Inva Mula

Inva Mula (born 1963) is an Albanian opera soprano and actress. She began her soprano career at a very early age. Her father and mother were also opera singers.
Inva was born in Tirana, Albania. In 1987 she won the Cantante d'Albania competition in Tirana and in 1988 the George Enescu Competition in Bucharest. In 1992 she won the Butterfly Competition in Barcelona. She received an award at Plácido Domingo's first Operalia International Opera Competition contest in Paris, 1993. A CD of the event was released.
She later performed in various concerts with the famous tenor at the Opéra Bastille in Paris, and in Brussels for Europalia Mexico, in Munich, and in Oslo. In 1996 she performed Luigi Cherubini's opera Médée (which was taped for TV) at Compiègne in France. She then returned for Georges Bizet's opera La Jolie fille de Perth (released CD, filmed for TV, and released DVD in Japan) in 1998. After this she recorded Puccini's La Rondine with Angela Gheorghiu for EMI and for 2005's stage production she took Gheorghiu's place in the leading role of Magda during performances in Toulouse and Paris. In 1997 she performed in a movie called The Fifth Element, where she played as Diva Plavalaguna (singing voice). Later on, she performed Bizet's Ivan IV concert version, which had its recital debut at Salle Pleyel in Paris, and a live recording was released as CD. In 2001, she was busy in Italy, performing Verdi's Falstaff at the Teatro alla Scala and Rigoletto at the Verona Arena, both of which were taped for TV then released on DVD.
Mula is a regular performer at La Scala, where she has sung in Lucia di Lammermoor, La bohème, and Manon, among others. She is also a renowned Violetta in La Traviata, and has sung the role in many cities around the world, including Tokyo, Bilbao, Orange, Trieste, and Toronto. In 2007, she performed Adina in L'elisir d'amore at Toulouse.
Her husband Pirro ?ako is a well-known singer and composer from Albania, so she used the spelling Tchako rather than ?ako. However, after mid-1990 she began using the name Inva Mula, and never returned to the old one.