“A lyric soprano with a powerful, yet delicate voice, a belcantist bordering on perfection.”
Concerto
Hailed as a “true revelation” by Euro News, Romanian soprano Adela Zaharia is the 2017 first place winner of Operalia World Singing competition, and ever since she has been celebrated as a great discovery in the classical music world.
This season’s highlights are her much anticipated debut at the Metropolitan Opera New York singing the role of Musetta in “La Bohème”, returning to Teatro Real Madrid as Violetta Valéry in the iconic Willy Decker production of “La traviata” and a new production of Don Giovanni in Komische Oper Berlin under the direction of Kirill Serebrennikov. She also brings her signature role of Lucia di Lammermoor to Bayerische Staatsoper and Deutsche Oper Berlin, as well as Violetta Valéry at Deutsche Oper Berlin and Deutsche Oper am Rhein.
The season 2023-2024 brought her highly acclaimed debut as Gilda in Teatro Real Madrid in a new production of “Rigoletto” with Ludovic Tézier singing the title role. She also debuted the role of Giulietta in Bellini’s “I Capuleti ed i Montecchi” at Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and gave her house debut in Oper Frankfurt as Konstanze in “Die Entführung aus dem Serail”. She returned to Paris Opera as Donna Anna and to Dutch National Opera as Violetta Valéry. In her first outing to the southern hemisphere she sang a sold out recital in Auckland together with tenor Amitai Pati, both being invited also to give a masterclass at TANZOS - New Zealand’s most important program for young singers. Miss Zaharia also acted as head of jury for “Alexandru Fărcaș” voice competition.
2022-2023 season brought a series of high profile concerts - the Centennial Gala at San Francisco Opera under the baton of Eun-Sun Kim, concert gala in the Dubrovnik festival (Croatia) and the Strauss “Brentano Lieder” with Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Miss Zaharia also had her Oper Hamburg debut in “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” (Konstanze) and brought her “Lucia di Lammermoor” at Deutsche Oper Berlin to rave reviews.
Despite numerous cancellations caused by the covid pandemic (Staatsoper Berlin debut as Adina in “L'elisir d'amore”, “Lucia di Lammermoor” and “Orlando Paladino” in Bayerische Staatsoper, “La Sonnambula” in Deutsche Oper am Rhein), 2021-2022 brought a series of house debuts as Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) - Opera Bastille Paris, San Francisco Opera and Dutch National Opera. Miss Zaharia also debuted on the concert stage in Musikverein Vienna, Concertgebouw Amsterdam , Teatro Romano de Mérida with Placido Domingo and Hannover Klassic Open Air for an audience of 30.000, together with Charles Castronovo and George Petean (concert recorded live by ARD and ZDF).
“The vocal crown of the night. The soprano sings with such delicacy, illuminating power and brilliance that she is being rightly celebrated by the audience with rapturous applause.”
In the 2020-2021 season Ms. Zaharia celebrated a highly acclaimed debut as Donna Anna in Royal Opera House London, after singing the role also for her Teatro Real Madrid debut. She was part of the Bayerische Staatsoper premiere of "Seven Deaths of Maria Callas" singing the part of Lucia di Lammermoor, production that she will sing next season also in Paris Opera and Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Miss Zaharia also caused a sensation in the 2019-2020 season with her role debut of Elvira in "I Puritani", in a new production for Deutsche Oper am Rhein signed by Rolando Villazon. Also as Violetta she was celebrated stormily again. On the concert scene she had her Zaryadye Hall Moscow debut together with Camerata Salzburg, and Philadelphia Orchestra debut, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
In the 2018-2019 season, Ms. Zaharia sang Violetta in "La Traviata" conducted by James Conlon at Los Angeles Opera. She made her role debuts as both Violetta and the title role of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, where she also sang Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Gilda in Rigoletto, and the title role of Lange’s Schneekönigin. Concert highlights are her BBC Proms debut singing the world premiere of Iain Bell’s “Aurora” with the Liverpool Philharmonic and a Mozart gala concert with Placido Domingo in Prague.
In 2017-2018, after her debut in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Bayerische Staatsoper she was immediately invited back to sing Angelica in Haydn’s Orlando Palladino, in a new production for the Munich Opera Festival. She gave her successful debut in North America at Los Angeles Opera as Gilda in Rigoletto, and also sang Pamina with the Komische Oper on tour in Japan. She also performed the mad scene from Bell’s A Harlot’s Progress at the Enescu Festival and a Gala concert together with Placido Domingo in Guadalajara, Mexico.
“A timbre sometimes reminiscent of the great Virginia Zeani, an extremely secure technique and, above all, a lot of expression that made the mad scene most enthralling l’ve heard in a long time.”
She appeared as Pamina in Barrie Kosky’s production of Die Zauberflöte for her debuts at the Gran Theatre del Liceu, the Bolshoi Theater, the Edinburgh International Festival and the Shanghai Grand Theater.