Sony Classical Exclusive Artist Sonya Yoncheva to Release Debut Album 'Paris, Mon Amour'

Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva will be releasing her debut album Paris, Mon Amour as a Sony Classical exclusive artist Jan. 13.

Yoncheva’s success comes as no surprise to those who have been following her career. In 2013, she debuted as Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera and received a standing ovation. The New York Times has hailed the 32-year-old as “an artist on the brink of a major career.”

Her success at the Met led to rising fame, with Yoncheva performing in opera houses and concert halls throughout Europe. But her performances in France have had the largest impact on her and inspired her first album Paris, Mon Amour.

But it was not only her travels that inspired her. Yoncheva, who was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, completed her vocal training as a student at Geneva’s Conservatoire de Musique. The school immersed her in a French-speaking environment.

It was in France that she honed her technique and style. This occurred initially with the prestigious “Jardin des Voix” academy led by William Christie, with whom she also toured internationally in a variety of Baroque works. Her next major milestone in her development was a summer spent at the music academy of Aix-en-Provence, where she earned the Special Prize of Les Amis du Festival as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte.

On her album, Yoncheva performs arias by Jacques Offenbach and Jules Massenet, who created beautiful works for Parisians of their era. Excerpts from works such as Les contes d’Hoffmann, Hérodiade, Le Cid and Thaïs help to display her versatility. The album also consists of numbers from Charles Lecocq and André Messager.

For fans of Italian opera, the album also features arias from Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata and Giacomo Puccini’s La Villi and La Bohéme.

For more information on Yoncheva, click here. You can pick up her debut album Jan. 13.