(Credit: Manfred Baumann)

Soprano Sonya Yoncheva is one of the most unique modern opera stars in the world. Where most take the conventional path, the soprano tends to experiment and move in directions that are constantly surprising. She’s engaged with the baroque repertoire, the bel canto, works by Mozart, romantic repertory, and verismo with a fluidity and mastery that few of her contemporaries have managed.

Just take her foray into the works of Umberto Giordano. She’s performed “Fedora” and “Siberia” and is also programmed to world premiere his first lost opera “Marina.” It was a matter of time before Maddalena in “Andrea Chénier,” his most renowned opera, would enter her repertory. But where most sopranos would simply sing Maddalena and move on, she’s delved deeper into his opus.  OperaWire had the chance to speak with Yoncheva on her exploration of Giordano and what the composer means to her.

OperaWire: When did you discover Giordano’s music? Did you know immediately it was a composer you would want to sing?

Sonya Yoncheva: My first Giordano role was Stephana in “Siberia,” in concert at the Festival Radio France in 2017. And I was immediately fascinated by Giordano’s direct emotions, the dramatic impact his music and works have. I love this verismo intensity that you feel in the gut; it is music you really need to live. It also felt like a very good fit for my voice, and it was clear that I wanted to sing more of his music. So I was really happy when the Metropolitan Opera, after this first “Siberia,” offered me a new production of “Fedora” for the 2022-23 season.

OW: Your first role was Siberia? Why was that the opera to start with? What did “Siberia” and “Fedora” have in common, and was there any connection in the vocal writing that helped you move from one to the other?

SY: I liked the idea of rediscovering an almost forgotten work with “Siberia,” which, in my opinion, really is a great opera. So I was delighted to accept this offer from Montpellier back then and afterwards the offer for a staged production in Florence and another concert version in Madrid. It also needs courage from the opera houses to restage works that are done so rarely. Stephana belongs to the same “family” of women that I explore on my album “The Courtesan:” women who sell love, but who, the moment they decide to love like “normal” people, often pay with their lives. Stephana fits that pattern completely. Stephana and Fedora may look like close cousins on paper – same composer, similar era, same country, and even the same city (St. Petersburg) – and both are passionate women destroyed by love. Still, vocally, they lie in two different corners of the verismo spectrum and require distinct approaches.

Stephana is written for a lyrical spinto voice, with long, flowing lines and an orchestration that often gives you the space to be intimate and nuanced. The role was first sung by Rosina Storchio, who also created “Madama Butterfly,” and you can hear that same sense of morbidezza, legato, and emotional openness in the music.

“Fedora,” on the other hand, was written for Madame Verismo herself, Gemma Bellincioni, the first Santuzza, and you feel that from the very first bars. The orchestration is thicker, the vocal writing more declamatory, and the role asks for authority and tension, especially in the first two acts.

OW: Now you are set for Maddalena in “Andrea Chénier” at the Met after doing it at La Scala. What does it mean to perform this work at two of the most important theaters in the world?

SY: Maddalena is a real milestone, almost impossible to avoid if you step into the Giovane Scuola repertoire. The role is full of extraordinary music: an aria that’s really a whole scene in itself, part confession, part catharsis, part inner rebirth, and two of the most overwhelming duets ever written, especially the final one.

Debuting this role at La Scala was very special to me. It’s always a milestone to sing a role for the first time at a house like La Scala, especially if it’s a work of the great Italian repertoire that was even premiered there, like “Andrea Chénier.” To bring Maddalena now to the Met adds another layer. The Met is where I made so many debuts and where I feel a very special bond with the public. And there will be the Live in HD broadcast on December 13. This production at the Met feels like completing a circle for this opera.

OW: Tell me about the vocal challenges of Maddalena, and do you find that there are any similarities between this one and “Fedora?”

SY: Maddalena changes a lot over the evening. At the beginning, she’s still the spoiled aristocratic girl; the writing is more lyrical, playful, and it needs flexibility. By the time she reaches “La mamma morta” and the final duet, the voice has to carry huge emotional and orchestral waves without losing line. I very much enjoy roles where the woman goes through extremes – love, rage, forgiveness – and I like to show both strength and fragility in the same character. Also, Maddalena has that combination, like Fedora. She starts in a world of privilege and ends in total surrender. She’s basically innocent, caught in the violence of history, and her path takes her from fragility to a kind of inner glow.

