“With Yana Kleyn as Angelica, you experience world-class Puccini singing close up.”
“YK is like a bright shining star. Every time she sang, the whole arena lifted itself half a meter off the ground, giving you goosebumps.“
“Her singing here was a revelation, unforced, unexaggerated and the loveliest pianissimo singing imaginable.“
The Russian Danish soprano Yana Kleyn was born in Moscow and educated as a pianist at the Russian Music Academy Gnesins in Moscow. In 2006, she entered the Gnesins as a singer and in 2012 she finished her master’s degree from The Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, Denmark, where she also lives today.
Her recent and future engagements include Mimì at the Malmö Opera marking her house debut in 2025, verismo gala concert at Tivoli Concert Hall with Jonathan Tetelman and Copenhagen Phil as well as touring in Germany with FKP Show Creations in the title role of Aida.
In past seasons she has been singing her pièce de resistance, Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème in the role of Mimì at Stockholm Royal Opera, Royal Opera Copenhagen, Oper Köln, Opéra de Metz Métropole and Copenhagen Opera Festival, Desdemona inOtelloat the Savonlinna Festival, Rachel in F. Halévy’s La Juive in Konstanz, Mussorgsky’s Songs and dances of Death at Stockholm Concert Hall, Michäela and Aida at Opera Hedeland in Denmark.
Furthermore, she sang Cio Cio-san in Madama Butterfly at the Immling Festival, Lisa in Queen of Spades, Nella in Gianni Schicchi and the title role in Suor Angelica at Royal Opera Stockholm, Rusalka at Opéra Théâtre de Metz and Opéra Reims, the title role of Tosca as well as Giorgetta in Il tabarro at Copenhagen Opera Festival in Denmark.
2010/11 marked her international opera debut outside Russia as Mimì at Opera on Skäret Festival in Sweden at which she the year after sang Michaëla. From 2011-15 she sang Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Liù in Turandot, Michaëla in Carmen and Leonora in Trovatore at the Swedish Royal Opera in Stockholm. Apart from her Swedish performances, she sang Leonora in Trovatore and Mimì at Danish National Opera, Liù at Staatstheater Kassel, Eurydice in Orphée et Eurydice in Teatro Massimo di Palermo and Ms. Jessel in Britten’s Turn of the Screw in Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
Besides several gala concerts with Nordic Symphony Orchestras her oratorio and symphonic repertoire has mainly been Britten’s War Requiem with Aalborg Symphony Orchestra and Copenhagen Phil, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater, Berg’s Sieben Frühe Lieder with Malmö Symphony Orchestra and Beethoven 9 with Helsinki Philharmonic.
