theater Koblenz, Staatstheater Saarbrücken, Oper Bonn and New National Theatre Tokyo.

Aile Asszonyi lives with her husband and son in The Netherlands.