The soprano Sonya Yoncheva has established herself as one of today’s most versatile opera stars.
Just over a decade ago, in 2014, she caused a splash after jumping in on short notice as Mimi in her first staged performance of Puccini’s “La Bohème” at the Metropolitan Opera. When the Bulgarian native appears as Lisa in Tchaikovsky’s tragic love story “The Queen of Spades,” from Friday through June 7, it will be her sixth role debut at the house.
Yoncheva, 43, maintains a busy schedule that includes a recent gala at the Opéra Garnier in Paris and her third production as the title character in “Iolanta,” also by Tchaikovsky, at the Vienna State Opera. In Europe this summer, she will perform Handel, Bellini and more.
Under the auspices of her production company, SY11 Events, she will also appear in August in Sofia, Bulgaria, for outdoor concerts alongside the tenors Vittorio Grigolo, José Carreras and Plácido Domingo. Started in 2020, the enterprise joined forces with the label Naïve for her most recent album, “George,” inspired by the life and work of the French writer George Sand (born Aurore Dupin, she is known in the music world for her tumultuous relationship with Frédéric Chopin).
An even less conventional project is the 2023 book “Fifteen Mirrors,” combining personal confessions about select characters and portraits in which Yoncheva poses in different guises.
“I understand my work as a process,” she said by phone from outside Geneva, where she lives with her husband, the conductor Domingo Hindoyan, and their two children. “The interpretation takes up maybe an even bigger part than the singing.”
The following interview has been edited and condensed.
Why was it the right time to take on Lisa in “The Queen of Spades,” and what interests you about the character?
I was touched by the fact that she is in love with a bad guy. Young women often fall in love with this type and want to make him good. And we never succeed.
It is also a natural step forward after singing Tatyana [of “Eugene Onegin,” by Tchaikovsky] in my early years, and Iolanta. “Queen of Spades” is very similar to the two operas but slightly more dramatic. We hear that especially in the final pages.
I like to create a kind of road map for myself. With Lisa, her first words are about fear. And she repeats this over the course of the opera. But in the moment that she is driven by love, she has this exceptional courage to stand up for it.
The character is of course brand-new for me. I’m sure that after three or four productions, I will continue to find new shades in her. It’s exciting.
How has your relationship with the Met evolved?
It’s a huge love story. In 2013 I sang Gilda from Verdi’s “Rigoletto” without any rehearsal with the orchestra or the possibility to go onstage beforehand. I just saw this huge temple full of people.
This is the magic of the Met. In the years after that, I just flew on those wings. I consider Peter Gelb and the Met, as well as all the other theaters where I sing, as my partners.
This summer, in Gstaad, Switzerland, and Baden-Baden, Germany, you return to Bellini’s “Norma.” What do you continue to discover about the role?
The story is very much about her children and her relationship to her father, to her duty. She was most of all educated to be a leader and guide her people.
When I had my daughter, who is now 5, I started to see the world slightly differently. I think that Norma discovers colors of her youth that she never could resolve. Why was she not allowed to love, to be a normal woman? These questions grow in me. And every time I encounter Norma, I see her with more mature eyes.
You started out your career performing early music with William Christie and his ensemble Les Arts Florissants. Is this still an important basis?
Absolutely. When I was chosen to sing in his academy with him, I didn’t have any experience in Baroque music, which was great because I was in the hands of a master. But he never tried to cancel my personality, and as a result I approach this music with my natural voice. Baroque music is like going back to the source. It’s very healthy for the voice and mind.
When I was around 18, I left Bulgaria to study in Geneva. [The soprano] Danielle Borst became my mentor, even a kind of mother, because I was far from my family. I arrived singing Liù [of Puccini’s “Turandot”] and very heavy repertoire for a young voice. She opened my eyes to the music of Mozart and Handel and Bach. She also presented me to Christie.
Bulgaria has an extraordinary opera tradition. But at that time, the country was at a critical moment economically and in terms of education. It was quite natural to leave but also very difficult. I had to build my life from minus zero. I am grateful because I learned so much through this process.
What was the impetus to create your production company?
It was during the summer of Covid. I decided to return to my hometown, Plovdiv, to give a concert. But there were no open institutions. They gave me an outdoor Roman theater that seats 4,000 people, but I had to create my own structure for selling tickets. Luckily, a cousin of mine runs a theater for contemporary dance and helped me.
And I loved how the whole machine works. Building an event and just participating in it are completely different things. Now I understand how painful it is to have a cancellation!
We are living in a time when the arts are sometimes forgotten. We somehow want to concentrate on the superficial. Maybe it’s difficult for people to enter their inner world. I believe that art and culture are the key to a better society.
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