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Associated Press

Sonya Yoncheva, a soprano at the top of her profession, worries about classical music.
“My son, if I ask him, always says, ‘I want to be like Ronaldo.’ And if I ask my girl, she will say, ‘I want to be Lady Gaga and Beyoncé,’” says the Bulgarian singer, who headlines the new production of Umberto Giordano’s Fedora at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
“They really don’t associate with classical music artists. Times are changing.”
In a bid to shape projects and bolster opera’s audience, Yoncheva is launching her own record label.


A Sony Classical artist since 2013, Yoncheva is releasing her new album The Courtesan on her own SY11 Productions label, recorded with conductor Marco Armiliato, tenor Charles Castronovo and Italy’s Orchestra dell’Opera Carlo Felice Genova. It will be released on Amazon on February 9.
In a time of dwindling classical sales and releases, she was able to choose the selections and even the cover photo, matters subject to a collaboration on Sony recordings.
“I never really had the chance to guide my project from first step to the last step,” she says. “They were always a very good team with me, but I never felt free.”
Opera Maria Stuarda by Musica Viva: emotionally intense second time around
In the first close-to-normal season since the pandemic’s onset, Yoncheva will sing a revival of Bellini’s Norma at the Met starting February 28, then debut as Maddalena di Coigny in Giordano’s Andrea Chénier at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala on May 3, and as Cio-Cio San in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at the Vienna State Opera on June 23.
“She is one of our most important artists,” says Met general manager Peter Gelb. “She’s a wonderful actress and a great singer. She is the kind of the artist that the Met needs more than ever these days as we try to make opera more appealing to a broader audience. It’s extremely challenging because the core opera audience is much smaller than it once was.”
Born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, on Christmas Day 1981, Yoncheva attended William Christie’s Jardin des Voix academy in 2007 and moved to Switzerland to enrol at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève.

“I wanted to come to the States, but I never managed to have a scholarship,” she says.
“At the time, the salary of a normal Bulgarian person was US$60 per month, so when you compare this to what has to be paid in a university in the States, it’s just insanely expensive, so for this reason I had to choose Europe.
“Someone gave me a little envelope with the name of the high school in Geneva, and this person told me ‘You should go there,’ and I said OK.”
In 2010, she became the first woman to win Plácido Domingo’s Operalia competition, and she went on to debut at the Met and Royal Opera (2013), Vienna State Opera (2014), Milan’s Teatro alla Scala (2017) and Paris (2017).
Yoncheva starred in Claus Guth’s 2017 Paris production of Puccini’s La Bohème, infamously relocated to a space shuttle.
“This was such a nightmare,” she says, laughing, “but many people are still talking about it.”


She has become more discerning with directors.
“Maybe they will have a concept, OK, but I want them to believe in that and to be honest with it and to explain to me why,” she says.
“I must believe in it, and sometimes what is happening is that they don’t believe it and then they do it to provoke.”
David McVicar is directing Fedora in his 13th Met production – a future staging of Ponchielli’s La Gioconda is planned – in a fairly traditional mounting.
Yoncheva made her role debut at La Scala on October 15 in a modern-dress production directed by Mario Martone, and she worried about being heard.
“The stage director decided to leave the whole stage empty. Me and Roberto Alagna, we were struggling the whole night to find the Punto Callas, Punto Caballé, Punto Tebaldi, Punto I don’t know whom,” Yoncheva says, referring to the so-called preferred stage spots of opera stars Maria Callas, Montserrat Caballé and Renata Tebaldi.
World’s first ‘AI opera’ blends live and digital performers
“I finished the production and I said ‘Oh, my God! What am I going to do at the Met?’ because the Met is maybe three times bigger than La Scala,” Yoncheva says.
“I immediately called David, I said, ‘Please tell me there are some walls’. And he said yes. He showed me pictures, and I was reassured.”
Her male lead at the Met is tenor Piotr Beczala. They have worked together for a decade.
“Our voices are pretty similar,” Beczala says. “I am coming from the lyric corner and she’s coming from the lyric corner, arriving now for a little more spinto repertory.”
While the Met dropped plans to present Yoncheva in John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles and Madama Butterfly, she has committed to a new production of Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ball) and revivals of Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame (The Queen of Spades) and Cherubini’s Medea in Italian.
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She lives outside Geneva with her husband, conductor Domingo Hindoyan, whom she met in school. They are kept busy by eight-year-old son Mateo and three-year-old daughter Sofia.
Yoncheva’s daughter looks at her career somewhat differently than the opera audience.
“I ask her what daddy does and she starts to conduct,” Yoncheva says. “And then I ask her what mummy does, and she says, ‘Oh, mummy, she’s Elsa from Frozen’ – because I’m dressed like a princess and I sing.”


