BIOGRAPHY

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Croatian mezzo-soprano Jelena Kordić studied at the Zagreb Music Academy with Professor Martina Zadro. Since her youth, she has also been receiving lessons and guidance from Ruža Pospiš Baldani. As the final exam of her studies, she debuted in the role of Carmen in Zagreb's Lisinski concert hall in 2011.
 

In the following years, Jelena was invited to sing at many Croatian theaters, most importantly the National Theater of Zagreb. She also performed with Croatia's most important orchestras, such as the Zagreb Radio Symphony and Zagreb Philharmonic.
 

In 2015, Jelena left Croatia to join the Young Ensemble of Semperoper Dresden. In this prestigious house, she sang many important roles, such as Cherubino, Dorabella, Orlofsky, Hänsel and Janáček's Fox. To this day, Jelena remains a guest singer at Semperoper in roles like Emilia, Flora and Hänsel. Her scheduled appearance as Carmen in early 2021 had to be cancelled due to the pandemic.
 

After graduating from the Dresden Young Ensemble in 2017, Jelena spent one year in the Ensemble of Staatstheater Braunschweig. In this season, she made her debuts as Sesto and Charlotte as well as appearing in a new production of Carmen. Her numerous concert appearances in Braunschweig included Mahler's Second and Beethoven's Ninth Symphonies, Verdi's Requiem and Wagner's Wesendonck-Lieder.

 

Since 2018, Jelena Kordić is a member of the ensemble of Nationaltheater Mannheim, singing parts like Charlotte, Adalgisa, Carmen and Octavian. She has made guest appearances at Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf (Hänsel und Gretel), Concertgebouw Amsterdam (Elektra), Latvian National Opera Riga (Nabucco), Luxembourg Philharmonic (Beethoven 9) and performed a gala concert at Guadalajara/Mexico. Jelena was invited by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra to sing the role of Doma in Jakov Gotovac's Ero the Joker, Croatia's most celebrated opera, in 2018. A complete recording of the concert was released to critical acclaim.
 

Jelena's guest appearances in the 2021/22 season included Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier) at Lithuanian National Theatre in Vilnius, in a premiere staged by Damiano Michieletto, and Empress Caesonia in Detlev Glanert's Caligula at Nationaltheater Weimar. She also returned to Zagreb to record a set of Orchesterlieder by Croatian composer Dora Pejačević with the Zagreb Radio Symphony orchestra and to perform Verdi's Requiem under the direction of Plácido Domingo.
 

In Mannheim's 2022 performance of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, conducted by Alexander Soddy, Jelena debuted as Fricka in both Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, starting her journey into the German dramatic repertoire. She reprised both roles at the Daegu Opera Festival as part of the South Korean tour of Nationaltheater Mannheim in October 2022.
 

In the season 2022-23, Jelena has performed roles such as Preziosilla in Verdi’s La Forza del Destino, Zweite Norn in Wagner's Götterdämmerung and Die Königin in Mendelssohn's Elias,  at the Nationaltheater Mannheim. 

 

The season 2023-24 has started to Jelena with an important house debut: Wellgunde in Wagner's Das Rheingold, at the Royal Theatre of La Monnaie De Munt. Then, she performed as Prince Charmant in Massenet's Cendrillon, staged by Laurent Pelly, at the National Taichung Theatre (Taiwan); Nicklausse and La Muse in Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann, at the Lithuanian National Opera & Ballet; the title role in Carmen and Der Komponist in R. Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, at the Nationaltheater Mannheim; and the solo part in Beethoven's 9th Symphony, with the European Youth Orchestra Academy.

 

Jelena Kordic's 2024-25 season has started in Taichung, where she performed the role of Mrs Quickly in Verdi's Falstaff. Among her next engagements, she will sing Wellgunde in Götterdämmerung, at La Monnaie De Munt, and reprise the roles of Nicklausse and Muse in Les Contes d'Hoffmann, in Vilnius.

   

Jelena aims to keep improving and developing her voice with different teachers. Among others, she has been working with Dolora Zajick and Deborah Polaski. Presently, she receives precious advice from Elena Pankratova.

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