Irina Lungu
With »simply inexhaustible reserves of strength, a masterfully handled voice capable of uncommon expansion even in the upper register, and remarkable stamina on stage« (»Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung«), Irina Lungu has established herself on the world’s leading stages in just a few years. In the last three seasons the Russian soprano has appeared at the Wiener Staatsoper as Violetta (»La traviata«), Elettra (»Idomeneo«), Norina (»Don Pasquale«), Mimì (»La Bohème«) and Donna Anna (»Don Giovanni«) and also appeared at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Teatro Real Madrid and Sydney Opera House as Marguerite (»Faust«), Hamburg State Opera, the Arena di Verona, New National Theatre Tokyo and Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre in the title role of »La traviata«, at the Gran Teatre del Liceu and Sydney Opera House as Corinna (»Il viaggio a Reims«), at ABAO Bilbao as Manon (Massenet), at the Royal Opera House Muscat, the Opéra de Monte-Carlo and Korea National Opera as Mimì, at Sydney Opera House as Gilda (»Rigoletto«), and at the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona (»Anna Bolena«), as well as concert appearances with Plácido Domingo at the Palau de la Musica in Valencia and the Paris Philharmonic. Other major engagements in recent years include Gilda (»Rigoletto«) and Musetta (»La Bohème«) at the Metropolitan Opera New York, »La traviata« at Paris Opera, the Teatro Real Madrid, Zurich Opera, Berlin’s Deutsche Oper and State Opera, Liù (»Turandot«) at the Bavarian State Opera, Musetta at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Gilda at Paris Opera, the Teatro Comunale of Bologna and the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Violetta (»La traviata«) and Nannetta (»Falstaff«) at Milan’s La Scala, a gala concert at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre, Marguerite (»Faust) in Amsterdam and Turin and the title role in »Lucia di Lammermoor«, Donna Anna (»Don Giovanni«), Micaëla (»Carmen«) and Juliette (»Roméo et Juliette«) in Verona. Irina Lungu first completed her studies in piano and choral conducting, and then studied voice. After winning several of the leading international voice competitions, she perfected her technique at the La Scala Academy of Lyric Opera, where she studied under Leyla Gencer, among others. While still a student at the Academy, Lungu made her Scala début under Riccardo Muti as Anaï (»Moïse et Pharaon«). Since then, she has appeared there in roles including Adina (»L’elisir d’amore«), Maria Stuarda, Marguerite, Oksana (Cherevichki) and the title role of »Sancta Susanna«. In 2007 she made her role début there as Violetta, with Loren Maazels conducting. She returned to La Scala as Violetta in 2008 and again in 2013 in Dmitri Tcherniakov’s new production under Daniele Gatti. Irina Lungu has worked with some of the most famous conductors and directors of our time – for example, Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Daniele Gatti, Michel Plasson, Daniel Oren, Gianandrea Noseda, Daniel Harding, Gustavo Dudamel and Stéphane Denève or Franco Zeffirelli, Luca Ronconi, Robert Carsen, Laurent Pelly, Pierluigi Pizzi, Deborah Warner, Eimuntas Nekrošius and Liliana Cavani.
Performances with Irina Lungu