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Irina Lungu

Irina Lungu

Guest of the Opera

Biography

With a voice described by the New York Times as “a shimmering soprano of attractive size” with “brightness”, “bloom and warmth”, Irina Lungu is taking her place among today’s leading opera artists. Among her engagements in 2016/17 are Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at the Wiener Staatsoper, Liù in Turandot at the Bavarian State Opera of Munich, her role debuts as Elvira in I puritani in Modena, Piacenza and Reggio Emilia, Giulietta in I Capuleti e i Montecchi at the Teatro Filarmonico of Verona and Anna Bolena at the Avignon Opera House; Lucia di Lammermoor and Gilda in Rigoletto at the Teatro Comunale of Bologna, Mimì in La bohème at the Teatro Regio of Turin and at the Teatro di San Carlo of Naples. Recent engagements of the Russian soprano include Gildaand Musetta in La bohème at the Metropolitan Opera New York, the title role of La traviata at the Paris Opera, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Teatro Real Madrid, the Zurich Opera House, the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Hamburg State Opera, Musetta at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden; Gilda at the Paris Opera and the Rome Opera House, Nannetta in Falstaff at La Scala, a Gala Concert at the Bolshoi Theatre, Marguerite in Faust in Amsterdam and Turin, Lucia di Lammermoor, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Micaela in Carmen and Roméo et Juliette in Verona, Micaela in Turin. Ms Lungu completed her degree in singing at the State Conservatory of Voronezh under the guidance of baritone Mikhail Podkopaev. After winning several important international competitions, still being student at La Scala's Accademia she was chosen by Maestro Riccardo Muti for the 2003/2004 season opening production of La Scala as Anaï in Rossini’s Moïse et Pharaon. Since then she has portrayed numerous roles on this prestigious stage: Adina in L’elisir d’amore and the title role of Maria Stuarda, Marguerite in Faust, Nannetta in Falstaff, Oksana in Čerevički and the title role of Hindemith’s Sancta Susanna. It was at La Scala that in 2007 she debuted the role of Violetta in La traviata under the musical direction of Lorin Maazel in Liliana Cavani’s production, returning to sing the role in the same staging in 2008 and in 2013 in Dmitri Tcherniakov’s new production conducted by Daniele Gatti. Ms Lungu has sung with some of the world’s greatest conductors, including Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Daniele Gatti, Michel Plasson, Daniel Oren, Gianandrea Nosea, Nicola Luisotti, Daniel Harding, Gustavo Dudamel, and Stéphane Denève and has worked with directors such as Franco Zeffirelli, Luca Ronconi, Robert Carsen, Laurent Pelly, Pierluigi Pizzi, Deborah Warner, Claus Guth, Eimuntas Nekrošius and Liliana Cavani.