The video recording was made during the Gala concert dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Raina Kabaivanska, 15.09.2024, Plovdiv (Bulgaria).
Conductor: Naiden Todorov
Orchestra of the State Opera Plovdiv
Born in Rome, Veronica Simeoni completed her musical and artistic training under the guidance of Raina Kabaivanska, with whom she studied - after graduating in singing from the Conservatory of Adria - at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, at the Istituto Vecchi-Tonelliin Modena and at Sofia State University.
Thanks to her musical talents and her charisma as a performer, Veronica Simeoni deals with a very wide repertoire, ranging from Rossini and Belcanto to Verdi, Verismo and even contemporary and rarely performed titles, with a particular predilection for the French repertoire with such titles as La damnation de Faust Berlioz (at Teatro dell’Opera in Rome staged by Damiano Michieletto under the baton of Daniele Gatti), Meyerbeer’s Africaine (Sélika at Teatro La Fenice in Venice conducted by Emmanuel Villaume), Les Troyens (Didon at Palau de Les Arts in Valencia conducted by Valery Gergev and with stage direction by La Fura dels Baus), Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Giulietta at Teatro alla Scala in Milan).
During her carreer sha has been part of many outstanding productions in the world leadinh opera houses, such as Werther (Charlotte) at Metropolitan New York, Don Carlo (Eboli) and Aida (Amneris) at Opernhaus Zurich, La Forza del destino (Preziosilla) staged by Christof Loy both at National Opera Amsterdam under the baton of Michele Mariotti and at ROH Covent Garden London conducetd by Sir Antonio Pappano, Norma (Adalgisa) at Teatro Real di Madrid, Nabucco (Fenena) at Teatro alla Scala, Il trovatore (Azucena) at Teatro La Fenice di Venezia and at Opéra de Bordeaux, Guillaume Tell at Rossini Opera Festival Pesaro staged by Graham Vick, Roberto Devereux (Sara) at Deutsche Oper Berlin and at Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Anna Bolena (Seymour) at Opernhaus Zurich, Maria Stuarda (Elisabetta) at ABAO Bilbao, Carmen at Sydney Opera House, Henze’s The Bassarids with stage direction by Mario Martone (winning production of Premio Abbiati) for the season opening of Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Cavalleria rusticana (Santuzza) at Teatro San Carlo di Napoli.
Veronica Simeoni is also very committed in a wide concerts repertoire, from Rossini’s Petite messe solennelle (Rossini Opera Festival conducted by Alberto Zedda) and Stabat Mater (La Scala with Riccardo Chailly) to Beethoven’s IX Symphony (Accademia di S. Cecilia with Lorin Maazel, Teatro San Carlo di Napoli with Zubin Mehta), and to Verdi’s Messa da Requiem (San Pietroburgo with Yuri Temirkanov, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with Daniele Gatti, Washington with Gianandrea Noseda, Concertgebouw Amsterdam with Michele Mariotti), to masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire such as Wagner’s Wesendonck-Lieder, Mahler’s Wunderhorn-Lieder, Sostakovičs Six lyrical poems, words by Marina Cvetaeva.
About her recordings, 'Voix d'espoir' has been released in 2019 with pianist Michele D'Elia for the Maggio Live series and it is dedicated to the vocal chamber music by Berlioz, Debussy, Fauré and Reynaldo Hahn.
Sofia Soloviy was born in Lviv, in western Ukraine, where she began her musical studies at the age of four, completing them at the Mykola Lysenko Music Academy, where she graduated with honours in singing, piano and musicology. In 2000 she moved to Italy, where she studied with Raina Kabaivanska and William Matteuzzi at the Academy of Lyrical Art in Osimo, followed by courses at the Rossinian Academy in Pesaro and at the Chigiana Music Academy in Siena with Gianluigi Gelmetti, Gustav Kuhn and Alberto Zedda. She has won awards in fourteen international competitions, among them the Corradetti Competition in Padua, the Ziino Competition in Rome and the Deutschlandsberg Tagliavini Competition in Austria; she was awarded first prize and the Audience Award at the Viotti Competition in Vercelli.
Sofia Soloviy performed in operas in Athens, Ljubljana, Liège, Luxembourg, Madrid, Marseille, Muscat, Naples, Nice, Rome, Venice and Vienna, and has also participated in numerous opera festivals. She has worked with the conductors Roberto Abbado, John Axelrod, Maurizio Benini, Ivor Bolton, Giampaolo Bisanti, Ottavio Dantone, Gabriele Ferro, Christophe Rousset, Oksana Lyniv, the stage-directors Abbas Kiarostami, Davide Livermore, Vera Nemirova, Krzysztof Warlikowski and Pierluigi Pizzi and the composers Matteo D’Amico, Yuri Lanyuk, Krzysztof Penderecki and Myroslav Skoryk.
Her discography includes recordings of Cherubini’s Lodoïska (Polskie Radio), Gomes’ Salvator Rosa (Dynamic), Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse (Brilliant Classics), the Mozart/Strauss Idomeneo and Strauss’ Salome (both Dynamic), Rossini’s Le comte Ory (Naxos) and Vivaldi’s L’incoronazione di Dario (Naïve), Moriarty’s Missa Adsum! (Toccata Classics), Hermann’s Complete Surviving Music (Toccata Classics) .