Canadian mezzo, Wallis Giunta, has been praised by OPERA NEWS for her “delectably rich, silver-toned mezzo-soprano, with a beautiful sense of line and effortless, rapid runs”, and her recent jump-in as Mozart’s Sesto for the Canadian Opera Company (COC) was celebrated as “a triumph…remarkable in its combination of intelligence and beauty”. In the ²⁰¹⁴⁄₁₅ season she returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Olga in a new production of The Merry Widow, to Opera Lyra Ottawa as Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, and to Opera Atelier (Toronto) as Bradamante in a new period-production of Alcina. Also, Ms. Giunta made her debut with Madison Opera in their Opera in the Parks gala concert, for which it was noted that, “Her high notes soared; her embellishments sounded effortless”. Further engagements include Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream and Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 conducted by Zukerman with the National Arts Centre Orchestra (Canada) and concerts at centres across Canada.

She began the ²⁰¹³⁄₁₄ season as Annio in La Clemenza di Tito for her debut with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, followed by Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto at the Met, and Dorabella in Atom Egoyan’s new production of Cosí fan tutte at the Canadian Opera Company. In June 2014, she recorded her first album with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin (NAXOS), of a new work by American composer, William Perry. She also debuted with the Toronto and Saskatoon Symphony Orchestras, and with the 21C Music Festival, premiering Louis Andriessen’s one-woman-opera, Anaïs Nin. She performed concerts and recitals in Toronto, New York, and Regina, and brought her acclaimed program of Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins to Miami and Ottawa with pianist Ken Noda. Miss Giunta had a whirlwind ²⁰¹²⁄₁₃ season, making her Metropolitan Opera debut in Rigoletto, debuting the role of Annio in La Clemenza di Tito with the Canadian Opera Company, performing her Sins recital for Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto with Ken Noda, and singing Dorabella in the Met + Juilliard production of Cosí fan tutte, to rave reviews. She also made debuts with L’Opéra de Montréal, the Edmonton, Seville and Nuremberg Symphonies, the Stuttgart Festivalorchester, and the National Arts Centre and Munich Radio Orchestras. In the summer of 2013, she made her Paris debut with Le Théâtre du Châtelet as Tiffany in John Adams’s rare opera I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky.

In recent seasons she has performed with Fort Worth Opera, the Luminato Festival, the New York Festival of Song, the festivals of Caramoor, Ravinia and Aspen, and at the Banff Centre. Ms. Giunta is a grateful recipient of a 2013 Novick Career Advancement Grant, the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Career Development Award, and multiple grants from the Canada Council for the Arts. She is a 2013 graduate of both the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, and The Juilliard School’s Artist Diploma in Opera Studies.