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.