Wallis Giunta gives us a glimpse into her new Viennese life, and an insider’s look into what’s happening at the Volksoper
CHANGE IS IN THE WIND HERE IN THE CITY OF Music. I sense it in the brisk step and quick smile of my colleagues at the Vienna Volksoper, my new artistic home. I feel it when chatting with the many expat families I meet at the park, while bringing my one-year-old to burn off some of his abundant energy. I see it in the bold programming of each of the countless world-class institutions that make this city, in my opinion, the beating heart of the international classical music scene. To put it plainly, Vienna feels like an embarrassment of cultural riches, and although is has always historically been so, it is evolving post-pandemic and drawing in creatives from around the world to become more than the sum of its parts: a true melting pot.
My journey to Vienna started in March 2021, with a call from the ever-vibrant Dutch stage director, Lotte de Beer. She was preparing for her then-impending Artistic Directorship at the Volksoper, marking the turn of a (very) new leaf for the 124-year-old opera house. She asked me to join her new soloist ensemble, and stressed her aim of creating a true artistic family, while taking the company into the future with fundamental changes to its current modus operandi. I was all in, and officially joined the Volksoper in September of 2022.
Irish-Canadian mezzo soprano, Wallis Giunta, is a member of the Vienna Volksoper Ensemble. She is a 2013 graduate of both the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program & the Juilliard School’s Artist Diploma in Opera Studies, and a 2011 graduate of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio.
