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After shining over the baroque stage for over a decade, Véronique Gens has achieved a strong international reputation and is now considered one of the best Mozart singers. One of her most prominent roles, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni staged by Peter Brook and conducted by Claudio Abbado at the Aix-en-Provence Festival earned her worldwide recognition.
In 1999, she was chosen Lyrical Performer of the Year at the Victoires de la Musique Classique.
Her repertoire includes the greatest Mozart parts (Donna Elvira, Contessa Almaviva, Vitellia, Fiordiligi…), famous roles from lyrical tragedies (Iphigénie en Tauride, Iphigénie en Aulide, Alceste…) as well as later ones such as Alice Ford (Falstaff), Eva (Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Madame Lidoine (Dialogues des Carmélites), Hélène (La Belle Hélène), Missia Palmeri (Die Lustige Witwe).
In addition to her wide-ranging classical repertoire, Véronique Gens gives numerous concerts and French melodies recitals all over the world, notably in Paris, Amsterdam, Dresden, Berlin, Vienna, Prague, London, Tanglewood, Beijing, Stockholm, Moscow, Geneva or Edimburgh.
She has performed on the most prestigious stages in the world: Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Wiener Staatsoper, Paris National Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, La Monnaie in Brussels, Gran Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona, Teatro Real in Madrid, La Scala in Milan, the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam as well as at the Festivals of Aix-en-Provence, Salzburg and Glyndebourne.
Véronique Gens thus had the opportunity to sing under the baton of conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Alain Altinoglu, Bertrand de Billy, Ivor Bolton, Jonathan Cohen, William Christie, Myung-Whun Chung, Charles Dutoit, Daniel Harding, Thomas Hengelbrock, Marek Janowski, Philippe Jordan, Louis Langrée, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Sir Neville Marriner, Marc Minkowski, Jérémie Rhorer, Christophe Rousset, Daniele Rustioni, Michel Plasson… and to collaborate with renowned stage directors like Pierre Audi, Calixto Bieito, Peter Brook, Willy Decker, Jurgen Flimm, Claus Guth, Michael Haneke, Christof Loy, Olivier Py, Graham Vick, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Dmitri Tcherniakov…
More recently, she sang in Alceste at the Wiener Staatsoper, La Belle Hélène at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Don Giovanni in Amsterdam, at the Wiener Staatsoper, at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and at the Liceu in Barcelona, La Clemenza di Tito in Dresden and at the Wiener Staatsoper, Falstaff at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Les Indes Galantes in Budapest, Alceste, Iphigénie en Tauride, Die lustige Witwe, Les Troyens and Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Giulietta) at the Paris National Opera, Dialogues des Carmélites in Paris, Caen and at La Monnaie in Brussels, Faust in an original concert version of 1859 revisited by Christophe Rousset, La Fille de Madame Angot and Maître Péronilla (Leona) by Offenbach at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, La Calisto at la Scala… In concert, she sang melodies by Henri Duparc with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Le Poème de l’Amour et de la Mer by Ernest Chausson with the Orchestre National de Lille and with the Mitteldeutscher Sinfonieorchester, the Orchestre national de Lyon and the Orchestre de Cannes. Les Nuits d’été with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra,the Orchestre national des Pays de Loire and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, La Voix humaine by Francis Poulenc at the Atelier Lyrique in Tourcoing, Shéhérazade by Maurice Ravel under the baton of Daniele Rustioni in Lyon, at the Festival Estoril in Lisbon, in Oslo with Vassily Petrenko and Berlin with the Wiener Symphoniker, the Wesendonck Lieder with the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées under the baton of Philippe Herreweghe, La Nonne sanglante by Berlioz at the Festival de la Côte-Saint-André, La Mort de Cléopâtre with the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo and the Orchestre national de Metz, melodies by Berlioz with the Orchestre de Picardie, Armide in Brussels, Metz and at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Mahler Rückert-Lieder in Nancy and Brussels, Shéhérazade at the Musikverein in Vienna, Saint-Saëns Requiem with the Orchestre National de France, Circé by Desmarets Ariane et Bacchus by Marin Marais with Concert Spirituel, Scylla et Glaucus (Circé) by Leclair in Budapest and Rivales with the Concert de la loge in Metz, Massy and at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Zoroastre (Erinice) on tour with Les Ambassadeurs and Hulda by César Franck with the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège.
