Salome Jicia was born in Georgia where she studied singing following her graduating in piano. She furthered her studies at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome under Renata Scotto and at the Rossini Opera Festival Academy in Pesaro with Alberto Zedda.
She is the winner of several prizes in prestigious international competitions, including: first prize at the Lado Ataneli International Singing Competition (2012) and first prize and the Maria Fołtyn prize for the best interpretation of a Moniuszko work at the Stanisław Moniuszko Competition in Warsaw (2016).
A gifted Mozart singer, Salome Jicia made her debut with La finta semplice (Rosina) for OperaLombardia. In Mitridate re di Ponto she sang Aspasia (Tbilisi Opera House), Ismene (Armel Music Festival in Budapest) and Sifare, a role with which she made her debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, where she later returned as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte. At the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow she was the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte and Vitellia in La clemenza di Tito, a role she also sang at the Opéra de Lausanne. In Don Giovanni she sang Donna Anna at the Opera Royal de Wallonie in
Liège and Donna Elvira at the Rome Opera and at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna.
After her debut in 2015 at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro with Il viaggio a Reims (Contessa di Folleville), she then returned there to sing the title role of La donna del lago, directed by Damiano Michieletto and conducted by Michele Mariotti (a production also revived at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège) and for Torvaldo e Dorliska (Dorliska), Elisabetta Regina d’Inghilterra (Matilde), Semiramide (title role) and for the Stabat Mater. Other important Rossini appearances include: Tancredi (Amenaide) and Elisabetta Regina d’Inghilterra (Elisabetta) at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, Semiramide in Nancy, Otello (Desdemona) in Liège and Guillaume Tell (Mathilde) in Palermo.
Increasingly established in the bel canto repertoire, she has performed: La Straniera (Alaide) at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Bianca e Fernando (Bianca) at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Norma (in the title role in Lausanne, Hamburg and Cologne and as Adalgisa at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam), L’elisir d’amore in Seattle, Maria Stuarda (Elisabetta) at the Zurich Opernhaus and she was one of the protagonists in Bastarda, Donizetti’s pastiche with music from the so-called ‘Tudor trilogy’ staged at the Monnaie in Brussels under the baton of Francesco Lanzillotta and directed by Olivier Fredj. She has also performed several Verdi titles, including: I Lombardi alla prima crociata (Giselda) in Liège, Giovanna d’Arco in Brussels, La Traviata at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, in Tbilisi and at the Sferisterio in Macerata, and Otello (Desdemona) in Trieste. In recent years, Salome Jicia has also approached such titles as L’amico Fritz (Suzel) at the Maggio Fiorentino, La Bohème (Mimì) at the Tbilisi Opera, Tosca in Nancy and Turandot (Liù) at the Teatro Real in Madrid.
Her recent and future engagements include Il Turco in Italia (Fiorilla) at the Opéra de Lausanne, Anna Bolena (title role) at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste and the world premiere of Edith by Maurizio Fabrizio, in the role of Edith Piaf, at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa.
Salome Jicia works regularly with conductors such as of Michele Mariotti, Francesco Lanzillotta, Stefano Montanari, Donato Renzetti, Maurizio Benini, Daniel Oren, Riccardo Frizza, Fabio Luisi, Nicola Luisotti, Riccardo Minasi, Evelino Pidò, Jérémie Rhorer, Christophe Rousset, Daniele Rustioni, Michele Spotti, Tugan Sokhiev. Much appreciated for the intensity of her interpretations, Salome Jicia has worked with directors such as Hugo De Ana, Olivier Fredj, Davide Livermore, David Mc Vicar, Damiano Michieletto, Mario Martone, Emilio Sagi, Graham Vick, Jean François Sivadier.
October 2023