Biography

Azerbaijani mezzo-soprano Aytaj Shikhalizada will make her debut at the 2026 Glyndebourne Festival as Zaida in Rossini’s Il turco in Italia. In the 2026/27 season she will add several exciting new roles to her repertoire, including her role debut as Carmen, Ljubascha in The Tsar's Bride (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov), and her debut at the prestigious Salzburg Easter Festival.

In September 2024, Aytaj made her house and role debut as Eboli in Verdi’s Don Carlo at the Royal Danish Opera, in a new production by Davide Livermore conducted by Joana de Souza. Shortly after, she appeared at the Winteroper Potsdam in the title role of Haydn’s Armida in a new staging.

During the 2023/24 season, she returned to both the Staatsoper Stuttgart as Floßhilde in Wagner’s Das Rheingold and the Staatsoper Unter den Linden as Grimgerde in Die Walküre.

In early 2022, Aytaj won 2nd Prize at the Paris Opera Competition. That same summer, she made her Bregenz Festival debut as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly on the Seebühne. 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 in Ernani and successfully resumed the role of Suzuki.

Aytaj gained her first stage experience at renowned houses such as the Theater Dortmund (Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Nefertiti in Philip Glass’s Akhnaten), the Staatsoper Stuttgart (Linetta in The Love for Three Oranges), the Opéra Royal de Versailles (Isabella in L’italiana in Algeri under Jean-Christophe Spinosi), and the Staatsoper Unter den Linden (Shepherdess in Jenůfa under Sir Simon Rattle). She was also a member of the Opera Studio of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, and made her house debut at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt as Olga in Eugene Onegin.

Born in Azerbaijan, Aytaj Shikhalizada studied in her home country and later at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Prof. Claudia Visca.