Her noteworthy projects in the upcoming seasons Armide by Gluck at the Opéra Comique, Dialogues des Carmélites (Madame Lidoine) in Munich, La Fille de Madame Angot at the Opéra Comique and Iphigénie en Aulide at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence… In concert, she will sing Iphigénie en Tauride (Clytemnestre) by Campra with the Concert Spirituel, Castor et Pollux (Phébée) and Werther (Charlotte) in Budapest, Les Nuits d’été with the Orquesta Sinfónica by Galicia, Faust et Hélène by Lili Boulanger at the Edinburgh Festival as well as La Mort de Cléopâtre at the Cologne Philharmonic with Les Siècles, La Voix humaine with the National Orchestra de Lille, the title role of Médée by Charpentier with the Spiritual Concert. We will also hear her in recital with piano and with the ensemble Les Surprises or with I Giardini in Paris, Bordeaux, Lyon, Reims, London…
Very involved in the work lead by the Palazzetto Bru Zane Foundation – French Romantic Music Center, Véronique Gens participated to a lot of recordings belonging to the collection “Opéra français” as Herculanum by David, Cinq-Mars by Gounod, La Jacquerie by Lalo and Coquard, Proserpine by Saint-Saëns, Dante by Godard, La Reine de Chypre by Halévy and Faust by Gounod, Passionnément by Messager, Ô mon bel inconnu by Hahn, Maître Péronilla by Offenbach, La Fille de Madame Angot by Charles Lecocq…
Her many recordings (over 80 CDs and DVDs) have received several international awards. Néère, her recording devoted to French melodies, has won a Gramophone Award in 2016. Visions received an International Classic Music Awards as well as an International Opera Awards in 2018.
Véronique Gens has been promoted to the rank of Chevalier in the French order of Légion d’Honneur as well as Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres.
Sonya Yoncheva has become an acclaimed fixture on the most important stages of the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Teatro alla Scala, Bayerische Staatsoper, Berlin State Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, and the Opéra de Paris. Her unforgettable portrayals of iconic roles have received tremendous acclaim from critics and audiences alike.
Sonya Yoncheva’s extensive repertoire includes jewels of the Baroque canon, as well as works by Mozart, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, and Puccini. Celebrated for her distinctly beautiful voice and exceptional dramatic presence, Sonya is equally at home on the concert and recital stage, having performed to critical acclaim in several cities including Paris, Dresden, Baden-Baden, and Munich.
Engagements of the 2019/2020 season include her title role debuts in a new production of Fedora at the Teatro alla Scala and in Manon Lescaut at the Metropolitan Opera; star turns as Imogene in Il pirata at the Teatro Real of Madrid, as Mimì in La bohème at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, in the title roles of Médée at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin and of Tosca at the Wiener Staatsoper as well as at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. Sonya will also appear in concert at the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, the Moscow Tchaikovsky Hall and the Sofia Philharmonic Hall and will bring her acclaimed Recital program Ad una Stella to the Palau de la Música in Barcelona.
Highlights of past seasons
Ms Yoncheva’s starry 2018/2019 engagements have led her to the Staatsoper Unter den Linden for her title role debut in a new production of Cherubini’s Médée, followed by her return to the Metropolitan Opera for performances as Desdemona in Otello and in the title part of Iolanta. Sonya returned to the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden as Desdemona in a new production of Otello, a role that she also performed in concert performances with the Berliner Philharmoniker at the Philharmonic Hall of Berlin. She also reprised her acclaimed portrayal of Tosca at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. Performances on the concert platform included Rossini’s Stabat Mater at the Philharmonie of Paris, gala concerts at the Teatro alla Scala, the Opéra de Paris, the Wiener Staatsoper and the Grafenegg Festival, recitals at the Monte-Carlo Opéra, Teatro Real of Madrid, Rosey Concert Hall and Teatro del Lago Frutillar (Chile) as well as solo concerts at the Berliner Philharmonie, The Broad Stage of Santa Monica, Hungarian State Opera in Budapest, Liège Opera House, Teatro del Bicentenario in Guanajuato (Mexico) and Mexico City.
Sonya Yoncheva began the 2017/18 season in Paris, where she made her debut as Élisabeth de Valois in a new production of Verdi’s Don Carlos, followed by performances in one of her signature roles, Mimì, in a new staging of Puccini’s La bohème, all for the Opéra de Paris. She then travelled to New York’s Metropolitan Opera, where she made her highly praised debut in the title role of a new production of Puccini’s Tosca, and reprised her portrayal of Mimì in La bohème. Additionally, Ms Yoncheva debuted in the title role of Verdi’s Luisa Miller in the first Met performances of the opera in more than ten years. Following this string of engagements, Sonya Yoncheva made her role debut as Imogene in a new production of Il pirata at the Teatro alla Scala and starred as Poppea in a new staging of L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Salzburg Festival. Sonya sang in concert at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées Paris, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, Grand Théâtre de Genève and Konzerthaus Dortmund on an all-Verdi programme, in addition to being the soloist at the Bayerische Staatsoper’s annual outdoor summer Festival Concert “Opera for All”. She was named the 2017 medici.tv Artist of the Year, and was featured on a series of live online and archived broadcasts in celebration of this recognition.
