Natalia Rom

Natalia Rom, soprano, was born in Kazan, in the Soviet Union (also the city of Feodor Chaliapin's birth), on May 14, 1950, and graduated (as a conductor) from the Leningrad Conservatory. In late 1976, she emigrated to New Orleans, where she attended Loyola University's College of Music, and studied voice with Patricia Havranek. In 1979, she made her professional debut in a small role in the New Orleans Opera Association's Die Zauberflöte. That same year, she won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In 1980, she sang the title role in Aïda, for the Seattle Opera.

The soprano's Metropolitan Opera debut was as Mimì in La bohème (in 1983, with Patricia Craig, Dano Raffanti, Richard Stilwell, Mario Sereni, James Morris, and Italo Tajo, conducted by James Levine), subsequently performing Tatiana in Eugene Onegin (opposite Leo Nucci and Paul Plishka) and Emma in the new production of Khovanschina (with Martti Talvela) at the house. She returned to New Orleans in 1989 for Aïda, then Tatiana (with Yuri Mazurok) in 1995. In New York, she studied under Dick Marzollo.