Biography
Hailed as a “true revelation” by Euro News, Romanian soprano Adela Zaharia is the 2017 first place winner of Operalia. In the 2018-2019 season, Ms. Zaharia sings Violetta in La traviata conducted by James Conlon at Los Angeles Opera. She makes her role debuts as both Violetta and the title role of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, where she will be an ensemble member for her fourth consecutive season. In Dusseldorf, she also sings Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Gilda in Rigoletto, and the title role of Lange’s Schneekönigin. Concert highlights her BBC Proms debut singing the world premiere of Iain Bell’s “Aurora” with the Liverpool Philharmonic, a Mozart arias concert with Placido Domingo in Prague, and tours to Moscow and Barcelona as a soloist with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein.
The prior season saw Ms. Zaharia sing the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Bayerische Staatsoper, where she also starred as Angelica in a new production of Haydn’s Orlando Paladino. She also made her North American opera debut as Gilda in Rigoletto at Los Angeles Opera and returned to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein ensemble where her roles included Lucia, Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and Gilda in Rigoletto. She also sang Pamina with the Komische Oper on tour in Japan. Concert appearances included her debut at the George Enescu Festival, where she sang the mad scene from Iain Bell’s A Harlot’s Progress, a gala concert with Placido Domingo in Guadalajara with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Jalisco, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with her native Arad State Philharmonic.
Ms. Zaharia has been a member of the Deutsche Oper am Rhen ensemble since the 2015-2016 season, where she has sung the title role of Lange’s Schneekönigin, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and Najade in Ariadne auf Naxos. As a former member of the Komische Oper opera studio, she also sang Micaëla, Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Princess Nicoletta in L’amour des trois oranges, Elsbeth in Offenbach’s Fantasio, and Pamina in Barrie Kosky’s production of Die Zauberflöte. She has also appeared in Kosky’s production for her debuts at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Bolshoi Theater, the Edinburgh International Festival, and the Shanghai Grand Theater.
While studying voice and piano at the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy in her Romania, Ms. Zaharia sang such roles as Gilda, Norina, and Musetta. Her concert repertoire includes Carmina Burana, Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Matthäuspassion, Brahms’s Ein deutches Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, and Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri.
She is also the recipient of the Grand Prix of the Haricleea Darclée International Competition in 2012.