Sanja Anastasia

Mezzo soprano

– Project Management – 

Sanja Anastasia studied singing at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz and Vienna.
Graz and Vienna. Already during her training she took on her first roles at the Palais Theatre in Graz as well as at the Neue Studiobühne, the Schönbrunn Palace Theatre and the Volksoper in Vienna. For the academic year 2000/01 she received a scholarship from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Culture and Science. In 2005 she graduated with a Master’s degree. From 2011-2013 she was an ensemble member of the Staatstheater Mainz. Since then she has been working as a freelance artist.
Sanja Anastasia has won numerous international singing competitions, such as the „Jeunesses Musicales“ in Belgrade, the „Vincenzo Bellini“ and „Enrico Caruso“ competitions in Italy and the Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg in Germany.
Her first engagements took her to the stages of Skopje as Isabella (Italian in Algiers) and Maribor as Santuzza under the direction of Karen Kamenšek.
Sanja Anastasia successfully embodies her roles at home and abroad. Engagements have led her Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Serbia, Slovakia, 
Switzerland, Germany and Turkey to South Africa, Japan and South Korea.
In the 2008/2009 season, Sanja Anastasia made a successful guest appearance at the Aachen Theatre under the baton of Markus Bosch as Herod.
under the baton of Markus Bosch as Herodias and Amneris. In the same year she made her debut as Carmen at the National Theatre in Košice and at the National Opera in Sarajevo, to which she is permanently with numerous guest appearances.
In the following season Anastasia made her debut as Ulrica at the Mainfranken Theatre in Würzburg, appeared with the Prague State Opera as Amneris in „Aida“ in Salzburg (Großes Festspielhaus) and thrilled the audience as Carmen at the Openair Festival in Steyr, Austria.
As the seductive, wild gypsy Carmen, Anastasia also celebrated in Spain (Theatre Sabadell, Leida, Reus and later in Gijón with Juan Moreno production 2009), at the Aspendos Festival in Turkey (with Istanbul Opera and Ballet and Maestro A.Pirolli 2010 and 2011)
and at the National Opera in Sarajevo further great successes. (HRT 3 and BH TV broadcast).
In the 2010-11 season Sanja Anastasia was engaged as Judith in “ Bluebeard’s Castle“ at the Stadttheater Bremerhaven and she sang the role again at the Staatstheater Bremen in 2012.
In the 2011-2013 season Sanja Anastasia was an ensemble member of the Staatstheater Mainz, but she also made guest appearances at the Staatstheater Saarbrücken (Larina/Eugen Onegin) and gave her house debut at the Theater Basel in the role of Ulrica in „Un Ballo in Maschera“ (directed by Vera Nemirova).
Sanja Anastasia subsequently developed an extensive range of roles in dramatic mezzo-soprano, including the title role in Bizet’s „Carmen“, Ulrica in „Un Ballo in Maschera“, Azucena in „Il Trovatore“, Amneris in „Aida“, Santuzza in „Cavalleria Rusticana“, Judith in „Duke Bluebeard’s Castle“, Clytemnestra in „Elektra“, Herodias in „Salome“, Eboli in „Don Carlo“ and many others.
„Don Carlo“ and others.
Anastasia made her „Arena“ debut at the 2013 Arena di Verona Jubilee Festival in Italy. She would be engaged for several roles and sang Fenena in „Nabucco“ with Maestro Placido Domingo in the title role. She went on to sing Flora in „La Traviata“, Gertrude in „Romeo et Juliette“ and attracted attention as Amneris in „Aida“ (under the baton of Maestro Daniel Oren). At the same time, she also appeared as Amneris at the La Perla Festival in Switzerland.
At the Lübeck Theatre, Sanja Anastasia made her debut as Eboli in Verdi’s „Don Carlo“ and sang Olga in „Eugen Onegin“ at the Staatstheater Mainz.
In the 2014 season, Anastasia appeared as Larina in „Eugene Onegin“ at Theater Basel and as Herodias in „Salome“ at Theater Würzburg. She has again performed at the famous Arena Festival this time as Amneris in „Aida“ Ulrica in „Ballo in Maschera“ and in the title role of Bizet’s opera „Carmen“.
Furthermore, Anastasia successfully debuted in the role of Principessa Bouillon in „Adriana Lecouvreuer“ at the theatres in Como and Piacenca and at the Staatstheater Karlsruhe as Ulrica in “ sun Ballo in Maschera“.
In the following season 2015 Ms. Anastasia gave guest performances as Amneris in Seoul, South Korea and at the theatre in Rovigo, Italy. She made her debut at the National Theatre Belgrade as Eboli and again conquered Arena di Verona as Amneris and Fenena.
In the 2016 season, Ms. Anastasia made guest appearances as Ulrica at Theater Bern, Theater Magdeburg and again at the Seoul Arts Center. She was renewed for the Festival Arena di Verona where she sang Amneris and Carmen. In October 2016 she made her debut at the Theatre Coccia in
Novara in the role of Amneris. This Aida production would be recorded for Classica Italia (directed by P.Maragni/P.Gavazzeni).
