Official Biography
Soprano Sondra Radvanovsky is a globally celebrated artist. The depth and exquisite color of her voice are matched by her dramatic acting ability and versatility across a remarkable range of repertoire, from the title roles in Rusalka and Lucrezia Borgia, to Roxane in Cyrano de Bergerac and the title role in Manon Lescaut. She is widely regarded as one of the finest living Verdi sopranos, and is among the world’s premiere interpreters of bel canto.
The 2023/2024 season begins for Sondra Radvanovsky with Verdi’s La forza del destino at the Royal Opera House in London. She then graces the stage at the Paris Opera, captivating audiences as Turandot, and brings her talent to the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, once again taking on her signature role of Turandot. She later performs at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she sings the title role in Aida and Lisa in Tchaikovsky’s Pique Dame. In Toronto, she collaborates with the Canadian Opera Company, portraying the character of Medea. She then returns to the Royal Opera House in London for of Andrea Chénier where she sings Maddalena alongside Jonas Kaufmann, under the baton of Antonio Pappano.
Beyond the opera stage, Sondra Radvanovsky gives various recitals across the world: at Centro de congresos in Andorra, at Barcelona’s Liceu, at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, and at the Spivey Hall in Georgia. Additionally, she sings in a concert at the Paris Opera dedicated to the 100th birth- anniversary of Maria Callas (semi-staged by Robert Carsen, conducted by Eun Sun Kim) and brings the highly acclaimed “The Three Queens” program (based on Donizetti’s operas) to Madrid’s Teatro Real.
In the previous season, Sondra Radvanovsky took on the title role in David McVicar’s new production of Medea at the Metropolitan Opera. It was part of the Met’s Live in HD series, broadcasted to theaters worldwide. She also performed her signature role, Floria Tosca, in Puccini’s Tosca at the Zurich Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. She later returned to Barcelona to portray Lady Macbeth before going to Teatro di San Carlo in Naples to sing in a concert version of Verdi’s Macbeth. The season concluded with her return to Zurich, where she starred as Turandot in Puccini’s masterpiece. On the concert stage, she made her highly anticipated return recital at Carnegie Hall in New York with pianist Anthony Manoli. Sondra Radvanovsky presented a world premiere of works by Jake Heggie, along with famous arias and songs by Purcell, Handel, Duparc, and Strauss, among others. Her schedule also included a solo recital at Rebecca Cohn Auditorium in Halifax as well as several recitals together with the tenor Piotr Beczala at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and at the Cankarjev Dom in Ljubljana.
Sondra Radvanovsky trained at the Metropolitan Opera in the late 1990s in 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, Sondra Radvanovsky 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 concerts throughout the world, singing with leading orchestras.
In addition to this, Radvanovsky has collaborated with various record labels. Her debut recording, Verdi Arias, was released in April 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 Dmitri Hvorostovsky, recorded with the Philharmonia of Russia and Constantine Orbelian. The recent highlights of her discography include the release of Warner Classics’s new recording of Turandot with Sondra Radvanovsky in the title role and tenor Jonas Kaufmann as Turandot’s suitor, Calaf, accompanied by the Orchestra and Chorus of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under the baton of Antonio Pappano.
Radvanovsky is no stranger to the screen. She stars in a Naxos DVD of Cyrano de Bergerac alongside Plácido Domingo, and in Il Trovatore, Un Ballo in Maschera, Roberto Devereux, and Medea for the wildly popular “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.
Furthermore, Radvanovsky is a co-creator and co-host of the podcast “Screaming Divas”, where she and her friend soprano Keri Alkema talk about their lives and operatic careers with friends and colleagues. The duo has recently launched the fourth season of this podcast.