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.
Scheduled performances of a starry 2020/2021 season include her house debut at the Ópera de Oviedo as Elvira in I puritani, Juliette in Roméo et Juliette at the Wiener Staatsoper, Gilda in Rigoletto at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, I puritani at the Opernhaus Zürich, the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor at the New National Theatre Tokyo and a new role yet to be announced at the Teatro alla Scala.
In 2019/2020, the Russian soprano sang Violetta in La traviata and Mimì in La bohème at the Wiener Staatsoper, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at Geneva’s Victoria Hall, a new staging of La bohème (Mimì) at the Royal Opera House of Muscat and at the Monte-Carlo Opera, as well as Corinna in Il viaggio a Reims and Marguerite in Faust at the Sydney Opera House. Performances in the title role of La traviata at the Bolshoi Theatre and her debut in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem at the Moscow Zaryadye Hall, as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at the Wiener Staatsoper and as Mimì at the Teatro Lirico of Cagliari have been cancelled due to the Coronavirus crisis. Following the global lockdown, Irina Lungu returned to the stage in a concert at the Teatro alla Scala and in the title role of La traviata at the stunning setting of the Teatro Antico in Taormina.
In the 2018/2019 season, Ms Lungu made her role debut as Elettra in Idomeneo and also sang Norina in Don Pasquale at the Wiener Staatsoper, Marguerite in Faust at the Teatro Real of Madrid and at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Violetta in La traviata at the Hamburg State Opera and at the Arena di Verona, Mimì in La bohème at the Korea National Opera in Seoul, Lucia di Lammermoor in Tenerife and concerts alongside Plácido Domingo at the Paris Philharmonie and the Palau de les Arts in Valencia.
Engagements in 2017/2018 included Corinna in Il viaggio a Reims at the Gran Teatre del Liceu of Barcelona (role debut), Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at the Vienna State Opera and the Estates Theatre Prague conducted by Plácido Domingo, La traviata at the New National Theatre Tokyo, the Bolshoi Theatre Moscow and the Vienna State Opera, her first outing as Manon in Massenet’s Manon at the ABAO Bilbao, her Australian debut as Gilda in Rigoletto at the Sydney Opera House and the title role of Anna Bolena at the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona.
Other performances of the last few years include Gilda and Musetta in La bohème at the Metropolitan Opera New York, La traviata at the Paris Opera, the Teatro Real Madrid, the Wiener Staatsoper, the New National Theatre Tokyo, the Bolshoi Theatre, the Zurich Opera House and the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Liù in Turandot at the Bayerische Staatsoper of Munich, Corinna in Il viaggio a Reims at the Gran Teatre del Liceu of Barcelona, the title role of Massenet’s Manon at the ABAO Bilbao, Musetta at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Donna Anna at the Wiener Staatsoper, Gilda at the Paris Opera and at the Sydney Opera House and the Rome Opera House, Nannetta in Falstaff at La Scala, a Gala Concert at the Bolshoi Theatre, Marguerite in Amsterdam and Turin, Gilda and Lucia at the Teatro Comunale Bologna, Mimì at the Teatro Regio Turin and the Teatro San Carlo Naples, the title roles of Anna Bolena and Lucia di Lammermoor, Giulietta in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Donna Anna, Micaela in Carmen and Juliette in Roméo et Juliette in Verona as well as her first Elvira in I puritani in Modena, Piacenza and Reggio Emilia.
Irina 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 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.