Fedora, by contrast, walks onstage as pure willpower; she’s driven by revenge, suspicion, and pride, and when she finally breaks emotionally, it happens suddenly and with devastating force.

And you can hear all of this in the vocal writing. Fedora is much more declamatory, with a central tessitura that suddenly shoots up to exposed high notes, while Maddalena’s music is built on legato, warmth, and long, lyrical lines.

OW: “La mamma morta” is the most iconic scene in this work. Are there any recordings you listened to when learning it? What do you think about before you perform this aria, and what does it mean to you?

SY: I know, of course, the legendary recordings – it would be impossible not to. But when I prepare a new part, I prefer to spend most of my time alone with the score and the piano. I love playing through the score myself and trying out different colors – it’s a very intimate process. That’s also how I approached “La mamma morta:” from the page, from the words. For me, this aria is Maddalena’s confession. I am deeply impressed by her way of loving: she gives this man completely pure love and, at the end of the opera, she decides she cannot live without him and chooses to die with him, even though she doesn’t have to. She has lost everything, and yet she finds, in love, a kind of light that makes death almost a liberation. In “La mamma morta,” it feels like Maddalena’s whole soul laid bare in a few minutes.

OW: You get to sing with Piotr Beczała once again. How has your relationship with him evolved over the years? Why do you think your voices work well together?

SY: Piotr and I have travelled a long road together – from “Roméo et Juliette,” “Faust” and “La bohème” to “Tosca,” “Fedora” and now “Andrea Chénier.” We have a very good chemistry together on stage, and have known each other many years. We both like to live the music fully – especially in verismo – so there is a natural dramatic connection. And there is trust. With a partner you trust, you can take risks.

OW: Getting a recording of this work is always special, as it immortalizes your interpretation. What does an HD mean to you?

SY: The Live in HD transmissions reach huge audiences across many time zones, and they expand the global presence of opera, which is such a great and important thing. For a singer, it goes without saying that every performance is a once-in-a-lifetime moment that you cannot repeat. The Live in HD transmissions capture that moment and share it with people who may never come to New York. So it’s both a huge responsibility and a gift: you know that years from now, this is how people will experience your Maddalena, your Fedora.

OW: Later this year, you have “Marina,” a work which is getting its world premiere. When did you discover this opera, and how did this project come together?

SY: “Marina” is a fascinating case. It’s Giordano’s very first opera, written for a competition in 1888, and then basically forgotten; now it returns in a new critical edition by Andreas Gies, with these two concert performances in February 2026 at the Teatro Dal Verme in Milan, together with Freddie De Tommaso, Ernesto Petti, and Mihai Damian, conducted by Vincenzo Milletarì. My path to the piece came naturally after “Siberia,” “Fedora,” and “Andrea Chénier.” From the moment I saw that this was Giordano’s “lost” first opera and that we could give it a first public life in a new edition, I was immediately interested, of course, and I’m really looking forward to it.

OW: What excites you about premiering an unknown work, and how were you able to get such a star cast?

SY: It’s important for me as an artist to test my limits and look for new challenges; new roles give me new colors. Premiering “Marina” is exactly that: there is no tradition of recordings telling you what to do. You have to build the character from scratch with the score and with the team. As for the cast, I’m lucky. I very much enjoyed singing with Freddie De Tommaso a few years ago, and I’m looking forward to teaming up with him again.

OW: Besides these two concert performances, are there any plans for a staged version or to tour the work around?

SY: Right now, what is concrete are the Milan performances and the recording that will be made on that occasion. Of course, my hope is that other houses will become curious and that we might eventually see a staged production. But that’s something that depends on many sides.

OW: Finally, what does it mean to be the soprano with the most Giordano works in your repertoire and to be one of the few singers to really explore his works?

SY: To explore Giordano’s women is, for me, to explore the paradox of “fallen” heroines again and again. They are all such different women, with different colors and temperatures, but most of them are punished the moment they choose real love, and there is a lot of integrity in that choice. For me, it is very important that these operas, some of them nearly forgotten, are being heard again and that audiences discover how rich this repertoire is.