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 2025/26 season at the Vienna State Opera, reprising her acclaimed portrayal of Iolanta, followed by a glamorous open-air concert at the Vienna Burggarten. At the Opernhaus Zürich, she returns in her iconic interpretation of Puccini’s Tosca, a role she also brings to the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. She returns to the Metropolitan Opera as Maddalena in Andrea Chénier – with a Live in HD broadcast on December 13 – and as the title heroine in Madama Butterfly. For the Bayerische Staatsoper, the superstar soprano takes on the roles of Mimì in La bohème and the protagonist of Norma, which she also performs at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. Sonya makes notable debuts as the title characters in Rusalka with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Marina with the Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan. With Fedora, Andrea Chénier, and Siberia already in her repertoire, she then holds the distinction of being the soprano with the most Giordano roles currently active on the operatic stage.
On the concert platform, Sonya appears in recital and concert at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Auditorium Bordeaux, and the Enescu Festival.

Her stirring 2024/25 season included Dido in a new staging of Dido and Æneas in Versailles, Toulouse, Madrid and Oviedo, as well as at the Munich Opera Festival of the Bavarian State Opera. Sonya also returned to the Gran Teatre del Liceu, bringing to Barcelona her acclaimed Ciò-Ciò-San in a new production of Madama Butterfly. At the Vienna State Opera, Sonya starred in three productions in a row: in a new staging of Iolanta, the title role of Tosca, and as Maddalena in Andrea Chénier. Sonya also returned to the Metropolitan Opera to make her role debut as Lisa in The Queen of Spades.
Sonya appeared in recital and concert at the Teatro Cultura Artística of São Paulo, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, the Vienna State Opera, the Salzburg Mozartwoche with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Konzerthaus Vienna, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Tonhalle Zürich, the Gstaad New Year Music Festival, the Opéra Royal de Versailles, the Palais Garnier, the Paris Philharmonie, in Compiègne and Toulouse. In summer, she performed Tosca and Lisa in The Queen of Spades at the Varna Summer Theater, and the title role of Norma at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival and the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. Other summer engagements included concerts and recitals at the Verbier Festival, the Dubrovnik Festival, the Peralada Festival, the Santander Festival, the Festival de Pollença, the Festival d’Auvers-sur-Oise, and at the Alexander Nevsky Square of Sofia in gala concerts organised by her company SY11.

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.