Karine Babajanyan completed her vocal studies with honours at the Conservatory of Eriwan, later perfecting her technique in Rome with Mirella Parutto and in Stuttgart with Dunja Vejzovic. The Armenian soprano began her career at the National Theatre in Jerewan. After first appearances in Germany in Berlin, Essen, Hannover, Koblenz, and Bielefeld, she was named a soloist of the Stuttgart Staatsoper from 2003 to 2011. During these years she performed such diverse roles as the Countess (Le nozze di Figaro), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Elettra (Idomeneo), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Leonora (Il trovatore), Tatiana (Eugene Onegin), Mimì (La bohème), Cio-Cio San (Madama Butterfly), Tosca and Norma. The soprano's exceptionally wide-ranging repertoire is apparent from guest engagements that have brought her to the Berlin Staatsoper (Così fan tutte), the Hamburg Staatsoper (Madama Butterfly, Ariadne auf Naxos), the Frankfurt Oper (Madama Butterfly), the Dresden Semperoper (La bohème), the Zurich Opera (La juive), the New National Theatre Tokyo (Madama Butterfly), the Beijing Opera (Un ballo in maschera), the New Israeli Opera Tel Aviv (La juive and Jenufa), the Bregenz Festival (Tosca and Aida), the Grand Théâtre de Genève (Madama Butterfly), the Finnish National Opera (Così fan tutte), the Royal Opera of Copenhagen (Così fan tutte), the Ópera de Bellas Artes of Mexico City (Eugene Onegin), the Vlaamse Opera of Antwerp (Madama Butterfly, Don Carlos, and Don Giovanni), Warsaw (Don Carlos), and the opera houses of Basel (Eugene Onegin and Norma) and Bern (Mazeppa), among others. In the 2015/2016 season Karine Babajanyan made her much acclaimed debut at the Bavarian State Opera Munich as Elena in a new production of Mefistofele alongside Joseph Calleja and René Pape. Other engagements included a recital at the Palace of Arts of Budapest, Madama Butterfly at the Hungarian State Opera Budapest. In the 2016/2017 season she returns to the Hungarian State Opera Budapest as Mimi (La bohème). She has worked with such conductors and stage directors as Daniel Oren, Carlo Rizzi, Muhai Tang, Stefan Soltesz, Helmuth Rilling, Piergiorgio Morandi; Peter Konwitschny, Graham Vick or Jossi Wieler. She has recorded a CD of arias and duets (with tenor Giuseppe Giacomini) by Puccini for EMI.