Other past performance highlights include her title role debut in a new production of Norma, Antonia in Les contes d’Hoffmann and Micaëla in Carmen at the Royal Opera House, several Metropolitan Opera appearances, featuring her debut as Gilda in Rigoletto and star turns as Mimì in La bohème, Violetta in La traviata, Desdemona in the 2015/16 opening production of Otello and in the Met’s Gala Concert celebrating its 50th Anniversary at Lincoln Center; the title roles of Iolanta, La traviata and Lucia di Lammermoor at Opéra de Paris, Mimì at the Teatro alla Scala; Violetta at the Staatsoper Berlin, the Palau de les Arts Valencia, Monte Carlo, and the Bayerische Staatsoper; Tatyana in Eugene Onegin at Deutsche Oper Berlin and Marguerite in Faust at the Wiener Staatsoper, the Royal Opera House, and the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. She was also a featured artist at the annual Adventskonzert in Dresden, broadcast on ZDF in Europe.
Sonya Yoncheva is an alumna of William Christie’s Le Jardin des Voix and has maintained a special focus the Early and Baroque repertory. Past engagements have featured her in several iconic roles, including Phani/Zima (Les Indes galantes) and Dido (Dido and Aeneas) on tour with William Christie in Europe, Russia and the US; La Fortuna (L’incoronazione di Poppea) at the Glyndebourne Festival; Giunone (Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria) at the Teatro Real; Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare) in Versailles; and Poppea (L’incoronazione di Poppea) and Poppea (Agrippina) in Lille and Dijon with conductor Emmanuelle Haim.
Education and Accolades
Born in 1981, soprano Sonya Yoncheva graduated with performance degrees in piano and voice in her hometown of Plovdiv, Bulgaria under the tutelage of Nelly Koitcheva. Sonya later obtained her master’s degree in voice at the Conservatory of Geneva, studying with Danielle Borst. Ms. Yoncheva is also the winner of several renowned international competitions, including top prize and the special CultureArte prize at Plácido Domingo’s Operalia competition (2010). She was honored as the Newcomer of the Year (Singer) at the 2015 ECHO Klassik Awards and received the Special Prize of the Les Amis du Festival for her performance of Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, at the Academy of Festival d’Aix-en-Provence (2007). Sonya is the winner of the 2019 Readers’ Award of The International Opera Awards.
Sonya Yoncheva is also a first prizewinner of numerous competitions in her home country of Bulgaria: “Competition for Bulgarian Classical Music” in 2000 and “Competition for German and Austrian Classical Music” in 2001. Sonya and her brother Marin Yonchev were lauded as the Singers of the Year in the 2000 edition of the competition “Hit-1,” produced by Bulgarian National Television. Ms. Yoncheva has collaborated with acclaimed popular artists including Sting and Elvis Costello, and she retains a keen interest in film music, which includes her past collaborations with famed composer Vladimir Cosma.
Sonya records exclusively for Sony Classical, and is featured on a new solo album titled The Verdi Album, released in February 2018, on her solo album Handel released in 2017, in addition to her debut solo album Paris, mon amour, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and several recordings on DVD/Blu-Ray. Her discography also includes CD recordings of Le nozze di Figaro (Contessa) for Deutsche Gramophone and Handel’s Messiah with the world-renowned Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Ms. Yoncheva is also a global ambassador for Rolex.
In the 2024/25 season, Yoncheva will debut in Brazil and perform Baroque works in Vienna, as well as starring in Dido and Aeneas at Opéra de Versailles. She will reprise Madama Butterfly in Barcelona and perform a Christmas concert at Versailles. Further highlights include appearances at the Salzburg Mozartwoche, Vienna State Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera in her role debut as Lisa in The Queen of Spades.
An alumna of the Conservatory of Geneva, she has received numerous accolades, including the 2021 Opus Klassik Singer of the Year and Officière de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2024. Yoncheva is also a UNICEF ambassador and a Sony Classical artist, with several acclaimed albums.
