It was the sort of debut operatic dreams are made of, a once-in-a-generation sensation that launched the career of one of the most scintillating young singers now performing on the international stage. On the opening night of La Scala’s 2009 season, the 25-year-old Georgian mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili stole the headlines as Carmen opposite the superstar tenor Jonas Kaufmann. In doing so, she also became the youngest singer ever to make their debut in the role on an opening night in the legendary opera house’s history.

Daniel Barenboim was the conductor, and it was he who had recognised the young singer’s extraordinary natural vocal talent and charismatic stage presence. After auditioning her initially for the minor part of Mercédès, he offered her the title role. ‘It was a huge risk for me,’ she recalls. ‘If any small detail had gone wrong, my career would have ended on the very day it began.’

With a musical background deeply rooted in her native Georgia, Anita Rachvelishvili first learnt the piano from the age of six, as well as singing jazz and soul, and she still finds time, despite her top-flight international operatic career, to sing with her band. She discovered opera only aged 16 when she began singing lessons, and her extraordinary natural gift was recognised when she was accepted into the Accademia Teatro alla Scala in Milan only a few years later.

It was also important, however, for her to include a piece of Georgian operatic tradition, in the form the Cavatina of Queen Tamar from the 1919 opera The Legend of Shota Rustaveli, by Dimitri Arakishvili (1873-1953). Tamar, who ruled Georgia from 1184 is 1213, is a key figure in the country’s history and ‘an example for Georgian women today,’ she explains. ‘It’s a good thing to include on my debut album, as I consider myself also a successful and strong woman – or at least I try!’