Biography

In September 2024 the young Azerbaijani mezzo-soprano Aytaj Shikhalizada made her role debut as Eboli (Don Carlo) at the Royal Danish Opera (house debut) in a new production by Davide Livermoore (cond. J.de Souza).   She debuts at the Winteroper Potsdam in November 2024 in the title role of Haydn's Armida in a new production.  From 2025, invitations to Glyndebourne and the Salzburg Easter Festival will follow, as well as a re-invitation to the Staatsoper Unter den Linden.

Last season she returned to Staatsoper Stuttgard as Floßhilde in Wagner's Das Rheingold and to the Staatsoper Unter den Linden as Grimgerde (Die Walküre).   

In early 2022, the mezzo-soprano won 2nd prize at the Paris Opera Competition. That summer, she made her debut at the Seebühne of the Bregenz Festival as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly. In the 2022/23 season, she sang Erda (Siegfried) and Ulrica (Un ballo in maschera) at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt and Floßhilde (Das Rheingold) at the Staatsoper Stuttgart. She returned to the Bregenz Festival in summer 2023 as Giovanna (Ernani), where she also successfully resumed the role of Suzuki. 

She gained her first stage experience at the Theater Dortmund (Rosina – Il barbiere di Siviglia, Nefertiti – P. Glass' Akhnaten), at the Stuttgart State Opera (Linetta – The Love for Three Oranges), at the Opéra Royal de Versailles (Isabella – L'italiana in Algeri under Jean-Christophe Spinosi) and at the Berlin State Opera (Shepherdess – Jenůfa, under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle).  She also was a member of the Opera Studio of the Staatsoper unter den Linden, and sang Olga in Eugene Onegin at Stadttheater Klagenfurt for her debut in that house. 

She studied in her home country and at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Prof. Claudia Visca.