Liv Redpath is quickly becoming a leading soprano leggero on the opera and concert stage. She has been engaged by the Metropolitan Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, The Santa Fe Opera, Edinburgh International Festival, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Bregenzer Festspiele, Seattle Symphony, LA Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, and Aspen Music Festival, among others, and has collaborated with conductors Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Gustavo Dudamel, Vasily Petrenko, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, William Christie, James Conlon, Emmanuel Villaume, Barbara Hannigan, and Christophe Rousset. Her wide-ranging operatic repertoire includes Le nozze di Figaro, Der Rosenkavalier, Hänsel und Gretel, L’elisir d’amore, Ariadne auf Naxos, Les Huguenots, The Golden Cockerel, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Cendrillon, and Lakmé. She is a graduate of Harvard University and The Juilliard School.
Camilla Nylund, born in Vaasa (Finland), first studied with Eva Illes, later in the opera and song class at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. In December 1995 she was awarded the Lilli Lehmann Medal by the International Mozarteum Foundation.
After permanent engagements in Hanover and at the Semperoper Dresden, Camilla Nylund is now one of the internationally most sought-after singers in her field and is a regular guest at all major opera houses – at the Vienna State Opera, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, the Metropolitan Opera New York, La Scala di Milano, the Paris Bastille, the Berlin and Hamburg State Operas, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, at the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals, in Barcelona, Valencia, Zurich, Helsinki, Cologne, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Tokyo, San Francisco.
The artist’s repertoire includes all major parts of the classic-romantic repertoire. Especially with her interpretation of Richard Wagner – Elisabeth, Elsa, Sieglinde, Senta, Isolde, Brünnhilde- and Richard Strauss – Marschallin, Arabella, Gräfin (Capriccio), Chrysothemis, Kaiserin (Frau ohne Schatten), Ariadne, Salome – Camilla Nylund is always anew setting artistic standards.
In addition to her active work on the international opera stages, she is also a regular guest in all major concert halls – Konzerthaus and Philharmonie Berlin, Herkulessaal Munich, “Isarphilharmonie” Munich, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Wiener Musikverein, Wiener Konzerthaus, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Tonhalle Zürich, in Rome, at the BBC Proms, in Philadel-phia, Cleveland, Boston.
Both within the opera and concert field Camilla Nylund is working with all major Maestri of our time – such as Zubin Mehta, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Christian Thielemann, Andris Nelsons, Daniel Barenboim, Simone Young, Carina Kanellakis, Vladimir Jurowski, Gianandrea Noseda, Riccardo Muti, Marek Janowski and Susanna Mälkki.
For many years Camilla Nylund has been giving distinction to the Bayreuth Festival. In 2011 the artist made her debut on the “Green Hill” as Elisabeth in Tannhäuser. In the following years she appeared as Sieglinde (Walküre), Eva (Meistersinger), as well as in the role of Elsa (Lohengrin), in which she could also be heard at the Bayreuth Festival 2022.
In 2017 Camilla Nylund added an exciting new part to her repertoire: Marie in Wozzeck (Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf). 2021 saw her first Jenufa (Berlin State Opera). In January 2022 she celebrated an acclaimed debut at the Frankfurt Opera in the part of Eine Frau in Arnold Schönberg’s monodrama Erwartung. The highlights of the 2021/22 season were her debuts as Isolde (Tristan und Isolde) and Brünnhilde (Walküre) at Zurich Opera. Her interpretation of Katerina (Lady Macbeth of Mzensk) in a new production at the Hamburg State Opera in January 2023 was enthusiastically received by audiences and press alike. The debuts of the Siegfried and Götterdämmerung Brünnhilde will follow in the next seasons also in Zurich.
Camilla Nylund also pays a particular attention to the genre of the recital. Together with Helmut Deutsch she is dedicating her recital programs to the romantic German songs as well as to the composers from her Scandinavian homeland, especially Jean Sibelius.
The versatile artist showed previously unknown facets during the Corona pandemic. Following an idea by André Heller, whom she met during a new production of Der Rosenkavalier at the Berlin State Opera, the project “Great American Songbook” was born. In this concert film recorded for ORF III, she interprets love songs in the spirit of US show business from the 1930s to the 1970s together with the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna conducted by Marin Alsop in varied arrangements ranging from “combo” to large symphonic orchestra. A DVD and CD of the project has been released in December 2022 by Naxos.
