Galina Shesterneva was born in Russia and studied voice at the Ukrainian State Conservatory in Odessa. Later she completed her studies with Mara Zampieri, Rita Patané and Magda Olivero.
She is a prize winner of the international voice competitions of Marseille and of Karlovy Vary.
Made her stage debut as Cio-Cio-san (Madama Butterfly) with the Odessa Opera in 1993. In 1996 she toured Europe with the “Compania Opera Lirica G. Verdi”. In 1998 she made her debut at the Bad Hersfeld Festival with IlTrovatore. The same year she sang Zemlinsky´s Der Zwerg in Berlin. Took part in the world premiere of S. Slonimsky´s Ioann the Terrible’s vision, singing the role of Veschnanka under the baton of M. Rostropovich. Since 1999 Galina Shesterneva has lived and worked in Germany. In 2011 she took part in the new production of Turandot at Milano’s Teatro alla Scala, singing the title role.
In 2012 she made her Bolshoi Theatre debut as Turandot.
Repertoire
Her repertoire includes the following roles: The title role (Norma) Maddalena (Andrea Chenier) Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana) the title role (Tosca) Cio-Cio-san (Madama Butterfly) Minnie (LaFanciulla del West) the title role (Manon Lescaut) Desdemona (Otello) Leonora (IlTrovatore) Leonora (Laforza del destino) the title role (Aida) Amelia (Unballo inmaschera) Amelia (Simone Boccanegra) Elisabetta (Don Carlo) Elvira (Ernani) Lady Macbeth (Macbeth) the title role (Gioconda) Elisabeth (Tannhäuser) and the soprano part in Verdi’s Requiem.