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 figuring among today’s leading opera artists.

Performances of the 2021/2022 season include Gilda in Rigoletto at the Opéra National in Paris, Donna Fiorilla in Il turco in Italia at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, her role debuts as Imogene in Il pirata and as Alice Ford in Falstaff at the Opernhaus Zurich, Violetta in La traviata at the Sydney Opera House, Marguerite in Faust at the Greek National Opera in Athens and at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos of Lisbon, Medora in Il corsaro at the Monte-Carlo Opera, Adina in L’elisir d’amore at the Teatro Verdi of Salerno and Juliette in Roméo et Juliette at the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari.

In the last five years, Ms Lungu has appeared at such opera houses and festivals as the Wiener Staatsoper (Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Norina in Don Pasquale, Elettra in Idomeneo, Violetta in La traviata, Mimì in La bohème), the Royal Opera House in London (Marguerite in Faust), the Teatro Real Madrid (Faust), the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona (Corinna in Il viaggio a Reims), the Opernhaus Zurich (Lucia di Lammermoor), the New National Theatre Tokyo (La traviata, Lucia di Lammermoor), the Staatsoper Hamburg (La traviata), the Sydney Opera House (Rigoletto, Il viaggio a Reims, Faust) and the Arena di Verona (La traviata). She also performed a concert at the Teatro alla Scala, concerts with Plácido Domingo at the Paris Philharmonie and the Palau de les Arts in Valencia, Elvira in I puritani at the Oviedo Opera, La bohème at the Royal Opera House of Muscat, the Monte-Carlo Opera and the Korea National Opera in Seoul, Lucia di Lammermoor in Tenerife, Don Giovanni at the Estates Theatre in Prague, celebrating the 250 years of the piece’s world premiere, the title role of Massenet’s Manon for her role debut at the ABAO Bilbao, the title part of Anna Bolena at the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona, La traviata at the Bolshoi Theatre, the Teatro Antico in Taormina and with Teatro Massimo Bellini of Catania in a movie recorded for Italian television.

Other performances include Gilda and Musetta in La bohème at the Metropolitan Opera New York, La traviata at the Paris Opera, the Teatro Real Madrid, the New National Theatre Tokyo, the Zurich Opera House, the Deutsche Oper and Staatsoper Berlin, Liù in Turandot at the Bayerische Staatsoper of Munich, Musetta at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Gilda for her Paris Opera debut and the Rome Opera House, 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 role of Lucia di Lammermoor, Giulietta in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Donna Anna, Micaëla in Carmen and Juliette in Roméo et Juliette for Arena di 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, the title role of Sancta Susanna and 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.