Hailed as a “true Puccini lyric soprano” by Opera News, Italian American soprano, Anna Mandina, is quickly making a name for herself in the opera world.  Ms. Mandina recently performed the role of Mimì in Sarasota Opera’s production of Puccini’s La bohème to great acclaim. Anna made her mainstage debut with Sarasota singing 13 performances of Liù in the company’s Diamond Anniversary production of Turandot. Mandina was hailed as “impressive” and “heart-rending” as Liù by Opera News, having conveyed “all that is sweet and good with a robust soprano voice that can float a high B-flat as she sung of Calaf’s smile.” 

In the summers of 2016, 2017, and 2019, Anna performed as both a Studio Artist and a Principal Artist with Opera Maine. In 2017, Ms. Mandina performed the role of Eva Crowley in the East Coast premiere of Jack Perla's An American Dream while in Maine. Besides the Puccini heroines, Anna’s signature roles include Countess Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Violetta Valéry (La traviata), Susannah Polk (Susannah), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), and Hanna Glawari (The Merry Widow). Her partially performed roles include Suzel (L’amico Fritz), Marguerite (Faust), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Die Marschallin (Der Rosenkavalier), and Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus).

Ms. Mandina most recently received the Sarasota Opera Guild Leo M. Rogers Award for an Outstanding Apprentice Artist. She also received an Encouragement Award in the Kansas City District Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2015, and won the Music Teacher’s National Association Young Artist Vocal Competition in 2014. 

Anna’s training has included past resident artist apprenticeships with Seagle Music Colony, the Houston Grand Opera Young Artist Vocal Academy, Opera Company of Middlebury, Opera Maine, the Missouri Symphony, and Sarasota Opera. Ms. Mandina holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Missouri- Columbia, and a Master of Music in Opera Performance from The Boston Conservatory. 

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Ms. Mandina did not get to perform her final three performances of La bohème in March of 2020, and the majority of her other engagements for the year were either cancelled or postponed. However, in November 2020, Ms. Mandina was fortunate enough to participate in a Covid-safe concert series with Sarasota Opera, where she was featured in four socially distanced and masked performances. In a severely reduced audience and live-streamed performance in Sarasota Opera’s theater, the Sarasota Herald Tribune said Ms. Mandina’s “versatile lyric soprano voice” had “sensual allure” and was “as impressive here as it was as La bohème’s Mimi, a role she wowed us with in the 2020 winter season.”

In February and March of 2021, Ms. Mandina shifted gears to perform the comedic role of Serpina in Pergolesi’s La serva padrona. Anna is eternally grateful to companies like Sarasota Opera who are finding safe and innovative ways for live performing to continue during these unprecedented times.