RAMONA ZAHARIA

RAMONAZAHARIA.COM MEZZO-SOPRANO

Romanian-born mezzo-soprano studied at the George Enescu Academy in Bucharest and won numerous singing competitions. She was a member of the Timisoara Opera Company singing roles such as Zita Gianni Schicchi, Prince Orlofski Die Fledermaus, Fenena Nabucco, Witch El amor brujo and Principessa di Bouillon Adriana Lecouvreur.   Ramona has made guest appearances at opera houses in Cluj-Napoca, Iaʂi, Bucharest, Luxembourg, Brussels, Riga, Seoul, Moscow, Berlin, Stuttgart and Hamburg. In her star role as Carmen she appeared at the Opera Festival in Steinbruch, St Margarethen, Latvian Opera Riga, Stuttgart Opera, and Deutsche Opera Berlin. In 2018/19 she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Maddalena Rigoletto. She has been a member of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein ensemble since the 2014-15 seasons where she made a celebrated debut as Dalila in Samson et Dalila, alongside Carmen.

She also sang Third Lady Magic Flute, Ulrica Un ballo in maschera, Maddalena Rigoletto, Dinah Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, Federica Luisa Miller, Eboli Don Carlos, Amneris Aida, Flosshilde Das Rheingold and Götterdämmerung, and Erda Das Rheingold.

In November 2020 she should have been on stage at the Metropolitan Opera as Carmen but due to Covid this was cancelled.

She will make her debut at Teatro Regio di Parma as Carmen and London’s Royal Opera House as Maddalena Rigoletto in the 2021/22 season.

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PRESS

  • "The scenes involving the lecherous courtiers are often the most imaginatively done. The conspirators’ account of their abduction of Gilda to the Duke is accompanied by an amusing mime, but generally the locker-room mentality is ridiculed. Parallels with King Lear, with which subject Verdi was toying at the time, are heightened by the gouging out of Monterone’s eyes. Carlos Alvarez’s well-sung Rigoletto is suitably anguished, even if he doesn’t quite wring the withers on discovering his daughter’s murder. As often happens, the show is stolen by his daughter. Frequent reference is made to Gilda’s virginal purity. In her celebrated aria Caro nome, Lisette Oropesa succeeds in showing us both the virtuous flower and, with a flash of bare legs and an innocent roll on her bed, the sensual attraction she feels for the duplicitous duke. The extravagant ornamentation of the aria is delivered superbly, complete with real trill, yet with delicacy and subtlety. Brindley Sherratt is an aptly flinty Sparafucile, with Ramona Zaharia alluring as his sister, Maddalena.Liparit Avetisyan is a stylish, full-throated Duke and it’s in no way to his discredit that Pappano’s accompaniment of his famous aria La donna è mobile, with its animated woodwind flecks and swagger, elicits equal admiration. Indeed, Pappano brings his signature command of textural detail and rhythmic propulsion to the whole score. It was worth the thirty-year wait."

    BARRY MILLINGTON - THE STANDARD

  • “Special mention must go to bass Brindley Sherratt’s Sparafucile, the assassin. Sherratt brought a chilling sense of the Luca Brasi character from the Godfather to his interpretation. His sister Maddalena was tasked with luring his victims to their deaths and Ramona Zaharia’s sultry mezzo and Sophia Lorenesque looks brought a sense of dramatic authenticity to the character.”

    RIGOLETTO, ROYAL OPERA HOUSE

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