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Classical music

‘I want to be Lady Gaga’: opera star Sonya Yoncheva’s kids have her worried about the future of classical music

Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva plays Fedora (left) with Polish tenor Piotr Beczala as Loris Ipanoff in Giordano’s Fedora. Photo: Ken Howard/Met Opera via AP

Yoncheva in the title role of Giordano’s “Fedora” at the Met. Photo: Ken Howard/Met Opera via AP

‘I believe in the sensory power of music’: Ryuichi Sakamoto on translating the essence of Krug champagne into a symphonic score

Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto set out to capture the essence of champagne through sound under a partnership with the House of Krug. Photo: The House of Krug

“Seeing Sound, Hearing Krug”, held n the depths of a warehouse in Shinagawa, Tokyo, celebrated Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and his partnership with the House of Krug. Photo: The House of Krug

A scene from “Seeing Sound, Hearing Krug”. Photo: The House of Krug

Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto remained in his New York apartment while his “Suite for Krug in 2008” was performed in Tokyo. Photo: The House of Krug

Ryuichi Sakamoto became fascinated with the creation of champagne and how to express it in music. Photo: The House of Krug

Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto appears on a screen in front of musicians performing his “Suite for Krug in 2008” in a Tokyo warehouse. Photo: The House of Krug

Guests at the “Seeing Sound, Hearing Krug” event featuring music by Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. Photo: The House of Krug

Polymath pianist and former child prodigy Kit Armstrong on being more than a performer – he’s teaching music appreciation to artificial intelligence

Los Angeles-born former child prodigy Kit Armstrong photographed with his grand piano in the church in northern France that has been his home since 2012. He performs in Hong Kong on December 11. Photo: Courtesy of Kit Armstrong

Musician and scientist Kit Armstrong at home in a deconsecrated church in Hirson, northern France. He is working with scientists to teach “what I have seen and learned and what I’m capable of in the field of music” to a computer. Photo: courtesy of Kit Armstrong

Kit Armstrong is keen to make a contribution to classical music beyond touring as a concert pianist. Photo; courtesy of Kit Armstrong

Kit Armstrong in the deconsecrated church in France where he and his mother live. Photo: courtesy of Kit Armstrong

Armstrong plays the organ as well as the piano. He bought a former church in 2012 because he wanted to live in a place with an organ that could double as a concert venue. Photo: courtesy of Kit Armstrong

8 new K-dramas to watch in January 2023: Poong, the Joseon Psychiatrist season 2; Agency; Crash Course in Romance; and more

Kim Hyang-gi (front) and Kim Min-jae as Yoo Se-poong in a still from Poong, the Joseon Psychiatrist season 2.

K-dramas launching in January 2023 include season 2 of Poong, the Joseon Psychiatrist, starring Kim Hyang-gi as Seo Eun-woo (above). 

Lifestyle

Arts & Culture

Bulgarian soprano Yoncheva’s daughter wants to be Lady Gaga and her son wants to be Ronaldo – ‘they really don’t associate with classical music artists’
Yoncheva has launched her own record label, and since Covid restrictions have been lifted, will be singing in Bellini, Puccini and Giordano operas


Bulgarian opera star Sonya Yoncheva has a daughter who wants to be Lady Gaga and Beyoncé, and a son who wants to be Ronaldo – ‘they really don’t associate with classical music artists’.


Music

Lady Gaga

Montserrat