Milijana Nikolić

Milijana Nikolic (or Nikolić; ; born 1975) is an operatic mezzo-soprano.

Education Nikolic was born in Sremska Mitrovica where she began singing in the choir Sirmium Cantorum. She graduated in 2001 from the University of Arts in Belgrade, tutored by Prof. Radmila Smiljanić.

Career Her stage debut was at the National Theatre in Belgrade as Third Lady in Mozart's The Magic Flute; she then sang Tisbe in Rossini's La Cenerentola.

In 2001, Nikolic won a two-year scholarship for the Teatro alla Scala Academy for Solists. At the academy, sang the Third Greek Lady in Gluck's Iphigénie en Aulide conducted by Riccardo Muti at the Teatro degli Arcimboldi, Milan, Emma in Donizetti's Ugo, conte di Parigi, a role she had sung before at the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo and later sang again at the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania. At La Scala, she sang the principal role of Cuniza in Verdi's Oberto, a production where her later husband Rosario La Spina sang Riccardo; this production then travelled to the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. In March 2010, Nikolic created the role of Mrs Dalton in the world premiere of Brett Dean's opera Bliss and she travelled in 2011 with that production to the Edinburgh Festival. Nikolic sang Amneris in Verdi's Aida for Opera Australia in 2009 and in 2010 for Southern Opera, Christchurch, New Zealand, and for Opera Queensland. In July 2010, she sang the title role in Bizet's Carmen at the Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland.

In 2013, she alternated in the title role of Carmen with Rinat Shaham in Opera Australia's "Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour" production. She sang Amneris in Michigan Opera's production of Aida, opposite her husband as Radames. In 2015, Nikolic sang Giovanna at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, in Donizetti's Anna Bolena.

Nikolic' concert appearances have included a gala at La Scala and Rossini's Petite messe solennelle in Sardinia; In 2001 she won first prize in the Ada Sari International Competition in Kraków.

Recordings 2002: Third Greek Lady in Iphigénie en Aulide by Christoph Willibald Gluck 2003: Emma in Ugo, conte di Parigi by Gaetano Donizetti 2006: La Marchesa di Berkenfeld in La figlia del reggimento by Gaetano Donizetti