Spanish magazine lists Georgia’s Nino Machaidze among world’s best sopranos

International magazine Opera World  has named Georgian opera singer Nino Matchaidze among the ten the best sopranos in the world.

The Georgian performer noted on her Facebook page she had enjoyed a "long break” but would return to Tbilisi for her first recital this evening.

Machaidze is due to perform at the International Festival of Academic Arts and Classical Music ‘From Easter to Ascension’ at the Tbilisi Conservatory Grand Hall later today.

Machaidze, 31, was named in the Spanish magazine alongside Anna Netrebko, Renée Fleming and Diana Damrau.

The Georgian singer started piano and vocal lessons when she was seven years old, and by the time she was 17, she was accepted into the Academy for young artists at La Scala, Milan.

She made her opera debut at La Scala singing Marie, the lead in Donizetti's La fille du régiment, which she also reprised at the Rome Opera.

At the 2008 Salzburg Festival, the developing opera star was transformed into a true star. Machaidze, a late replacement for Anna Netrebko, sang Gounod’s Juliette in a new production the festival had planned for Netrebko and Rolando Villazon. The little-known soprano’s conquest of the hard-to-please Salzburg audience gave birth to a sensational career for the budding singer.

In 2009 the Georgian soprano made her LA Opera debut as Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore, returned in 2011 as Fiorilla in The Turk in Italy and as Juliette in Romeo and Juliette.