The engaging Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva takes the stage within the astonishing library of the Kloster Schussenried monastery in Germany. Her breathtaking efficiency highlights one of many singer’s musical inspirations: highly effective feminine characters, “girls with a narrative”, girls “with lots to say”.

His recital is a part of the Metropolitan Opera’s revolutionary new pay-per-view sequence happening in places all over the world. Every is reside by satellite tv for pc, filmed utilizing a number of cameras and shot from New York, typically 1000’s of miles from the stage. It’s the Metropolitan Opera’s artistic resolution to the pandemic.

An enlightening efficiency

From Verdi and Handel to Dvořák and Edith Piaf, Yoncheva’s distinctive voice is accompanied on the piano by Julien Quentin. His recital has the identical enthusiasm as if it have been carried out in entrance of a bodily viewers. Or as Peter Gelb, the Managing Director of the Metropolitan Opera, describes it, “Singers get the adrenaline rush of figuring out that 1000’s of individuals are watching despite the fact that they don’t seem to be within the room with them.” It provides artists “the adrenaline of a reside efficiency the place something can occur”.

An period that adjustments life

For Yoncheva, her efficiency is marked by adjustments in her private {and professional} life. She describes her live performance at Kloster Schussenried’s monastery as a “very private program”. She highlights her journey from leaving the Metropolitan to her new journey that she’s going to observe with them subsequent season.

Her need to sing highly effective feminine songs, like Edith Piaf’s “Hyme to Love”, is partly linked to her private life. She lately turned a mom for the second time and she or he tells us that “many colours in me have modified, I’m one other girl, rising up, altering day by day”. However she additionally says that typically she simply has to sing a track as a result of she has “a musical crush” and it’s unattainable for her to not settle for it.

A world well-known pianist

Julien Quentin is an especially proficient and well-liked Parisian pianist. It accompanies the distinctive voice of Yoncheva. His abilities lengthen to enjoying each as a soloist and as a chamber musician. He excursions internationally and has carried out at venues such because the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Wigmore Corridor in London, the Louvre in Paris and lots of extra. He has created a sequence of music live shows much like the residing rooms of the Roaring Twenties and has a eager curiosity in different musical genres together with improvisation and electronics.

A novel setting

The cloister monastery of Schussenried in southwestern Germany has tons of of years of historical past. It was based in 1183 by Premonstratensian monks. However it was partly destroyed by fireplace within the seventeenth century. Within the 18th century, the architect Dominikus Zimmermann was commissioned to attract up plans for a brand new constructing for the monastery. Its developments have been by no means absolutely accomplished for monetary causes.

In the present day, it homes structure and artworks from the late Romanesque to Rococo period. The spotlight of the monastery is the library the place Yoncheva gave her live performance. This baroque library is flooded with pure gentle and richly embellished.

Spirituality

One of many songs carried out by Yoncheva is “Music to the Moon” by Antonín Dvořák from Rusalka. It is a track that basically performs on its ethereal facet. She calls it “romantic” and that fits “individuals from the Slavic a part of the world” like her, as they’re “very religious”. Rusalka is a feminine character from European folklore. It’s typically imply to people and is often related to water. Most European international locations have their very own variations of how it’s represented.

The Bulgarian soprano’s tour de drive program may be broadcast on-line till March 12.