Official Biography
Sondra Radvanovsky is a globally renowned soprano, celebrated as “one of the most profoundly moving opera artists on the planet” (Operawire). She is widely regarded as one of the finest living Verdi and Puccini sopranos, and is among the world’s preeminent interpreters of the bel canto repertoire.
In the 2026/27 season, Radvanovsky takes on some of opera’s most powerful and iconic heroines, beginning with her “spectacular” (Seen and Heard International) portrayal of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut at the Teatro Real de Madrid. She returns to Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, where she makes her highly anticipated role debut as Minnie in Puccini’s La fanciulla del West. Later in the season, she returns to The Metropolitan Opera, once again bringing her “extraordinary” (New York Times) Tosca to the stage, before returning to the Wiener Staatsoper as Maddalena di Coigny in Giordano’s Andrea Chénier.
On the concert stage, Radvanovsky will join the Opéra national de Paris for a gala marking the 100th birthday of Régine Crespin before appearing with her hometown opera company, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, for a concert of Puccini, Verdi, and more, alongside tenor SeokJong Baek. She’ll also join The Metropolitan Opera for Diamond Jubilee: 60 Years at Lincoln Center, a star-studded gala celebrating the anniversary of the opening of “the new Met” in 1966. Radvanovsky will also appear in recital, singing a program of opera arias and art song at the Gran Teatre del Liceu and LA Opera.
In April 2026, Lyric Opera of Chicago named Sondra as its Artistic Advisor. In this newly appointed role, she will work closely with The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center through masterclasses, mentorship, and career guidance.
She also serves as the International Ambassador for the Brain Medicine Institute, currently in development, which will serve as a world-class facility for building the future of brain medicine through care, research, and education.
Highlights from last season include performances of Puccini’s Tosca at Teatro di San Carlo, Opéra National de Paris, and Slovenia’s Ljubljana Festival, Cherubini’s Medea at Lyric Opera of Chicago, where she combined “compelling acting with an extraordinary range of vocal shadings and timbres” (Chicago Sun-Times), and Puccini’s Turandot at the Bayerische Staatsoper. Radvanovsky also celebrated the release of her latest album, Puccini Heroines, in 2026, available from the Pentatone label. Recorded live at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the album was praised as “delightfully luminous,” “enthralling,” and “a daunting act of bravura” (Operawire).
Radvanovsky has been widely celebrated for her performances of Verdi’s beloved heroines, including the title role in Aida, Leonora in La forza del destino, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Amelia in Un ballo in maschera, Elvira in Ernani, Leonora in Il trovatore, Elisabetta in Don Carlo, Hélène in Les vêpres siciliennes, and more. Her portrayals of Puccini’s most fiery women have also received rave reviews. She is regarded as “one of the best Toscas today” (Operawire), and has triumphed as Turandot, Suor Angelica, and Manon Lescaut . Ms. Radvanovsky’s diverse repertoire also includes Donizetti’s “Three Queens”: Anna Bolena, Maria Stuarda, and Elisabetta in Roberto Devereux, as well as the title role in Bellini’s Norma, Roxane in Alfano’s Cyrano de Bergerac, the title role in Dvořák’s Rusalka, and Lisa in Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame.
Radvanovsky’s debut album, Verdi Arias, was released in 2010 on the Delos label. The album quickly became a critical hit and made several season-best lists, including those of NPR and The New Yorker. In 2011, Delos released a CD of Verdi opera scenes with Radvanovsky and her frequent artistic partner, the late Dmitri Hvorostovsky, recorded with the Philharmonia of Russia and Constantine Orbelian. Recent highlights of her discography include the release of Warner Classics’s new recording of Turandot, accompanied by the Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under the baton of Antonio Pappano, and The Three Queens, which features the finales of Donizetti’s Tudor trilogy, recorded live at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Radvanovsky’s portrayals have been broadly captured on screen. She stars in a Naxos DVD of Cyrano de Bergerac, and in Il trovatore, Un ballo in maschera, Roberto Devereux, and Medea for The Met: Live in HD series. She has also been an enthusiastic host for the Live in HD transmissions of La fanciulla del West, Otello, and Francesca da Rimini.
Radvanovsky trained at The Metropolitan Opera in the late 1990s as part of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. After performances in smaller roles there, she caught the attention of critics as Antonia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann and was singled out as a soprano to watch. Since then, she has performed in every major opera house in the world, including the Royal Opera House, Teatro alla Scala, The Met, Opernhaus Zürich, and numerous others, and has appeared in concert with leading orchestras and collaborators. Beyond the operatic stage, Radvanovsky has appeared in recital at Carnegie Hall, the Centro de Congresos in Andorra, Barcelona’s Liceu, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Cankarjev Dom in Ljubljana, and at Spivey Hall in Georgia.