Press

“Vocal brilliance, passion, operatic magic: Sonya Yoncheva infused Bellini’s Norma with emotional depth at the season opening of the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. The concert performance became a true highlight for opera lovers.”

“As Bellini’s Norma, Sonya Yoncheva brought great vocal intensity to the prima donna role, which demands extreme expressive power of the voice.

“A prima donna opera. Few works deserve this honorific title more than Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma. This Romantic bel canto piece quickly became the very epitome of an entire genre, with the aria Casta diva long since turned into a hit – better known than the opera itself, which, due to its daunting demands, is performed only at major international houses. In Karlsruhe, Norma was last staged in 1999.
It comes as no surprise that it was a primadonna assoluta who, in the mid-1950s, helped the work to renewed and lasting popularity: Maria Callas. We owe to her no fewer than seven complete recordings of Norma, and she sang the opera in 89 (partly legendary) performances. Since then, nearly all major divas have taken on the work.

Now it was the turn of the celebrated Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva, who opened the new season in Baden-Baden in a (regrettably only) concert performance of the work – a collaboration with the Menuhin Festival Gstaad, under the baton of her husband Domingo Hindoyan leading the Gstaad Festival Orchestra.

At the Oos, the singer is a welcome guest, having already appeared here in 2023 as Tosca and last year presenting herself as a “singing actress” with a colorful program.

The soprano Renata Scotto, once a celebrated Norma herself, described this complex role as the “Mount Everest of opera” that must be conquered. The figure of the Druid priestess, who breaks her vow and secretly has two children with the Roman proconsul Pollione, is torn between scruples, pain, and rage when she learns of her lover’s betrayal, as he faithlessly turns to the novice Adalgisa.

At first she seeks revenge, wanting to kill her children and condemn Pollione to death, but ultimately resolves in a heroic act to join him in death on the pyre.

Bellini inscribed these emotional upheavals of the protagonist into the score, demanding an unusually broad expressive range of the voice. The vocal category of Norma is that of soprano sfogato – stretching beyond the usual soprano range, spanning from brilliant top notes with dramatic attack to a full, resonant lower register, all tied together by flawless legato, elegiac coloring, and the soprano’s agility.

The interpreter must master all this in order to conjure the magic of those “melodie lunghe, lunghe, lunghe” praised by Giuseppe Verdi in Bellini, which even inspired Richard Wagner – an ardent admirer of Norma – to develop his principle of the “endless melody.”

Yoncheva reveals Norma’s transformation into a vengeful rival

Sonya Yoncheva initially portrays the role as a portrait of a tragic female figure. Her interpretation of Casta diva reveals, in the elegiac lines of the famous aria, the priestess’s pain and her secret. This suits the warm timbre of her voice… .

By the time of the great scene with Adalgisa, another side of the character emerges. What begins like a sympathetic dialogue between guilty sinners suddenly turns into a confrontation between two rivals for the same man. Here, Norma becomes the avenger, and finally in the closing scene Yoncheva, as a gripping singing actress, expands the role to impressive dramatic stature.

The Chorus of Bühnen Bern provided forceful tableaux in the scenes of priestesses and warriors, while conductor Domingo Hindoyan ensured a carefully structured, colorful orchestral sound – an interpretation that sought to compensate for the absence of staging with musical intensity.”
Rüdiger Krohn, Badische Neueste Nachrichten

“A Celebration of Bel Canto”
Sonya Yoncheva was the acclaimed star of a concert performance of Vincenzo Bellini’s Norma with the Gstaad Festival Orchestra under the baton of Domingo Hindoyan – the vocal highlight at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden.

At such opera performances, “in concert” no longer means that the singers, perhaps standing behind music stands, deliver their arias in front of the orchestra. With such a gifted singing actress as Sonya Yoncheva, that would hardly be possible; moreover, the other protagonists of this Norma from the Gstaad Festival calendar also moved impressively and convincingly in their roles on stage.
(…)
After Norma’s public ceremony, the scene shifts to the private sphere, and here Yoncheva is even more fascinating than in her “Casta Diva” aria: furious in her lament over the cooled love of Pollione, the Roman proconsul, and in her defiant hope that he might return to her, she unleashes every degree of passion in her cabaletta “Ah! Bello me ritorna” with her flashing soprano.
(…)
In the second act, the tragedia lirica, the lyrical tragedy, unfolds in cinematic contrasts: in a scene of immense dramatic tension, Norma, in revenge against the unfaithful Pollione, intends – like Medea in the ancient myth – to kill their children, and Yoncheva’s dramatic soprano renders this inner torment breathtakingly vivid.
Dietholf Zerweck, Ludwigsburger Kreiszeitung

“Sonya Yoncheva as Norma possesses something that cannot be “manufactured”: authority in her tone. Her soprano has a dark core, its color veiled with a fine gauze that opens in the upper register to let in light. In the Cavatina – yes, Casta diva here is more than just a calling card – she sustains the line with a control of messa di voce that I find immensely admirable: the piano truly piano, the swell into mezzo forte seamless, portamenti sparing but, where the text pleads for peace, shaped with the pliancy that allows bel canto to become genuine speech.

Her added ornaments always grow naturally “out of the word”; Yoncheva never reduces coloratura to decoration, but uses it as a semantic intensifier. Over the course of the evening one feels how she lets the character grow into her voice: the tessitura remains securely centered, the passaggio zones are well covered, and when emotion boils over, the legato line remains unbreakable. In the duets with Adalgisa she achieves that delicate balance between fusing together and maintaining necessary profile – no gestures of dominance, but dialogical presence.
Marko Cirkovic, Wochenblatt

Sonya Yoncheva absolutely owned the night. Her presence, her voice — goosebumps. The climax came with “Guerra, guerra!”, where the whole atmosphere just turned electric. Her duet with Karine Deshayes? Honestly one of the best I’ve ever heard live. The French mezzo was simply on fire — powerful, precise, and magnetic. The chemistry between the two of them was undeniable, and in a semi-staged concert format, that kind of connection makes all the difference.
Opera Diary

“In the title role, Sonya Yoncheva impressed with a focused, technically assured soprano. Her interpretation was marked by a refined sense for legato lines and dramatic intensity. Especially in “Casta diva,” she displayed remarkable breath control and a poised, serene artistry.”
Marcel Emil Burkhardt, Der Neue Merker

“In the most coveted soprano showcase role of the Italian repertoire, Sonya Yoncheva now appeared in Baden-Baden, and one might put it this way: she came, she sang, she conquered! (…) In an excellent interpretation, Yoncheva created a moving portrait of the role, impressing also with her individual ornamentations, and demonstrated with emphasis how expressively this role can be explored through nuanced contrasts… . The singer thus achieved a profoundly moving interpretation, thanks to her breath control also delivering exquisite pianissimi in “Casta diva” as well as in the final plea “Deh! Non volerli vittime.” Yoncheva deepened her mastery in weaving lyrical legato arches and flexible chains of coloratura, alongside relentless dramatic attacks in duets and the breathtaking finale.”
Gerhard Hoffmann, Online Merker

[Photo: Michael Gregonowits]