Biography

The recipient of the 2021 Opus Klassik as Singer of the Year is an acclaimed fixture on the most important stages of the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Teatro alla Scala, Bayerische Staatsoper, Berlin Staatsoper, 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 Bellini, Cherubini, Giordano, Mascagni, Puccini, Tchaikovsky, and Verdi. 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 cities including Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels, Budapest, Buenos Aires, Dresden, Hamburg, Madrid, Mexico City, Milan, Monte-Carlo, Montevideo, Moscow, Munich, New York, Paris, Santiago de Chile, São Paulo, Salzburg, Tokyo, and Vienna.

Sonya opens her stirring 2024/25 season with recitals at the Teatro Cultura Artística of São Paulo, making her Brazilian debut, with her award-winning Early Music and Baroque program Rebirth at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden and a recital at the Vienna State Opera. With the Opéra de Versailles, Sonya performs Dido in a new staging of Dido and Æneas at the Opéra Royal of Versailles and in concert in Toulouse, Madrid and Oviedo, followed by her new concert program Marie-Antoinette at the Paris Philharmonie and in Toulouse. Sonya also returns to the Gran Teatre del Liceu, bringing to Barcelona her acclaimed Ciò-Ciò-San in a new production of Madama Butterfly. In December, she joins again the forces of the Choir and Orchestra of the Opéra Royal de Versailles for a Christmas concert at the Royal Chapel of the Palace of Versailles. The year 2025 starts for Sonya with New Year’s Concerts with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva and Lausanne, followed by concerts at the Salle Gaveau of Paris and at the Salzburg Mozartwoche, where she can be heard in Cleopatra’s arias from Handel’s Giulio Cesare in Egitto with the Vienna Philharmonic. At the Vienna State Opera, Sonya stars in three productions in a row this season: in a new staging of Iolanta, in the title role of Tosca, and as Maddalena in Andrea Chénier. In Paris, she also appears in the Rolex Ambassadors Gala at the Palais Garnier. She also returns to the Metropolitan Opera to make an exciting role debut as Lisa in The Queen of Spades. Sonya wraps up the season with concerts at the Konzerthaus Wien, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Tonhalle Zürich and with a double bill at the Munich Opera Festival, where she appears as Dido in Dido and Æneas and in her first outings as Frau in Schönberg’s Erwartung.

Sonya gave her first opera performances in Japan in the 2023/24 season, where she appeared in the title role of Tosca with the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma in Yokohama and Tokyo. As Tosca, Sonya also starred at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, the Caracalla Festival in Rome and the Ancient Theatre of Plovdiv. Other iconic opera characters Sonya embodied in 2023/24 were Norma at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich as well as Madama Butterfly at the Bayerische Staatsoper and the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. Performances on the concert platform took her to Tokyo for a solo aria concert at the Bunka Kaikan, to Versailles for a Christmas concert at the Royal Chapel of the Versailles Castle, to the Staatsoper Hamburg, to Liverpool with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, to the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden with a new program called “The Singing Actress”, to the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, and to Sofia for “Rebirth” and a Zarzuela concert. Sonya also presented her recital program Ad una Stella at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires, the Auditorio Nacional del Sodre of Montevideo and at the Opéra de Bordeaux.

In the 2022/23 season, Sonya made three debuts in iconic soprano roles: At the Wiener Staatsoper, she sang her first Ciò-Ciò-San in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, while at the Teatro alla Scala she debuted in two parts by Giordano: As Maddalena di Coigny in Andrea Chénier and in the title role of a new production of Fedora, a role she also brought to the Metropolitan Opera in a new staging that opened on New Year’s Eve. At the MET, she also reprised her acclaimed portrayal of Bellini’s Norma, whereas at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden she starred as Cherubini’s chilling Médée. On the concert platform, Sonya opened the season of the Bayerische Staatsoper in the open-air concert “Oper für alle” and appeared in all-Handel concerts in Sofia, Lyon, Versailles and La Rochelle. She also sang for the first time Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and returned to the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden in a Verismo Gala and in a one-off concert performance of Tosca, a role she also performed at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival and at the Arena di Verona. At the famed Roman amphitheatre, Sonya also sang a concert alongside Jonas Kaufmann and Ludovic Tézier that was recorded for television and cinema.

Sonya’s 2021/22 season featured her title role debut as Manon Lescaut in concert at the Staatsoper Hamburg, Élisabeth de Valois in the Metropolitan Opera’s first ever staging of Don Carlos in the original French version. Sonya also returned to the title roles of Tosca at Opernhaus Zurich, of Iolanta with the Berliner Philharmoniker at Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and of Norma at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. She also reprised her celebrated Mimì in La bohème at the Staatsoper Berlin and returned to the Teatro Real of Madrid as Stephana in concert performances of Giordano’s rare Verismo gem Siberia. Sonya’s busy concert schedule included a tour of her Rebirth programme which lead her to the Victoria Hall of Geneva, the Palau de la Música of Barcelona and the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. She performed solo concert programmes in Aarhus, Athens and Budapest as well as for her house debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu and for her Japan debut in Toyko. In recital, she appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, the Salle Gaveau of Paris, the Enescu Festival of Bucharest and the Berliner Philharmonie. With the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Domingo Hindoyan, Sonya sang Martucci’s song-cycle La canzone dei ricordi.