In recognition of her artistic achievements, Camilla Nylund has received numerous awards. In November 2022, she was presented with the Lotte Lehmann Memorial Ring – one of the world’s most prestigious awards for female opera singers. In September 2022, she was awarded with the European Culture Prize alongside other high-profile laureats in the Zurich Tonhalle. To honour Camilla Nylund’s long and successful artistic relationship with the Vienna State Opera, the artist was awarded the title of Austrian Kammersängerin (2019). The Semperoper Dresden has also appointed Camilla Nylund as Saxon Kammersängerin. She is also recipient of the Christel Goltz Prize of the Semperoper (2000), the Culture Prize of the Swedish Cultural Fund in Finland, the Pro Finlandia Medal, awarded by the Finnish President (2013), and the Finnish State Prize for Music (2019).
‘A voice that can stop time, pure and rich and open and consummately expressive’ is how the Financial Times described Chinese soprano Ying Fang as Ilia in Peter Sellars’s production of Mozart’s Idomeneo at the 2019 Salzburg Festival. Mozart also featured prominently in her 2020/21 season as she made house debuts at Dutch National Opera and Santa Fe Opera as Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro. A former member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Fang has performed with conductors including James Levine, Alan Gilbert, William Christie, Emmanuelle Haïm and Manfred Honeck, and houses including Opernhaus Zürich, Opéra de Lille, Vancouver Opera, and The Juilliard School from where she holds a Master’s degree and an Artist Diploma. Her awards include the Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, and China’s prestigious China Golden Bell Award for Music.
An artist greatly in international demand, Mariana Flores has established herself as one of the most versatile and passionately engaged singers of her generation, as much at ease in Baroque and Mozartian repertoire as in the popular music of Argentina and of Latin America in general. A native of Argentina, she began her studies at the National University of Cuyo in Mendoza, before moving to Basel to study Baroque music at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis: today she follows the advice of her teacher Fernando Cordeiro Opa. Mariana has notably taken on the roles of goddesses, witches and heroines in major operatic productions at leading opera houses and concert halls throughout Europe, America and Australia. She recently triumphed at the Opéra Royal in Versailles in the title role of La Finta pazza by Francesco Sacrati, and in Canada with a concert tour of tangos by Astor Piazzolla. She is featured on numerous award-winning recordings, including the 2021 release of d’India’s Lamenti & Sospiri, Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and Sacrati’s La Finta pazza in 2022.
In 2023, she released Alfonsina, a highly personal album of Argentine folk songs recorded with Quito Gato, a repertoire she has been touring with ever since. More recently, she can be heard in Amore Siciliano, an emblematic Cappella Mediterranea program released by Alpha, which will continue to be distributed in 2025, as well as Handel’s Dixit dominus and Colonna’s Mass in E Minor by Ricercar.
In 2024, Mariana Flores returns to the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence to sing Amore and Minerva in Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, directed by Pierre Audi, before taking part in Seasons, Fabrice Murgia’s audacious creation at the Cité Bleue, combining cinema, theater and singing, in which she performs both Baroque and contemporary pop music. In November and December, she sings Bach’s Mass in B minor on an international tour of Canada and Brazil, which she will repeat at the prestigious Verbier Festival in summer 2025.
Mariana Flores’ artistic season in 2025 will be rich and international, with the revival of the musical theater creation Amour à Mort directed by Jean-Yves Ruf at the Opéra national de Lorraine, numerous recitals and her roles in Monteverdi’s operas l’Orfeo and l’Incoronazione di Poppea on tour in Germany, Canada and New York, but also in Cavalli’s Pompeo Magno, premiered at the Bayreuth Festival and followed by a very successful tour, and Mozart’s Requiem at the Radio France auditorium. With lutenist and guitarist Mónica Pustilnik, she is preparing the recording of “Muse e Sirene”, a program focusing on 17th-century women composers.
Maria Bayankina was born in the village of Zyryanovsky, Sverdlovsk Oblast, and spent her childhood in Izhevsk.
Graduated from the vocals faculty of and completed a postgraduate study at the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music (class of Evgenia Shevelyova). During her years as a student she collaborated with the Petit Opera artistic group, participating in performances of Purcell’s operas King Arthur, The Tempest, Dido and Aeneas and The Fairy-Queen. In 2011 she was awarded a grant from the Wagner Foundation, which affords young artists the opportunity to visit Bayreuth. That same year, she became a soloist with the Mariinsky Academy of Young Opera Singers.
In January 2013 she made her Mariinsky Theatre debut as Tsaritsa Militrisa in the opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan.
Since the 2019–2020 season she has been a soloist with the Mariinsky Opera.
In November 2019 she made her company debut at the Bolshoi Theatre in the opera The Idiot.