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The new album of the Bulgarian superstar soprano will be out on February 9, 2023, on her own label SY11 Productions and circles around the world of courtesans. 

Recorded last year in Genoa, Italy with the Orchestra dell’Opera Carlo Felice Genova led by Marco Armiliato and tenor Charles Castronovo in the duets from “La traviata” and “Thaïs”, all the operatic female protagonists featured on the album are characters associated with the image of the courtesan. 

“The world of courtesans has always intrigued me”, says Sonya Yoncheva. “I discovered their universe in my stage incarnations of some of them. Once I read the story of Veronica Franco, a courtesan who was also a poet, asserting herself in territories traditionally reserved for men: those of erotic casuistry and public debate. I was struck by this personality, who in her speeches defied a whole era that both idealised and degraded women, objectifying them. A warrior of women’s rights, who was offering her body to pleasure. What a contrast and what faith! Inspired by her path, I decided to realize this CD you are holding in your hands.”  

In “The Courtesan”, Sonya Yoncheva unites eternal female figures, some of them historical, who highlight particularly the contradictions and tensions that run through a woman’s personality, between the different roles and images she is expected to fulfil. The album comprises arias from the soprano’s most celebrated roles such as Verdi’s “La traviata”, Puccini’s “La bohème” and “Manon Lescaut”, Giordano’s “Siberia” and Mascagni’s “Iris”. Other titles as Leoncavallo’s “La bohème”, Saint-Saens “Samson et Dalila”, Massenet’s “Manon” and “Thaïs” are not part of the singer’s repertoire or are scheduled as future debut such as Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly”. The bonus track “In Trutina” from Orff’s “Carmina Burana” mirrors the philosophy of the project, the balance between body and mind, pleasure, restraint, doubt, and the competition between sentient and rational nature of the human being.  

Sonya Yoncheva has organised the recording of her fifth solo album and everything around it by her own company SY11 Events Ltd. Established in 2020 in order to produce her own concerts, the company has now also created the label SY11 Productions, where the album is being released. Still remaining an exclusive Sony Classical recording artist, Sonya Yoncheva preferred for this project, which she takes closely to heart, to produce the album fully according to her own vision. The album will be available to purchase digitally on all major platforms as well as physically in select record stores worldwide and on the SY11 Events website https://sy11events.com/store/, where it is available to pre-order.  

Sonya Yoncheva is back at the Metropolitan Opera to star in a new production of Fedora, singing the title role. David McVicar’s staging is led by Marco Armiliato and is set to open on New Year’s Eve. The performance on January 14 is part of the Met’s Live in HD series and is being shown by many cinemas worldwide.

Sonya has just made her role debut as Giordano’s Russian Princess at the Teatro alla Scala. Fedora is her second role by the Italian Verismo composer Umberto Giordano, following Stephana in his rare Siberia. Later this season, Sonya will make her debut as Maddalena in Giordano’s Andrea Chénier at La Scala.

Sonya Yoncheva made her MET debut in 2013 and has since appeared in three new productions with the company: as Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello, opening the 2015/16 season, in the title role of Puccini’s Tosca in the 2017/18 season and earlier this year as Elisabeth de Valois in Verdi’s Don Carlos. Following this Fedora, Sonya will bring one of her most celebreated roles for the first time to the Met, Bellini’s iconic Norma.

[Photo: Paola Kudacki / Met Opera]

Sonya Yoncheva embarks on a small tour of solo concerts with an all-Handel program in France. With the Orchestre de l’Opéra Royal of Versailles led by Stefan Plewniak, Sonya will appear at the spectacular Hall of Mirrors of the Royal Palace of Versailles on November 7, at the Chapelle de la Trinité in Lyon on November 9 and at the La Coursive Grand Théâtre of La Rochelle on November 13.

The repertoire of these solo concerts will include many of the most emblematic arias of the German-British composer: “Ombra mai fu” from Serse, “Non disperar, chi sa ?”, “Che sento” and “Se pietà di me non senti from Giulio Cesare, “Ah mio cor, schernito sei” and “Tornami a vagheggiar” from Alcina, “With darkness deep” from Theodora as well as “Lascia ch’io pianga” from Rinaldo.

Sonya Yoncheva is being considered one of today’s most renowned and sophisticated interpreters of the Baroque repertoire. An alumna of William Christie’s Le Jardin des Voix, Sonya started her career performing roles such as Dido in Dido and Aeneas, Poppea in L’incoronazione di Poppea and Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare. Although having enlarged her repertoire with iconic roles from operas by Bellini, Verdi, Puccini, Mascagni and Giordano over the years, she has maintained a special focus on early music and Baroque.

In 2017, her Handel album was released on Sony Classical and in 2018 she was an acclaimed Poppea at the Salzburg Festival. Her latest album Rebirth was released in 2021 and contains music by Cavalli, Dowland, Gibbons, Monteverdi, Stradella, Strozzi and others.