Interview Categories: Charming beginnings

Spencer Britten

Dear Spencer, thank you for accepting my invitation and becoming the newest member of our Charming Beginnings family! I remember last year when I first saw your episodes of Opera in a nutshell for the Staatsoper Unter den Linden; I had so much fun watching you, you are so expressive, and you have a gorgeous voice. I’m pleased to […]

Maria Sofronova

You studied stage directing at the Saint Petersburg University of Arts (2007-2013) and Vocal Performance at the Saint Petersburg Rimski-Korsakov Musical College (2010-2014). What made you choose both of these majors and not only singing?  I was born into a theatrical family. My grandmother was an opera singer. My great-grandfather was a dramatic actor, one […]

Teresa Perrotta

Dear Teresa, I’m so happy to have you here and to welcome you in our big charming musical family! Thank you for accepting my invitation! I would like to start our conversation from the very beginning, where does your love for opera come from and who inspired your first steps on this path? When did […]

Adrian Autard

Dear Adrian, it’s such a pleasure to have you interviewed for the Charming beginnings rubric of OPERA Charm Magazine. Thank you for having accepted our invitation. You just announced your debut at Musik Theater an der Wien. What are your expectations from this debut? How are you preparing for a debut? What steps are you […]

Jacob Bettinelli

Dear Jacob, thank you for having accepted our invitation. It’s such a pleasure to have this conversation with you. I would like to start with your next performance of Händel’s Agrippina with HGO. HGO is a non-profit charity and is managed by volunteers, and is entirely dedicated to young singers. HGO stages first-class award-winning opera […]

Malinina Ustinya

Dear Ustinya, it’s such a pleasure to have you interviewed for the Charming Beginnings rubric of OPERA Charm Magazine! Thank you for having accepted our invitation! I would like to start our conversation from the very beginning, where does your love for opera come from and who inspired your first steps on this path? Dear […]

Daria Rybak

Dear Daria, it is such a pleasure for me to have you here as my guest! Your talent, beauty, and determination inspire so many young singers to pursue their dreams and believe more in themselves. Having you here and getting to know you better is lovely. Tell me, how did it all start for you? […]

Xhieldo Hyseni

Hello, Xhieldo! It is a pleasure to have you interviewed for the Charming Beginnings rubric! I will start by congratulating you on your most recent success since you won the 74th AsLiCo Young Opera Singer Competition. How do you feel about this prize, and how did this experience help you? Has it changed your perspectives? […]

Victoria Karkacheva

Dear Victoria, congratulations again and thank you for accepting our invitation. You are both winners of the First Prize in Domingo’s Operalia Competition. What thoughts and expectations did you have before the contest, and which of them proved revelatory? Thank you very much. Yes, this is my great professional happiness. I had very mixed feelings. […]

Maria Barakova

Hello, Maria! It’s always a pleasure to chat with the promising stars of the opera world! Thank you for accepting our invitation. Let’s start from the beginning. How old were you when you discovered that opera was your path? Was it love at first sight? Hello! I was delighted to accept this interview invitation. Thank […]

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Alice Lechner

Alice Lechner comes from a music-loving family. Her first encounter with the opera universe was at the tender age of six. The grandeur of the stage productions and costumes, the backstage chatter, and last, but definitely not least, the music left her in awe, beginning with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The overall feeling that opera awakens in anyone who gets a glimpse into this part of artistic eternity, that each and every day passes the test of time, was what drew her to stay and be a part of this world. The Opera House of Brașov became her second home, and the people who worked there were her second family.

Since then, Alice has devoted her spare time to maximising her musical knowledge through instrumental studies, studying both piano and violin for a short time. In the following years, her number one passion stepped out of the limelight and graciously gave way to Law Studies.
Since 2018 she has been studying Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

Her passion for opera, even if it is no longer her top professional priority in terms of career, it has most definitely become her priority during her free time. Wanting to experience the best of both worlds and extend her musical horizons, she regularly attends opera performances throughout Romania and abroad.
With OPERA Charm Magazine, Alice aims to nurture her creative side to help it flourish and bloom and to discover, alongside the magazine’s readers, the fascinatingly complex world of opera.

Currently, she is an LL.M. in Business Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

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Oana Zamfir

Oana Zamfir is a second year MA student at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts, at the Department of Musicology.

She studied violin for 12 years at the “Stefan Luchian” High School of Art in Botosani, later focusing on the theoretical aspects of music. In 2019 she completed her bachelor studies in Musicology as a student of the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca. Her research during 2018-2019 brought to the forefront elements of the archaic ritual within works of composers who activated during the communist period, giving her the opportunity to start a research internship at the “Carl von Ossietzky” University in Germany. In this context, she recorded conversations with members of the Sophie Drinker Institute in Bremen, and had access to documents directly from the Myriam Marbé archive.

Since 2019 she has been a teacher of Music Education and Theoretical Music Studies, making full use of interactive methods in the musical training of students and working, at the same time, with the children’s choir founded in the first year of her activity.

Her interests include pursuing a degree in interior design in 2020.

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Alexandru Suciu

Alexandru Suciu inherited his passion for art growing up in a family of several generations of musicians. He began his musical studies at the “Augustin Bena” School of Music in Cluj, where he studied piano and guitar. Even though his main study direction was philological, his passion for music prevailed. He began his academical journey at the Faculty of Letters of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, studying Comparative literature and English. He continued by studying Opera Singing at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy. He also graduated the Musical Education section, followed by Artistic Directing at the Musical Performing Arts department.

His multidisciplinary education opened the doors towards research, which is seen both through his participation in national and international conferences and symposia, such as the Salzburg Easter School PhD-forum, organized by the Salzburg Universität or the Silesian Meeting of Young Scholars, organized by the Institute of English at the University of Silesia, as well as the collaboration with Opera Charm Magazine.

During his student years, he won several prizes, including the Grand Prize at the “Paul Constantinescu” National Musical Interpretation Competition, the Romanian Composers and Musicologists’ Union Prize at the same competition, the First Prize and the Schubert Prize at the “Ada Ulubeanu” Competition.

He further developed his artistic skills by specializing in courses and masterclasses held by personalities such as Vittorio Terranova, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Marian Pop, Ines Salazar, Riccardo Zanellato, Paolo Bosisio, Valentina Farcaș and Manuel Lange in contexts such as the Internationale Sommerakademie für Operngesang Deutschlandsberg, Corso Internazionale di Canto Lirico I.M.C. Licata or the Europäische Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Montepulciano. Besides his activity on-stage, he currently teaches Opera Singing Didactics, and Pedagogical Practice within the Department for Teacher Education and Training at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy.

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Cristina Fieraru

Cristina is a 24 year-old Romanian soprano & a student at the National University of Music Bucharest, where she pursues the MA program in Vocal Performance.

She made her debut in Pamina from “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at only 19 years old at the Bucharest National Opera House, as a member of the Ludovic Spiess Experimental Opera Studio. Over the years she made her debut in roles such as Contessa d’Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimì & Musetta (La Bohème), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) in her university’s opera productions.
Her passion and experience extends in the field of choral music, too.

She has been part of our dream team since the fall of 2021. For a good period of time she took care of OPERA Charm’s social media and took you on the monthly journey through the history of opera through our Legends rubric – and a few times through the Theaters around the World rubric.

Her little soul rubric – from 2021 to present – is definitely the Conductors of the Future, where, every month, she gives you the chance to meet a young star of the world of conducting and, of course, to find out what’s the most charming feature of opera in these artists’ views.

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BIANCA L. NICA

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