A world-class soprano once rejected by a music academy

Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka was something of a late-starter as a singer.

Having been taken to a performance of Bellini’s Norma when she was 13, she decided that she wanted to be a singer, but at the age of 17 she was rejected by the Latvian Academy of Music. With hindsight, that seems like a remarkable decision. She is now one of the most in-demand sopranos in the world, but it took until 2007 - when she was 26 - for her to make her professional debut.

This was as Violetta in La Traviata at the relatively modest Theater Erfurt in Thuringia. By 2020, she was receiving the International Classical Music Award for artist of the year. With French pianist Mathieu Pordoy, she will be performing works by the likes of Puccini and Verdi at the Pollensa Festival.