SINGING 1992 : Twelfth Prize
Isabelle Kabatu, the Belgian soprano of African origins, is a laureate of numerous international contests and was awarded the 1st Prize of the G.B. Viotti Competition in Varollo in 1994. She was granted the main role in La Traviata in Lisbon the same year.
This was followed by numerous invitations from internationally renowned theaters, where she sang the roles of Thaïs of Massenet, Mimi (La Bohème), Leonora (Il trovatore), Elisabeth de Valois (Don Carlo). In 1996 she was invited by the Houston Grand Opera to perform the role of Bess (Porgy and Bess) at La Scala in Milan, at the opera Bastille in Paris and at the Bunkamura Theatre in Tokyo.
After an extraordinary success at the Glimmerglass Festival, New York, with Madame Butterfly, Isabelle Kabatu has been invited to perform all the roles of her repertory in major Opera Houses: Tosca at the Staasoper of Vienna, Aïda at the Scala in Milan and at the Houston Grand Opera, Madama Butterfly at San Francisco, Verdi's Requiem, Sly and Aïda at the Liceo in Barcelona, Aïda at the Grand Opera of Geneva, Madama Butterfly at Real of Madrid at Sao Carlo of Lisbon, San Carlo of Naples, Un Ballo in Maschera, Falstaff, Otello and Tosca at the Staatsoper in Hamburg, Aïda, Madame Butterfly and La Fanciulla del West at Deutsche Oper in Berlin, La Forza Del Destino in Köln, Madama Butterfly in the Arena of Verona, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Aïda at the Opera of Rom, Aïda e Manon Lescaut at the Communale of Bologna and Madama Butterfly at the Semperoper in Dresden and at La Scala in Milan.
Among the famous conductors and directors with whom Isabelle Kabatu has performed are Yves Abel, Maurizio Arena, Daniel Barenboïm, Riccardo Chailly, Daniele Gatti, Michel Plasson, Nello Santi, Franz Welser Möst, Robert Carsen, Nicolas Joël, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Robert Wilson, Francesca Zambello, Franco Zeffirelli.
She has recorded the role of Venus (Tannhaüser) for EMI.