In the 2017 season, Sanja Anastasia made her debut at the Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck in the role of the fortune teller Ulrica and was invited to the Staatstheater Karlsruhe as La Principessa Bouillon in Adriana Lecouvreuer. She also made her role debut as Azucena in
„Il Trovatore“ in Italy, house debut at the State Theatre in Sofia and Stara Zagora as Eboli in „Carmen at the „Mozart Festival“ in Pravetz and at the State Theatre Russe in Bulgaria and the in Bulgaria and at the „Dionysos Music Festival“ in Corfu, Greece. (The Carmen performance in Pravetz was recorded and broadcast for Bulgarian National Television).
Ms. Anastasia has also performed as Amneris in Verdi’s Aida in Belgium (Fort Natoional), Egypt (Openair Priduction down the Pyramids in Gyza) and in South Korea.
Sanja Anastasia also has a broad repertoire in song and concert, where she has performed works by Schubert, Schumann, Rachmaninov, De Falla, 
Prokofiev, Mahler, Mozart, Beethoven, Bruckner and Verdi with numerous orchestras at home and abroad. She sang Beethoven’s 9th symphony with the Slovenian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Prokofiev’s „Aleksander Nevsky“ with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Bruckner’s „Te Deum“ with the Orchestra Fondazione Arena di Verona (G.Crocci), Gala Concert with the Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra I.Lipanovic). With the Belgrade Symphony and Radio Orchestra she sang Mahler’s 8th Symphony, Mozart Requiem and Coronation Mass. (V.Kranjčević) and with the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra and Bernstein’s 1st Symphony she opened concert season 2012/13 (A.Rahbari). She sang Verdi Requiem in Łodz (Teater Wielki) under Maestro E.Salmieri and in Würzburg with the Mainfranken Philharmonie and Maestro E. Calesso (2016). Twice she opened the concert season in Verona Teatro Filarmonico, Italy and performed at various gala concerts in Germany and Serbia.
In February 2018, she performed at gala concerts at the Alte Oper Frankurt and in Würzburg with great success. For the cantata „Aleksandar Nevski“ with Mainzer Philoharmonie under the baton of Hermann Bäumer, she was engaged as a guest at the Staatstheater Mainz.
Further engagements were AMNERIS with Gwangju Metropolitan Opera, South Korea, AZUCENA at the Openair Festival in Deva, Romania, Carmen at the Varna Summer Music Festival and AMNERIS at Somertheater in Pleven, Bulgaria and in Japan with Tokyo Philharmonic.
For the 150th anniversary of the National Theatre in Belgrade in January 2019, Ms. Anastasia would be highly celebrated as an honorary guest in the role of AMNERIS in Aida on the home stage in Belgrade. In the role of Princess EBOLI, she made a guest appearance at the National Theatre in Tbilisi (Georgia), as AZUCENA at the music festival Schloss Ehrenbreitstein in Koblenz and as CARMEN in Taormina, Sicily.
She was also AZUCENA in „Il Trovatore“ in Malta (Gozo), CARMEN in South Korea and Italy, ULRICA in „Un Ballo in Maschera“ at the Perruzzelli Theatre in Bari in February 2020.
Particularly exciting was the return to the Staatstheater Mainz in the role of Madre in the contemporary opera by Luiggi Nono „Al grand sole carico d’amore“ in March 2020 then would be performed in the 21/22 season due to the COVID 19 pandemic.
Ms Anastasia celebrated further successes at the Staatstheater Mainz in the role of the Principessa di Bouillon in the opera Adriana Lecouvreur.
Ms. Anastasia successfully opened the artistic season 21/22 also in her home country with the first open-air performance of G. Bizet’s opera CARMEN at the Belgrade Waterfront (cooperation with the National Theatre of Belgrade). This was followed by various engagements as AMNERIS in Aida at the Music Festival in Skopje, Macedonia, Summer Festival in Burgas, Bulgaria, as well as in FRANCO ZAFFIRELLIS‘ Aida productions in Sicily (Barcellona Pozzo del Goto), Italy.
This was soon followed by successes as SANTUZZA in Cavalleria Rusticana at the National Theatre in Tbilisi, at the Festival of Pietra a Tindari (registrato per RAI 5) and ULRICA in Ballo in Maschera in open air production in Italy, Udine. Further engagements followed at the Theatre Stralsund in Germany for Verdi Requiem (NDR live broadcast on 7.11.2022.), New Year’s Eve and gala concerts in Belgrade and Niš in Serbia.
In January 2023 Ms. Anastasia became an honorary member of the National Theatre in Belgrade, taking on roles in the dramatic mezzo-soprano fach. She has appeared as AMNERIS in Aida, AZUCENA in Il Trovatore, CARMEN in Carmen, SANTUZZA in Cavalleria Rusticana, ULRICA in Ballo in Maschera, as well as MRS.QUICKLY in Falstaff.
In May 2023 she was again a guest at the music festival in Skoplje and celebrated successes as AMNERIS in Aida (with Macedonian National Theatre) and as mezzo-soprano in Verdi’s Requiem (with Macedonian Filharmonic). With Dubrovnik Simfoniker she sang again Verdi Requiem in Dubrovnik and Mostar.
At the open-air production of Verdi’s Il Trovatore, Ms. Anastasia would this time appear in the role of AZUCENA in Udine, Italy.
Other engagements include KLITÄMNESTRA in Elektra at the Mainfranken Theatre in Würzburg, Germany.